My 2 Year Old Won't Talk

[ttsviens]

My 2 1/2 year old son is with in normal development in all areas including his speach and language skills.  He even knows all his letters and sounds.  However, for the past week he has decided not to talk.  He started going for just a few hours with out talking, then he'd have a nap and wake up talking. Now he hasn't spoken in over 2 days.  He communicates by pointing and grunting or saying,"Wa, Wa".  We have tried everything from discipline to bribery to get him to speak.  I have tried not giving him what he wants until he asks verbally.  He just gets upset and cries and still refuses to talk.  He'd rather not get the toy or read the story (or whatever he wants at the time) than to speak.  I've even tried time outs in his room until he will asks for something verbally.  He will stays in there for hours, until I give up and let him out.  I'm not sure if he is doing this to get attention or for some other reason.  I do not know what to do to get him talking again.  Should I continue to not let him get his wants unless he asks for them verabally (which is a constant power struggle and I never win, because he still won't talk)?  Or should I ignore the behaviour and give him what he wants when he asks nonverbally to not draw attention to the behaviour?  Is this something I should even be concerned about?

[alec'smom]

My daughter quit talking for almost a week when she was 2, but she was terribly sick with the flu and I think she was in too much pain to do anything including talking.  She would point and grunt if she needed something.  After she recovered, she started talking again.  I would take him to his doctor to rule out any physical discomfort.  Worth a try.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

The behavior is deserving of concern, but not excessive concern at this point. It deserves concern because it is not what you would expect from a child his age. Has he had any sudden changes in his environment of late? Has anything occurred that appeared to trouble him in some way? The behavior does not deserve punishment, so I would discontinue use of time out. However, your approach of encouraging, even insisting, that he communicate his needs via words is fine. Even if he becomes upset with your approach, stick with it. Otherwise you will essentially be reinforcing the behavior, and that's probably not a sensible thing.