What led you to get your child's speech evaluated?

[Anonymous]

I originally posted this in General Parenting but was advised that I'd get better advice on this forum, so I'm cross posting:

I know there's probably tons of posts on this, but bear with me, please! My daughter is 2 years and 8 months old and I have been wondering recently whether I should have her speech evaluated. Here's the basis:

She says a lot of words- I began keeping track of them in a note on my iPhone when she began speaking and add new words as she says them. At this point, I'd say she's learning around 10 new words a week or so. However, with a lot of her words, I doubt many people aside from her father and me could understand them. She does use consistent sounds for her words, but those sounds are not always exactly the word itself. So, for snake, she says something like "neek"- I know she means snake, but I'm sure a stranger would not know she means snake. Also, I've noticed that with some of her words, she says the beginning of the word, but not the end. For example, if she wants a waffle, she'll say "waff." I know exactly what she's referring to, but I can't figure out why she leaves the ends off her words. As far as sentences, we're at about three word sentences. "There's more pretties!" "Oh no, the dog!" "Want to get down!" and things like that. She listens and understands anything we tell her, even if there's quite a few steps involved; i.e., "Go put this in the trash can and then bring me your juice cup" - she can follow this perfectly, but she could not tell me, "I am taking this to the trash and bringing you my juice." She knows by sight all of her numbers and her colors and can say most of them, though the trickier ones like "orange" and "purple" she is unable to say. She recognizes some letters and can say some, but not at all of them.

My husband and I are on different sides of the fence on this. He says that she is saying plenty of words (in the hundreds) and using short sentences and following all commands, and recognizes and can use descriptors. But I can't help but feel like maybe she could just use a little nudge since she doesn't (or can't?) say the endings to many of her words and is only using very short sentences. I have tried to compare her speech to that of the other kids in our playgroup and she seems squarely in the middle. Saying more than some but not as much as others. So I'm just looking for a little guidance: if you got your child evaluated by a speech therapist, what were the signs in their speech that led you to do so? Am I expecting too much for her age? I'm a first time mom who had very little experience with small children before my daughter was born, so I fully admit I am going on nothing here but intuition and guesswork. I'd just like some sort of framework to go by from other mothers who had their kids evaluated- and if you have experience with evaluation, whether your child went on to need speech therapy or not, does anything in my daughter's speech patterns jump out at you as something a speech therapist would find concerning? Thank you so much.

(Also, in the other post, a commenter said that in MoCo you can get a free eval through Infants and Toddlers up until 3- from what I'm seeing for Loudoun County, that cut off is age 2. Could anyone with experience in Loudoun County offer any advice on who to go through to get a toddler over the age of 2 evaluated?)

[Anonymous]

I think it's worth getting an evaluation although her speech certainly could also be within the range of normal development I also think you should get your daughter's ears checked because this may be a sign of fluid in the ears or a need for ear tubes.

My niece had this problem and when tubes were placed her articulation (which is what you are describing) and speech took off by leaps and bounds.

I have found that men/dads tend to minimize issues with kids, perhaps out of a sense of protectiveness. This is a generalization, of course.

[Anonymous]

I think you should get her evaluated. A friend of mine is an OT (not speech pathologist, but has some knowledge in that area) and I asked her about our niece, who was doing the same things as your daughter - only saying the beginning of a word and not the end. Our niece was 2 years, 3 months, so younger than your child.

I asked my friend at the time and said that our niece absolutely should be able to get a sound out for the end of a word by 27 months. It won't be perfect (as some sounds don't fully mature until age 6-7), but "chee" isn't acceptable for "cheese" (which I heard repeatedly from her).

Our niece is now approaching her 6th birthday and to my knowledge she has never had any intervention. You can clearly tell a difference in her speech and most other kids her age. She is getting words filled in, but sounds are so bad. My name is Lori, but she calls me "Yo-wi". Yikes.

[Anonymous]

The other side of the coin is if she isn't hearing all the sounds (that is, if it's not just an expressive issue, but also an auditory processing issue) this could lead to difficulties with sounding out words, which can lead to reading/spelling issues down the road.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, PPs. I just called Child Find and spoke to someone about getting her set up for an eval. The girl I spoke with said she actually might not need any help at all, but told me one of the pathologists will give me a call back tomorrow to discuss it better. I figure if nothing is wrong, no harm no foul, but better safe than sorry. I have also considered possible hearing issues. She doesn't exhibit any outward signs of hearing problems and has never had any kind of earache or anything, but that's still a possibility. My husband thinks I'm just being a worrywart, but I just can't shake the feeling that she should be able to be sounding out the rest of those words. Anyway, thanks for the help and advice!