Back at DD1's 2-year checkup, I had asked her ped about her speech as I
found it to be a little under par when compared to the other kids around
her. Between direct friends (and a cousin) of mine and a couple friends of
friends that DD1 is around, there's a total of 3 boys and 3 girls her age
(between 4 weeks older than DD1 and 5 weeks younger they ALL are) I just
found all the other kids at that point were actually talking a lot better
than she was.

Ped gave a referral to a speech/language/hearing specialist at the hospital.
We went shortly after she turned 2.
They did a follow up 6 months later, around Christmas last year, and at that
point I had decided to wait. After talking around, there was a few people
that said that theirs at that age didn't talk much (for a variety of
reasons) but by 3 they had picked it up and had no issues. My oldest
younger brother did not really say much at all until he was about 3 and was
just fine from then on.
DD1 had her 3d birthday and I found her speech was really not much better.
She was not really even close to being on par with the others her age. Yes,
I know you can't really compare one child with another, but you sort of can
to get an idea.

So, back in September, a month or so after her 3d birthday, we went for
another assessment at the hospital. The report came back that her hearing
is excellent, she completely understands everything, even fairly complex,
multi-part directions but just does not talk well at all.

The "diagnosis" says she has a "severe phonological delay", "expressive
language delay" and "receptive language possibly within average limits" Her
speech is "difficult to understand" and it was noted that although she has
perfect teeth (until last weekend when she wiped out and broke her teeth -
which she is scheduled to have repaired at the pediatric dental place right
after the new year) she does have a significant overbite (which runs in the
family) - this overbite "likely contributes to her open mouth postures and
labio-dental productions of 'm, p, b'"
It also says something about the average mean length of utterance (how many
words per comment) is 3.47 words, yet DD's is an average of 1.58 words - so
3 standard deviations below the average for her age.

She understands VERY well, so she's not slow or stupid or anything like
that, she just can't seem to communicate very well at all. She's also not
at all anywhere close to potty training - and I was told that although not
always, sometimes with some sort of language/communication problem, these
children might be more of a challenge with potty training (but it also does
happen with the average child with no delays)

I had been looking at getting her into a program that deals specifically
with preschoolers with various levels of delays like this. There's one I'd
really like her to get into for September, when she will be old enough to be
eligible for the program, but the speech lady actually called me today to
give me some contacts for a few programs for right now. I've managed to
leave a message for 2/3 of the numbers I was given - one of the contact
numbers seems to not be working or something.

Has anyone had to deal with something like this? Obviously programs
available where I am most likely won't be the same as where other people
are, but there seems to be a few different options around here, and I
haven't really heard much about them... And still know very little about
them as I had just left messages for someone to call me back. I don't think
these kinds of programs would hurt, but do they benefit? Has anyone had any
experience with various early childhood/preschool programs for their little
ones that might have or had similar issues DD1 seems to have?