How do you know if your 2 year old needs speech therapy?

[Anonymous]

Our daughter is really communicative but she still does a lot of babble and sounds that aren't real words. She still pretty much only uses one words and doesn't combine a lot of words. We have her 2 year well child visit coming up and we're going to talk to her pediatrician but I'm starting to think that she needs speech therapy.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How do you know when your child needs therapy? For kids who have had therapy, did it help?

[Anonymous]

I'd say, she needs an evaluation:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-2yr.html

I'd also get her hearing tested with an ENT or audiology lab. Our kid had chronic fluid and needed ear tubes. Speech acquisition was slow and this didn't help. Still needed speech therapy though.

Bring it up with the pediatrician, but you can call early intervention in your area for an evaluation. It won't cost you anything.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. She's turning 2 on November 16th and I looked up DC's early intervention program and they end at age 2. My guess is that I just need to wait and talk to her pediatrician?

She probably knows about 40 words or so, but still not a lot of 2 word sentences and she doesn't really put two words together. Like she doesn't say "drink milk," or "want milk." She'll just say "milk."

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Her comprehension and understanding is perfect. She just struggles with the communication part of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thanks. She's turning 2 on November 16th and I looked up DC's early intervention program and they end at age 2. My guess is that I just need to wait and talk to her pediatrician?

I would still call early intervention and ask them for the contact info for children 2 and older:
http://osse.dc.gov/service/strong-start-information-families

These are state mandated programs, so each state (and district) has different names for the programs.

Also, I would still get her hearing checked even if her comprehension seems on target. It will help eliminate a possible cause.

[Anonymous]

When they say 0-2, they mean 0 until 3rd birthday. I think early intervention is definitely the place to start.

[Anonymous]

I say if you think her speech is an issue, request an early intervention evaluation through the county. Go with your gut.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm kind of freaking out. My husband and I knew that she was not as advanced as some of her peers but we just chalked it up to those kids being abnormally advanced. She was also a late walker and we used to freak out about it, but it ended up being fine.

She's so vocal and expressive that I never worried about it, but now I see that her vocabulary isn't really developing and she has a hard time pronouncing words and she doesn't put two words together. I'd like to figure out a plan asap.

[Anonymous]

Step 1: Don't freak out.
Step 2: Call early intervention and make an evaluation appointment.
Step 3: Discuss with pediatrician at 2 YO visit.
Step 4: Consider ENT/hearing test.
Step 5: Don't freak out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP here. I'm kind of freaking out. My husband and I knew that she was not as advanced as some of her peers but we just chalked it up to those kids being abnormally advanced. She was also a late walker and we used to freak out about it, but it ended up being fine.

She's so vocal and expressive that I never worried about it, but now I see that her vocabulary isn't really developing and she has a hard time pronouncing words and she doesn't put two words together. I'd like to figure out a plan asap.

Don't freak out. Easier said than done, I know. My son didn't say ANY words until well after his 2nd birthday. We were sure all of the information was going in, but nothing was coming out. We'd already been in therapy from about 20 months because it was so noticeable and we were pretty concerned. Even several months into therapy, we were still mainly using sign language to communicate and hoping for one syllable at a time, if that. It was a very slow start.

And then he had an absolute explosion and chatters non-stop -- whole paragraphs! He went from absolutely nothing to chatterbox in under 3 months. He's still in therapy, working on pronunciation and clarity, but the difference is really amazing. And, we were right, all of the information was going in - just nothing coming back out. Start with early intervention, talk to your pediatrician and go from there.

we got some pushback from family and friends, telling us to relax it would just take time, but my gut said therapy and I'm glad we went forward when we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Step 1: Don't freak out.
Step 2: Call early intervention and make an evaluation appointment.
Step 3: Discuss with pediatrician at 2 YO visit.
Step 4: Consider ENT/hearing test.
Step 5: Don't freak out.

This exactly.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Step 1: Don't freak out.
Step 2: Call early intervention and make an evaluation appointment.
Step 3: Discuss with pediatrician at 2 YO visit.
Step 4: Consider ENT/hearing test.
Step 5: Don't freak out.

This exactly.

Yep. Just note that for every, say 10, posters whose children had no words at age 2 and later had a language explosion (with or without therapy) there's another poster (like me) who's child had no explosion and speech (not communication, speech) remains a significant challenge. I'm very grateful we didn't follow the advice of some (whose kids had the speech explosion) to give it more time. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Step 1: Don't freak out.
Step 2: Call early intervention and make an evaluation appointment.
Step 3: Discuss with pediatrician at 2 YO visit.
Step 4: Consider ENT/hearing test.
Step 5: Don't freak out.

This exactly.

Yep. Just note that for every, say 10, posters whose children had no words at age 2 and later had a language explosion (with or without therapy) there's another poster (like me) who's child had no explosion and speech (not communication, speech) remains a significant challenge. I'm very grateful we didn't follow the advice of some (whose kids had the speech explosion) to give it more time. Good luck!

+1, If it is a true delay as PP said, there is good reason to be concerned. Everyone kept telling me my child would be ok. At 4, he is still severely delayed (but at least starting to talk).

[Anonymous]

If you are worried, get an evaluation. Better to trust your gut. It could be nothing. We started ours because he was getting frustrated we didn't understand him. That seemed to be a reason several experts thought was a good reason to start. It helped!