Speech Therapy at 12 months?
Socialworkgirl
member
At DD's 12 month appointment, her pediatrician was concerned because she isn't really saying any words yet. She referred us to a speech therapist, but we would probably have to pay out of pocket for any services.
She says bababa all the time and sometimes says dadada. I have heard her say nanana but not consistently and once she said "muuu". She also makes lots of vowel sounds and a few other less clear sounds.
She now says something that is a cross between baba and bye bye and waves when DH leaves for work or other appropriate times, but we think she also says bye bye when she means hi too.
As for her receptive language, there are about 10 items around the house she will look at or point to when we ask where they are. She responds to No and her name and will do other things if we say them and point (I.e. put the ball in the can).
She likes having books read to her and wants her favorites read to her over and over.
She has been on the late side with meeting most of her milestones. She didn't crawl until 10 months, didn't start saying baba or dada until 8 months. Would you see a speech therapist at this point or wait?
Re: Speech Therapy at 12 months?
I agree with pp. My son is in speech therapy for EI. It's not income based, all people can use it for free up to age 3 if your child qualifies. You just call and make an appt, take them in for a screening, and if they qualify, they will set you up with free services. If not, they pat you on the back and send you on your way.
But, honestly, what will they tell her at 12 months? In the absence of other significantly apparent developmental delays, I'm not understanding how they would even go about this. Tons of kids don't talk at 12 months, and it means nothing.
This is a genuine question, not meant to be snotty. If there is some way to determine if a year-old child is delayed vs. simply a late talker, I'd love to hear about it.
No, I wouldn't go in at 12 months. Most kids don't speak at 12 months! PP had said to wait until at least 18 months and I agreed with that. We didn't go until age 2, but he has a significant delay due to hearing loss before 14 months old because of multiple ear infections. He had tubes put in before we started services.
Sorry, I misunderstood. 18 mos. seems much more reasonable.
Thanks everyone for the input. This is really helpful. The pedi initially referred us to ECI, but In Texas, ECI won't come out to evaluate for a speech delay at 12 months. So when I called the nurse's line to tell them this, they referred me to private speech therapy.
For the record, my pedi didn't say crawling at 10 months was late--I just meant that it was later than alot of my friend's kids. This was our first time seeing this pedi. We weren't super impressed....
Yeah I would def find different doc. IMO older doctors tend to be a little less alarmist with this kind of stuff. Our LO was barely making any sounds at 12 months and our doc said that as long as he seems interested in communicating and is moving a lot he would be fine.
Don't let yourself stress over this one. Sounds like a pedi that needs to take a chill pill.
you generally can't tell if a two year old is a late talker or delayed but either way they should be in speech therapy if there's limited speech. My son had single words up until 2.5 Until out of the blue he started speaking in five word sentences with proper pronoun/verb use.
therapists can and do see kids as young as 12 months. With my sons speech delay they were extra vigilant with my DDs development since she was at high risk. They told me if she wasn't babbling consonant sounds by one they would want to start therapy. I'm not referring to the op at all--it seems like she should wait it out until 18 months because there are some sounds there. I'm just saying there are some situations that warrant speech therapy at 12 months, like a kid born at 23 weeks gestation with no babbling. In terms of how they go about it, they do have standardized tests that young and speech therapy is play based. They start with encouraging mimicking the simplest sounds, like ah and go from there.
yeah, she is super young. we switched because we had an older doctor we felt was TOO laid back--we need a happy medium. Lol.
Ditto. We didn't seek therapy until 2 and I regret it.
FYI most public schools have speech therapist even in elementary. Out here in Ca all you need to do is call you local school district ask about speech therapy they will send you out a packet to fill out, schedule an assessment and if they think the child needs it they will schedule you in and it's all free.