15 MO W/ Speech Delay?

patchen30

We took LO to the pedi for his 15 month check up and she said he's a tad speech delayed.  She said he should have 5 words, and he basically only says "uh oh" and babbles a LOT, one babble including "mamama" and "dadada".  Occassionally he'll say something that sounds like a real word, but then he won't say it again so I wonder if it's a coicidence that his babbling sounds like a real word.  He can also imitate us pretty clearly. 

He points at things and makes noises but they're not intelligible.  As far as what he understands...I'm not sure.  Somtimes he does follow simple directions ("press the button on your toy") and sometimes he doesn't ("give Momma a kiss").  It seems to depend on his mood. 

He's very physical, always climbing, throwing balls, etc.  He's also very engaged and laughs a lot and makes great eye contact. 

Pedi said to call early intervention to get on their list.  Now I'm worrying.  Anyone been through this?

itsmevkb

He sounds like all of my  kids, none of whom had early intervention for speech and  the older two they both had huge language explosions right around 2 years.  Sully just had his 18 month appoint and my pedi was happy that he has maybe six words he uses regularly and then there are those like you describe where he says something and my husband and I stare at each other and ask "did he just say" whatever we think it sounded like because it's not clear.  He's been increasing his vocabulary over the last w-2-3 months so at 15 months he had fewer words.  My pedi was never concerned.  Perhaps yours is just very conservative.

TJ1979

My pedi told us that often babies are either physically more advanced, or verbally more advanced. Sounds like yours is just more physically advanced right now. If he's engaged and makes eye contact, I wouldn't worry too much. If the early intervention would make you feel better, it won't hurt anything. My brother spent years in early intervention and later speech therapy and he's now one of the most intelligent and well-spoken people I know. Huge hugs though, it is hard to hear that your LO could be delayed. They should be more cautious with words like that.

rjade9

Ds 1 has speech delays. He has seen a speech therapist since 2.5 it's done wonders!

laura1

At 15 months, DS wasn't walking and said 2 words - Dada and ta (truck or bus - it was the same).  Our pedi said to wait until 18 months, and then we would decide about EI.  He started walking a few weeks later and by 18 months had over 50 words.  I wouldn't worry yet!

But if you want, call for the eval - best case is that by they do it, he won't need them any more! 

SLPMel

My son sounds very similar to your son (he is almost 16 months, but 14.5 months adjusted).  He signs up a storm, his receptive language is great, but he knows very few "words".  Mama, dada, some approximation for "more", and "night night".  My DD on the other hand is months ahead, so I see the significant difference between the two of them.

I am a pediatric SLP in the schools (just not EI) and after talking with some of the EI SLP's in the county, we have put off getting him evaluated until 18 months.  They don't expect a lot from a 15 month old, so to get the required 33% delay (he would have to be at an 11 month level) he's already ahead of that with at least one word.  They said he would have a better chance of actually qualifying at 18 months than 15 months, and so I've decided to give him a bit more time.  But if at 18 months I'm still concerned?  I'll call that day.

Boys tend to develop later than girls, and if receptive language is good, that's more important at 15 months.  Has he had a lot of ear infections? 

Just my two cents

patchen30

SLPMel:

My son sounds very similar to your son (he is almost 16 months, but 14.5 months adjusted).  He signs up a storm, his receptive language is great, but he knows very few "words".  Mama, dada, some approximation for "more", and "night night".  My DD on the other hand is months ahead, so I see the significant difference between the two of them.

I am a pediatric SLP in the schools (just not EI) and after talking with some of the EI SLP's in the county, we have put off getting him evaluated until 18 months.  They don't expect a lot from a 15 month old, so to get the required 33% delay (he would have to be at an 11 month level) he's already ahead of that with at least one word.  They said he would have a better chance of actually qualifying at 18 months than 15 months, and so I've decided to give him a bit more time.  But if at 18 months I'm still concerned?  I'll call that day.

Boys tend to develop later than girls, and if receptive language is good, that's more important at 15 months.  Has he had a lot of ear infections? 

Just my two cents

Thanks Mel! 

I wondered if I should wait until 18 months b/c if he still needs it he'd have a better chance of getting in then than now.  I'm not sure DS' "uh oh" counts as a word but maybe even the fact that he points and says something wouldn't qualify him.  My pedi said it can take months for EI to "get to you" - do you think that means I should wait until he's 18 months to even call and apply, or if I apply now he might not be seen until 18 months?

He's only had 1 ear infection.

I googled which was a mistake and convinced myself DS has an oral motor disorder (and from what I read they said horribly debilitating) b/c he was also late to take to table food (12 months) and is now a very picky eater w/ textures, etc and occassionally gags still. 

Please talk me off a ledge!!

imoverit

I agree with pp about waiting until 18 months before contacting EI. A lot of growth can happen in 3 months. 

queenbone

I've been wondering how you all are doing with this.

Here's where we are. At his 2yr well visit I told the dr that he still only had about 10-15 words, but not really. He can say the beginning of word, but not the ending consonants. Like "ba" for ball or "bo" for boat. He also does a lot of what DH calls onamonapia, "choo choo" instead of train, "beep beep" instead of car, "meow" instead of kitty. And he still has no word for DH or DS1.  I asked the dr. to check his hearing and check his mouth, but she didn't. She said he tested w/i normal for hearing at birth.

Instead she referred us to EI for testing. It was done through the county, but the actual therapy will be through the public schools. We had the evaluation on his 25th mo. b-day and I received the report last week, but we haven't been contacted yet for therapy. During the evaluation his results were normal for everything (around 100) except for speech. One gets a referral if the results are 2 or 1.5 deviations below the normal. He wasn't quite that low, but close enough that the evaluators used their personal judgement to qualify him for treatment because of his speech delay. 

They tried to check his hearing again, but their little gadget wasn't working properly to get a good reading. They said I should get a referral to an ear/nose/throat dr to check to see that he doesn't have any issues. They suspect that since he had a runny nose and a lot of his sounds were 'nasally' that that might be a source of the problem. Apparently a child can have silent ear infections even if they exhibit no symptoms? Anyway, I need to follow up on that referral.

The week of his evaluation he did ad his very first phrase, "Muh Ba!!" for my ball when his brother was trying to take his toy. Still wasn't impressive enough for the evaluators. 

Everyone seems to think he should speak at some point, but the therapy should help to make sure he doesn't lose more ground or fall further behind his peers in speech. I'm also told that EI will come out to your house for apts, so that will be really convenient. I'm excited to get things going. I'm dying to know what he's thinking!

byrne15

Ds#1 received speech from 2 years old until 4.5 years old.  He did so well with them!  He loved his therapists and they were great!

He is now in prek and his teacher said he is at or above the same level as his peers in regards to speech and communication.  (at 2 years old he had no words yet).

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that a speech delay is not something to be too worried about.  I was afraid I would never be able to communicate with him....and boy was I wrong!

 

Good luck with services (if you guys need them) and soon you will have a talker! 

patchen30

Thanks ladies.

Queenbone - I would get DS' hearing checked first - usually having that ruled out as the issue is the first line of defense.  My DS is going to an audiologist.

GL!