My 2 yrs 8 months old daughter not talking a complete word

[khuku]

My daughter is 2 yrs 8 months old but she is not speaking much. She always tells first one or two letters of a word just like, if she wants to drink water, she just tell "wa". similarly she says lion as "li", tiger as "ti", ball as "bo", cat as "ca" etc. She can understand what I am saying.  If I tell her to say word completely, she just ignore me. She do not want to follow our words. But she can say some word like "papa", "shoes", "go", "come" etc. We do not understand what is the problem. Do we need speech therapy for her? Please suggest us.

[AnnieBrooke]

I agree that early intervention is the key.  See if you can get your child evaluated.  Good luck!

[simisuresh]

Hi there! Don't be too anxious about your little one. She is just 2yrs 8 months. Some children always speak late. anyway she is telling few words. So be patient. See how she does after she is 3 years old. then you can think of speech therapy. Some children start speaking properly only after 3 years. take care

[tiredbuthappy]

Tiffany's advice is good. Speak to the child's pediatrician or contact your school district and inquire about an early intervention evaluation. Early treatment is key, and I see countless children "graduate" out of early intervention/special ed by the time they reach elementary school because they got help early.

[Tiffany2884]

My son was the same way! Couldn't speak but could understand everything. At his 2 yr appointment our doctor brought it to our attention and gave me then number of ESA (Educational Services Agency). They evaluated him and we started speech therapy at 2. About 4 months in there was no improvement and so they did another evaluation and said that they believed he had Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Which is a motor speech disorder. Once we got that figured out we were able to gear his speech classes for Apraxia and have had amazing results. Before he only said 8 words and now he is up to almost 70. The words still aren't completely clear and with Apraxia, children have problems ending words but he doesn't need me all the time to be an interpreter for him and he's finally able to start putting words to his needs. My suggestion is that it can't hurt to have her checked out by a speech teacher or even check out some Apraxia websites. Good luck!