New here and my son's speech....

danssugahbugah

I'm new to this board but was hoping for some advice!

DS is 27 months old and I'm a little concerned with his speech.  He can talk plenty, he just isn't able to form words correctly.  For example, when he says "down" it sounds like "bow" (like a hair-bow).  If he trys to say "truck" it comes out as "kkk".  So he can say many words and communicate effectively.....if you know his language!  Should I be concerned?  Anyone deal with this as well?

Also, we did baby sign language with him when he was younger.  To this day he can say any word that he used to sign except for 'milk'  He will only sign this.  If we ask him to say the word he goes, "mm" and signs the sign.  He does this with blankie as well...he doesn't use a formal sign for it, but he kind of made up his own.  He will not say blankie though.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?  Am I worried for nothing???  TIA!

MirandaHobbes

I would have him evaluated by early intervention for sure. It's a very simple process (contact your school district for info). My son was 19 months and only had a couple words when he was diagnosed with language delay (both expressive and receptive). Now he is 27 months and talking much, much more, but he still needs speech therapy because he is dropping the first part of the word and isn't understandable by most. By 3 grownups are supposed to understand all words (at least this is what they tell me). For example, DS will say "kee" for kitty "ickle" for pickle and "ain" for rain. Come to think of it- I don't know if I've ever heard him say an "r" sound. (Grama is "gama" Grandpa is "wompa")

It's a simple process, not scary at all, and with a little luck your guy will be caught up by kindy!

reticent

susanmosely is a speech therapist.  She frequents the SAHM board, but I've seen her post on here.  She posted a link, not too long ago, about the normal speech development.  I can't find the link now, but I do remember that it's common for kids to drop the last consonant sound and changing the beginning sound to a similar sound is also common.  I'm not saying that you shouldn't have him evaluated if you want, but if you, as his primary caregiver, can understand him and he's communicating with you then I think he sounds ok??  Of course, I am NOT a speech therapist or anything close to it. 

Like your son, my son would only sign milk for the longest time.  He's now 28 months and just in the past month, he finally started saying milk -- though for him it's "milp"   I just kept saying it to him again and again and I stopped signing it.  People who are around my son more often than not understand more of his vocabulary than strangers, but I thought this was fairly common.  At 2 years old, I thought strangers should be able to understand 50-75% of what a kid says.  

Good luck!

Edited to add -- Here's the link https://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/acquisition.html  --

 

susanmosley

reticent:

Edited to add -- Here's the link https://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/acquisition.html  --

Thanks  I didn't save it last time I found it and didn't really feel like looking for it again.    I think it is a good general guideline.