Non-talking 2 yo update

So my 25 month old son is finally starting to talk. He has some
obsession with doors, specifically asking me and his dad to draw him a
door. He presents a pen/crayon and says "a doo", asking for a door to
be drawn. And another, and another..... He says "yeh" if he wants
something. He can also count to three. He was saying mamamama while I
was holding him, but I dunno if that was referring to me, or just
babbling.
He should be coming up to another evaluation soon, but it seems that
he can hear. I've heard him say entire lines lifted from songs when
he's talking to himself. He also says snatches of conversation in his
babble, such things like, yeah ok. (He babbles in his sleep too.)
I have a friend who's into sign language, and she asked if I would
like her to teach him. But I've been trying to teach him to 'say'
please when he wants something, and he either fights me, or ignores me,
or starts to cry. I tried to teach him to 'say' more, and he just
skipped straight to saying it.

Waiting impatiently for the chatterbox,

Stasya

I am a pediatrician, and I see many patients who are similar to your
son.

It is indeed wise to have him evaluated. My rule of thumb is if
someone hasn't said a few words by 18 months, I'll obtain a referral
for hearing evaluation.

However, the vast majority of these kids turned out just fine. Very
few of them had problem with hearing, and most of them started talking
soon after the evaluation is over. No intervention was necessary for
most of them.

I just want you to be patient, and try not to worry at this point. If
you're not doing so already, I recommend you reading to him every day.
Regardless, it's a nice bonding experience, and it might even encourage
his speech development.

I hope that helps.

Yes I agree if the by 18 months the baby hasn't said a few words - you
must get a referral to the hearing team. Sign language also helps as
do other children. I found that when my little one had a similar
problem ( is a boy) we got him involved in lots of group activities.
With my little girl she had a good vocabulary by 18 months.

satchmo wrote:
I am a pediatrician, and I see many patients who are similar to your
son.

It is indeed wise to have him evaluated. My rule of thumb is if
someone hasn't said a few words by 18 months, I'll obtain a referral
for hearing evaluation.

However, the vast majority of these kids turned out just fine. Very
few of them had problem with hearing, and most of them started talking
soon after the evaluation is over. No intervention was necessary for
most of them.

I just want you to be patient, and try not to worry at this point. If
you're not doing so already, I recommend you reading to him every day.
Regardless, it's a nice bonding experience, and it might even encourage
his speech development.

I hope that helps.

"stasya" wrote:
So my 25 month old son is finally starting to talk. He has some
obsession with doors, specifically asking me and his dad to draw him a
door. He presents a pen/crayon and says "a doo", asking for a door to
be drawn. And another, and another..... He says "yeh" if he wants
something. He can also count to three. He was saying mamamama while I
was holding him, but I dunno if that was referring to me, or just
babbling.
He should be coming up to another evaluation soon, but it seems that
he can hear. I've heard him say entire lines lifted from songs when
he's talking to himself. He also says snatches of conversation in his
babble, such things like, yeah ok. (He babbles in his sleep too.)
I have a friend who's into sign language, and she asked if I would
like her to teach him. But I've been trying to teach him to 'say'
please when he wants something, and he either fights me, or ignores me,
or starts to cry. I tried to teach him to 'say' more, and he just
skipped straight to saying it.

Waiting impatiently for the chatterbox,

Sounds like a retard. You should put him up for adoption before anyone
notices.

stasya wrote:
So my 25 month old son is finally starting to talk.


Have you read Brendan O'Carroll's series of books: The Mammy, The
Chisellers, and The Granny? One of the characters is 3yo in the first
book and barely talks. What he *does* say usually isn't appropriate
language, especially for a 3yo. ;-)

It's a good series. I just re-read the first one and am impatient to
read the other two, but I loaned them out over the weekend.

Anyhow, relax. As the doc said, most of the time, it's just them not
wanting to talk yet. In the cases where it's an issue, you simply get
help in dealing with it. Even then, they'll surprise you from
time-to-time. My autistic niece, who rarely talks, will occasionally
turn to people who are discussing her and her situation, put her hands
on her hips, and promptly tell them, "I'm *not* stupid!" Then she goes
back to what she was doing.

Kitten

stasya wrote:
So my 25 month old son is finally starting to talk. He has some
obsession with doors, specifically asking me and his dad to draw him a
door. He presents a pen/crayon and says "a doo", asking for a door to
be drawn. And another, and another..... He says "yeh" if he wants
something. He can also count to three. He was saying mamamama while I
was holding him, but I dunno if that was referring to me, or just
babbling.

Sounds a lot like my son. He didn't say much at 18 months and we asked
our ped. He did however have about 5 words so we held off on the
evaluation. Then, around 20 months he saw some ponies (we went to
Chincoteague) and all he said for the next week was "hor-ess" in varying
tones. But that seemed to be some gateway because soon he was adding
words and attempting sentences.

At 33 months, DS is now talking in 3,4,5 word sentences. He seems to
have "caught up" with the other children. I still have problems
understanding his pronounciation with some words. But if I look back
the last 8 months, his speech gradually cleared up.

He should be coming up to another evaluation soon, but it seems that
he can hear. I've heard him say entire lines lifted from songs when
he's talking to himself. He also says snatches of conversation in his
babble, such things like, yeah ok. (He babbles in his sleep too.)

DS also babbled incessantly before - in entire sentences - but we hadn't
a clue what he was saying.

I have a friend who's into sign language, and she asked if I would
like her to teach him. But I've been trying to teach him to 'say'
please when he wants something, and he either fights me, or ignores me,
or starts to cry. I tried to teach him to 'say' more, and he just
skipped straight to saying it.


We never used sign language. But both my children learned 'please' and
'thank you' through lots and lots of modeling. DH and I say 'please'
and 'thank you' as often as appropriate. Actually, I used breastfeeding
requests to reinforce 'please'. If they wanted to nurse, they had to
say 'please'. They caught on very quickly. (One advantage of nursing
three years.)

Waiting impatiently for the chatterbox,


Wait until he learns 'NO' and 'WHY'...

Jeanne

FWIW, I've seen quite a few non-talking 2s who started talking after their
parents started signing with them (I teach a parent/toddler music class
which includes some ASL) It was almost like figuring out that they could
communicate opened a floodgate for language. So, teaching a few signs may
not be a bad strategy. If you're in the right part of the country, Signing
Time is on PBS (there's a list of participating stations on
www.signingtime.com), and it might be worth trying.


--
Donna DeVore Metler
Orff Music Specialist/Kindermusik
Mother to Angel Brian Anthony 1/1/2002, 22 weeks, severe PE/HELLP
And Allison Joy, 11/25/04 (35 weeks, PIH, Pre-term labor)

stasya wrote:
[snip]
I have a friend who's into sign language, and she asked if I would
like her to teach him. But I've been trying to teach him to 'say'
please when he wants something, and he either fights me, or ignores me,
or starts to cry. I tried to teach him to 'say' more, and he just
skipped straight to saying it.

FWIW, my kid's speech therapist said that learning sign language helps
develop the same language centres in the brain that are used for speech.
In her opinion, made-up signs were fine.

Also, my (other) kid who talked early would not use please no matter
how we tried, until we spent several days around some older children
who did use it. So it may be nothing to do with the language issue.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

stasya writes:

So my 25 month old son is finally starting to talk. [...]
He should be coming up to another evaluation soon, but it
seems that he can hear. I've heard him say entire lines lifted from
songs when he's talking to himself.

Just to give you another data point, and maybe some encouragement, here's
what my son did:

22 months: fewer than 5 words
24 months: more than 100 words
26 months: chattering in 5-6 word sentences

We didn't get any formal evaluation for him (i.e. more than talking to
reassuring health visitor) because it was always clear that his receptive
language was absolutely fine, in particular that he wasn't deaf, and that
he wasn't delayed in any other area. But wow was that language explosion
welcome when it came! (And I'm still reeling from the impressiveness of
it.)

He now talks non-stop, mostly with retellings of versions of Thomas the
Tank Engine stories. He said "I love you" for the first time yesterday,
aaahhhh :-)

Here's hoping your son will similarly go from strength to strength now!

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

"Donna Metler" wrote in message
...
FWIW, I've seen quite a few non-talking 2s who started talking after their
parents started signing with them (I teach a parent/toddler music class
which includes some ASL) It was almost like figuring out that they could
communicate opened a floodgate for language. So, teaching a few signs may
not be a bad strategy. If you're in the right part of the country, Signing
Time is on PBS (there's a list of participating stations on
www.signingtime.com), and it might be worth trying.

My children seem to have perfect hearing, although they often choose not to
use their ears
I quite love signing. I find it to be fun for all involved. Mine are 6, 5
and 7 months. There's a site I found a little while back that offers free
tutorials for ASL (and it also has BSL somewhere, I believe)
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
I've found it handy and it shows little clips of the motions as well as a
description of it.
I've never seen any harm in signing with babies or children, which is why
we've done it with ours who don't have hearing problems or haven't really
had any speech problems.