"H Schinske" wrote:

There is no reason not to have his hearing and speech checked out. My son
found
the testing quite fun, and I thought it was very interesting to watch. He
turned out not to need any speech therapy, but I'm sure the therapy would
have
been fun for him as well.

I think reaching age two with no words is quite reason enough to have a
child
checked out. It is rare enough that, though many children who speak this
late
have no problems, there is a good chance that a problem could be present.
Many
such speech problems can be easily helped early on and completely
corrected.

The most important things are whether his hearing is good and whether he
understands what you say to him. If he hears and understands well, chances
are
he will speak very well soon. But a professional should make sure.

I agree with Helen -- have him checked by a speech therapist. My older
daughter wasn't talking when she turned two and a half, and her pediatrician
finally bullied me into taking her in. She had already developed an
extensive vocabulary of signs (invented them herself) to communicate with
us. She could imitate sounds, but would not say any words She was diagnosed
as having "verbal apraxia" -- a neurological glitch that made it difficult
for her to connect the sounds of words with their meanings (or something --
I really don't understand how it worked.)

Her therapist gave us some suggestions on what to work on, and within a
couple of months she was speaking in sentences. But verbal apraxia that is
untreated for too long can lead to serious difficulties in language
development. Some kids don't get diagnosed until they enter school, and by
that time it can be very difficult to deal with.

Peggy

--
A dog can never tell you what she knows from the
smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know
almost nothing.

-- Mary Oliver