Speech Therapy for Toddlers?

[maryellenmd]

Anyone have any experience with this? We have had some concerns about my son's speaking. He's 21 months, and he doesn't have very many words. He babbles a lot, but it's not very clear. His comprehension of what we say is pretty good. The pediatrician said he should have 50 words now - definitely nowhere close. We are going to have him evaluated by our state program. Anyone have any experience with something like this? Feeling kind of worried here.

[MinEaston]

I don't have any direct experience, but my brother's best friend from college does. Are you in the greater DC area? If so, PM me, they are in Northern VA and may have a specific recommendation.

[mst]

Maryellen- the best thing you can do- is what you are doing! :) I have two nephews with significant delays. One is five years old, and still regularly attends speech therapy. He is getting easier to understand, but still needs lots of help. (No social problems with it though- the kids seem to understand him much better than adults.)

My other nephew is over two years old, and only has two words. We have been trying to get my SIL to get him evaluated, and she kept refusing. Well, she just had him evaluated, and was shocked to find that there was no overnight fix. He is now is speech therapy through the state (here it is called Early Intervention).

If you don't already, I would suggest signing with him. It will give him a chance to be able to communicate, and there is no evidence that signing slows down speaking (which was/is a controversial issue).

Anyway, Lara did speech therapy with Colin, and as of the last update, he was doing great too.

I don't think it is time to *worry* yet, as different kids have different schedules and different abilities. But, I think it is time to seek help (which you have already done). Good luck, and keep us updated.

[Andrea_2]

We had the same experience with our son, and had him evaluated through the state. At almost 4 years old, he was barely putting two words together, and probably knew a total of 50 words at most. He immediately qualified to attend classes at the regular preschool in town, and he also met regularly with a speech therapist at the school. OH what a difference it made! I don't know what their trick is over there, but he was a completely different kid within a week. He continued to gradually improve, and now, a year later, I can't believe I was ever concerned about his speech. I would highly recommend at least checking into an evaluation. There is so much more available (and at no cost, or little cost) the younger they are, and it really can make a big difference. Good luck.

[LaraW]

My DS (26.5 m) is currently in speech therapy. I don't have a lot of time to post, but I will come back later. It has been a great experience for us.

[LA98]

My son qualified for speech therapy through our state's Early Intervention program when he was around 19 months. He had no words at all at that point. A team came to our home to evaluate him on all areas including physical ones, not just speech (required by law). He was found to have more than a 33% delay which is the minimum to qualify for services. We were assigned a therapist who came to our home weekly. I'm not sure therapy did all that much for him really. In his case it was a delay due to tons of ear problems he had until the point he got tubes put in (at 18 months). He said his first word at 20 months and by his second birthday the language was coming out fast and furious. :) We were released from EI a month or so later because our goal had been to get him speaking.

He's now 4.5 years old and we are starting speech therapy again (today actually!). He's kind of lispy and he's not producing three sounds correctly (r, s, and l). His preschool teachers have been complaining that they can't understand him although many other people (including strangers he strikes up conversations with) have no problem understanding him at all. The interesting part was that the therapist showed me a chart, and the sounds he's not making correctly are heard at the highest frequency, which is what he was not hearing his first 18 months because of the fluid in his ears.

Lori

[maryellenmd]

Thanks for your replies. It just helps knowing that some of you have dealt with this. We are going to go through the county Infants and Toddlers program here - from what I understand, it's a 2 phase evaluation process with an initial screening on all areas and then a much longer evaluation. I am hopeful. Thanks for sharing your stories.

[Lrimerman]

I have been through it with 2 kids. I know what you are feeling. With my first it was scary and I thought, oh he is never going to talk and be normal. Well, he started speech in a program through the school (mom and tot type thing) twice a week when he was just 2 years old. He improved a lot, but still issues. I also had him evaluated at a local hospital center and did summer therapy there. The next 2 years he went to a pre-school program for speech and really the intensive summer thing was what did it the most. I remember the day when she got him to say yes instead of "uh-uh" which always sounded like no and you would have to be looking at him to see him shake his head yes, or he would get super frustrated when you thought he said no. I cried!!! He really took off and is in Kindergarten now and doing great, you would never know.

My youngest showed similar issues but had more words, just not clear enough to understand (older one only said a few words). We had him evaluated and he did have a problem. We got services through the school and he is in speech twice a week at the local elementary as he goes to a private preschool that does not have speech services. He is a well adjusted 3 year old and is doing so much better in his clarity!! I may put him in a summer program as he still needs the help in certain areas of speech, but the therapist says he is really doing well.

Just keep doing what you are doing and it is a process which can take time.

Lisa

[helios7]

I'm not a parent, but I'm a special education teacher and I work with special education kids. I think it's great you're willing to explore this as a possibility for your child because so many times the earlier the children receive services, the quicker they will make progress. Many parents hold off, hoping things will resolve themselves, and often it just makes the situation more complicated. For example, the child's social skills will become affected from feeling frustrated at not being able to communicate with peers. Children feeling frustrated from not being able to communicate are often more aggressive, and strike out when the words are not available.

So... good for you! I hope the evaluation goes well and your son will get the help he needs. :)

[LaraW]

I am back and have some more time. We had our son evaluated when he was about 20-21 months (last fall). It was done through our school district, and there was an initial "evaluation" which consisted of me answering questions about his development in general (was he walking, was he able to stack blocks, etc) in addition to his speech. Based on that evaluation, we were referred for a more in-depth evaluation. We met with a case coordinator which just told us about the process. There was a speech pathologist, an audiologist and an occupational therapist at that evaluation. THey had him do some sorting, stacking blocks, did some things like blow a feather off of someone's hand, that kind of thing. I remember one thing was to pick up sprinkles and eat them (checking pincer grasp).

They were not able to get a reading on their audiology thingie (:o ) and so we had to go back to do a hearing test in their booth. He passed with flying colors. One thing that made me "not worried" was that he obviously understood everything we said to him; he could follow a 2-part instruction, he just wasn't verbalizing.

Anyway, he qualified for once a week speech therapy which we are doing now. At that initial screening time, we set goals for 6 months out which was to have him saying 25 words. He actually is saying more like 75+ words at this point, and is starting to put 2 words together. He still does a lot of stuff like leaving hte ends off of words but we're getting there.

WE will go back for another "big" evaluation this coming fall, once we've been doing therapy for a year. The purpose of that is to see if he is where he needs to be, and whether he qualifies for more services or not.

I would definitely recommend getting him evaluated if you have ANY concerns at all. It does not cost anything and if the experts say he is fine, then your mind can be put to ease. If they say he needs some help, you can get him some help. I tried to think of it like he was sick and the therapy was his medicine. I don't have any guilt or think I'm an inadequate parent if he needs antibiotics for an ear infection, why should this be any different? I think if he got to school and was struggling with the basics of communication that we'd have done him a big disservice.

Our therapist is wonderful. Colin really likes her and so do I, and she has given DH and me some tools to use with him to encourage him to talk so he can see the power that communication has.

[fci5767]

I'm not a parent, but I'm a special education teacher and I work with special education kids. I think it's great you're willing to explore this as a possibility for your child because so many times the earlier the children receive services, the quicker they will make progress. Many parents hold off, hoping things will resolve themselves, and often it just makes the situation more complicated. For example, the child's social skills will become affected from feeling frustrated at not being able to communicate with peers. Children feeling frustrated from not being able to communicate are often more aggressive, and strike out when the words are not available.

So... good for you! I hope the evaluation goes well and your son will get the help he needs. :)


I completely agree. I've seen early speech therapy work wonders. Both in my classroom and with my soon-to-be-adopted son. He had speech therapy at school when he was a toddler since he didn't have many words. He's 3 3/4 now and you'd NEVER know that he was a late talker.

[maryellenmd]

You all are so great, and I totally appreciate your encouraging words. Will keep you posted on how it goes.

Lara, the process that Colin went through sounds very similar to what the social worker described to us. We are supposed to get a date for the evaluation later this week.

[stefania4]

FWIW, my niece (now 5 1/2) and both nephews (ages almost 4 and 18 months) were all speech-delayed. Not that my sister talks enough for 3 people or anything. :D My older nephew had Early Intervention services - he absolutely understood everything said to him, he just didn't verbalize himself.

After the second visit by the EI specialist, he dropped his sippy cup and said forlornly - for the first time - "Well, [profanity]." I told my sister he wasn't speech-delayed, he was just polite. :)

None of the kids have turned out to have any speech problems or other delays; they were just on the other side of the bell curve in early speech. It's too early to know if my younger nephew will have EI, but my sister said it was such a great experience that she wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

I'm a big fan of EI. A friend had it when her daughter wasn't reading at grade level - her daughter now does great academically and loves to read. If nothing else, I think it's very reassuring to hear "there's really nothing wrong, he/she just moves at a different speed" or "your DC undertands X better than Y, so try this instead of that."

Best of luck to you and your little one!