Parents of late talkers—how has your child fared?

[Anonymous]

DD is 18-months and we are going to a speech therapist next week to help with what I believe is an expressive language delay. She has very few words That she uses consistently (this, door, bath, dada) and other words she says once or twice never to say again, almost like she files them away. She does communicate by pointing and seems to have fairly good receptive communication—for example, she can follow simple directions. Her motor skills seem totally fine. I am wondering for parents who have BTDT how did speech therapy work out, did your child eventually catch up and when? If your child is now in school, do they continue to have speech and/or learning difficulties? My older DS was on the opposite end of the spectrum and had advanced language at this age so it is tough not to compare and worry.

[Anonymous]

My 15 year old became a chatty 2 yr old (we started speech therapy with her at about 18 mos). She continued with speech through 1st grade. We think she was just waiting until she could well (she did same with walking. Sat than walked skipped crawling).

[Anonymous]

My nephew lost all of his (few) words after a difficult international trip at 18 months. He did speech therapy for a while and now is a super chatty articulate 3 year old. If you get speech early, they almost always catch up and sometimes end up ahead temporarily.

[Anonymous]

My daughter was a late talker and did about six months of therapy. After therapy, she always was on the lower side of normal, but now is a happy kindergartner learning to read abs write!

[Anonymous]

Mine had only a few words at 2, she was also an early preemie. She did a year of speech therapy from 2-3 then aged out of EI. We tried to get her an IEP but were denied (I think it a better funded district she would have qualified). At 3, big concerns were pragmatic language and specifically her language in social settings. She was very quiet at daycare even when being prompted by the SLP. Now at 10, she is still shy in new social situations, generally chatty, no language concerns, but is slow to pick up academic skills.

[Anonymous]

Mine didn’t speak until 18 months (nothing except pointing and grunting). At 18 months she started talking in monologues. However, they were a garbled mess (like talking with a mouth full of marbles). Turns out she had thick fluid in both ears). After tubes and 6 months of speech therapy she caught up. A few years later she did speech therapy again for tongue thrusting. She was later diagnosed with auditory processing disorder (probably also ADHD—we are doing a neuropsych in a few weeks). Meanwhile, she will do speech therapy again to help her with the APD (she is in middle school now).

[Anonymous]

Our DD was similar to yours, OP. At 18 months she had almost no words and even right around 2 her spoken vocabulary consisted of just a few things like "ba" for "ball." Our pediatrician suggested we could look into speech therapy, but also said since it was clear she was understanding everything we were saying we could just try giving her more time. We never did speech therapy and now at 3 she has a fine vocabulary, perfectly normal for her age (and she chatters all. the. time. now). So, just to say I don't necessarily think you have to worry yet. Most of us get there in our own good time.

[Anonymous]

This is us too. Mine is 18 months and has 1 word and some signs. Understands a lot and great motor skills. She is in a dual language household and older sister who is very verbal. We have an eval scheduled but I'm anxious.

[Anonymous]

At 18 months, my child had zero words, not even mama and dada. It took us a while to get speech therapy started, and by 24 months, with only a handful of sessions, it looked like she was caught up and we discontinued therapy. She was diagnosed with autism when she was 5, and it's now obvious that pragmatic language was a bigger problem than straight expressive language.

[Anonymous]

I did sign language with my son along with speech therapy. He stopped speech therapy at age 4. He did go back for about six months at age 6. He is now a very talkative 17 year old and has no issues.

[Anonymous]

I have a cousin who studies how children learn language. Has a PhD in this. Her two kids both barely said a word before 18 months. By kindergarten you could not get them to stop talking.

[Anonymous]

MY DD barely said a word until she was 2. Her older brother was speaking in full sentences at 14 months, so I was really concerned. At 4, she became selectively mute and refused to speak at all in preschool and other places. That faded away in kindergarten, but she had a really hard time with her Ls and Rs in elementary school and briefly saw the school SLP. In time she improved, but even now she has issues with cluttering.

She's 17 now, speaks perfectly in her learned 2nd language (which for some reason it's easier for her than English!) and wants to major in languages/linguistics. I think she has fared ok!

[Anonymous]

DS would only grunt and say just a few words here and there when he was 20 months. SIL, a pediatrician did suggest speech therapy but we held out as he grew up in a bilingual environment at that point. Figured he was just maturing slowly, DH and I never started on the therapy route. Also DS never learned to crawl properly and went from sitting/scooting on his bum straight to walking. Now at 18, he is a well adjusted, thoughtful, athletic and accomplished young man w a dry sense of humor. He is never gonna be the loudest person in crowd. But he is socially and has great friends. He doesn’t have any trouble speaking in front of a crowd at school or at work (summer jobs).

Not to say therapy isn’t helpful since we never tried it. But most kids do grow out of the occasional “slow” development in one area or another. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Both of mine were late talkers. My first had fluid in his ears and was scheduled for tubes when it finally cleared just shy of two and his language exploded.

My second had few words at 18 months (maybe three), and for the next few months would say a word once but wouldn't repeat. Then started speaking in phrases and sentences just past two.

Both had strong receptive language and were able to communicate with signs and pointing and were never recommended for services by their doctors. And now both are relentless chatterboxes.

[Anonymous]

My child was not talking or making any approximations at 18 months. We started speech therapy shortly thereafter. The first year, progress was pretty slow, but he started preschool at 3 and just exploded — nonstop chatterbox with an enormous vocabulary. We are pretty sure he could read long before he could speak. We stuck with ST until 5 to fine-tune and back again at 7 to work on Rs and Ls. He’s now 9 and has a few minor speech quirks, but no major issues. You cannot shut him up and he’s an oddly good presenter (like class projects/reading aloud to others).