How do you know when to look into speech therapy?

[Anonymous]

My son also had very few words up until 23 months when we had tubes put in his ears for ongoing fluid and constant ear infections. We had his ear fluid monitored by his pediatrician every four weeks for three months after a bad double ear infection and we were then referred to a pediatric ENT. The ENT recommended that tubes be placed in his ears and that has made all the difference in his speech now that we can hear clearly. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

My 17 month old has fluid also, but the ENT is not quick to jump to tubes. He'd like us to wait and get a speech eval. just to see where we stand. DS is in daycare and doesn't yet have a particularly full vocabulary. He understands most everything, has no trouble with balance, hearing, etc. etc. but has a short vocabulary of "Dadda" "Mamma" (when he feels like it) "Nana" "Outside" "Cracker" "Teeth" and "I do not." In fact, "I do not" was really his "first word."

My gut tells me he'll have a word burst sometime soon, but with early intervention having been suggested by the ENT just to see where we are, I am stressed about what to do. Waitlists are super long at all the speech centers, and it seems almost all of them don't accept insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 17 month old has fluid also, but the ENT is not quick to jump to tubes. He'd like us to wait and get a speech eval. just to see where we stand. DS is in daycare and doesn't yet have a particularly full vocabulary. He understands most everything, has no trouble with balance, hearing, etc. etc. but has a short vocabulary of "Dadda" "Mamma" (when he feels like it) "Nana" "Outside" "Cracker" "Teeth" and "I do not." In fact, "I do not" was really his "first word."

My gut tells me he'll have a word burst sometime soon, but with early intervention having been suggested by the ENT just to see where we are, I am stressed about what to do. Waitlists are super long at all the speech centers, and it seems almost all of them don't accept insurance.

It's okay! Early intervention is the key and you don't get much earlier than 17 months! Did your ENT refer you to your local gov't early intervention servcies? The waitlists for therapy are long but the evaluations (in our experience) were relatively quick. Also, services that were arranged by the early intervention servcies were covered by our insurance. Services we arranged privately were not. It may not be as bad as you think.

[Anonymous]

It seems that I am unusual here, because we started speech therapy for my son at 10 months of age! He was babbling at 3 months and then abruptly stopped after getting a cold. He had multiple ear infections and now has tubes. We thought it might be delaying his speech but after the surgery the surgeon said that his ears weren't too clogged with fluid. And he had passed 2 hearing tests. In my heart, I still think that the multiple ear infections affected his speech development. However, it is no longer an issue since getting the tubes.

In any case, I sought our MD Early Intervention services and am doing private speech therapy. The problem is that no one can tell you if there is a bigger issue other than just a delay until the age of 2 or 3. I thought I'd rather err on the side of caution. After all, speech therapy can't hurt and if you can afford it, you should do it. It does help, but you have to do the work at home. My son had one word at 12 months, and about 100 at 18 months. He just turned 2 and probably has about 300 words. His vocabulary is still probaly on the average side but definitely not behind. However, he still isn't putting 2 words together and has articulation issues where he leaves off the ending sound off of words consistently. We're working on a plethora of things and I find that therapy helps.

I am of the thought that early intervention works and it surely doesn't hurt. Its not as if I am sticking a needle into him and drawing blood weekly without cause. I am merely taking him to someone to play with him and teach him things in a constructive manner, but more importantly, they are teaching ME how to play with him in a more meaningful way. The strategies do work and can make a difference. He now has all of his vowel sounds and several ending consonant sounds. He has come a LONG way in a year. But I wonder if he would have made it this far had we not done therapy. I don't think so. I wouldn't have the tools necessary to work with him properly. We focus on the issues he is having and get through them one by one.

I would recommend speech therapy. It can't hurt!

[Anonymous]

I haven't read the other responses, but will say that if you think something is wrong, it doesn't hurt to get an evaluation/therapy. If you have a good therapist, it will be play time for the child.

If something is wrong and the child will not speak without therapy, then starting earlier is better than later. If nothing is wrong, the therapy won't hurt. You can't tell which your child is, except in hindsight.

My dd was evaluated at 18 months when she had only 1 word. Therapy was recommended, but it took me a while to find a therapist and schedule an appointment. We had two sessions; by then she was 20 months and all of a sudden she had too many words to count, so we stopped. Maybe something magical happened in those sessions, but I think it was just that she matured. But if she hadn't suddenly started speaking and I hadn't gotten therapy, I would always wonder "what if."