ST ?'s at 24 months

sunandsand · September 2011

DS started ST at 19 mo and had about 7-12 words/signs/animal sounds at that time.He has progressed so much in the last 5-6 months and I am wondering if it is time to stop ST for the time being. He has about 75 frequently used words (the minimum "normal" for his age is 50, with 250-300 being average)
About half of his "words" are recognizable to people besides DH and I, so I still need to interpret for him sometimes. A lot of times he will shorten a word to 1 syllable (button = but, Dora = Dor), and he only has about 20 2 syllable words, and 3 two word phrases.That said, he can do the entire alphabet, count to 15 on occassion, and sometimes will randomly repeat a new word I say but then I wont hear it again spontaneously. ST says technically he qualifies to quit the program but that I can keep going if I want. We switched from every week to every other week, but its getting harder for me to come up with weekly goals for him besides making the 2 syllable words actually be 2 syllables. Thoughts?

jsugrin · September 2011

I wouldn't and didn't say no to any therapy offer to us. At DS 6 month EI "check up" neither his ST nor I thought he'd qualify for another round but they basically rubber stamped him through. We started with an eval at 23 months and he was at 9 months, when he aged out of EI at age 3 he had the speech of a 5-6 year old. Did he need the extra 6 months, nope probably not, but I told the ST that if we got to a point that she had waiting kids we'd drop so someone who needed a spot wouldn't wait but that never happened.

lujain · September 2011

I would continue with ST. It's great that your son has improved so much, but he is still significantly below average in terms of the number of words.

My daughter is 25 months. She gets individual ST twice a week and group ST once a week. I stopped counting when she hit 100 words, and she does combine words. The SLP tells me DD still needs individual ST twice a week to continue making progress. She also says DD will still need speech after her current contract expires in January, but we might go down to once a week.

I don't come up with the therapy goals for DD, but the therapists do go over them with me. Perhaps you should have the therapist come up with goals for your kid.

JenGK · September 2011

I would not quit speech therapy under those circumstances. There is more to it than just having words -- including being able to be understood by others and using the words in context. Your ST can help work on intelligibility and completing CVC combinations (DS has a big problem with dropping final consanants). We also work on language goals -- categorization (showing him cards and having him categorize the items by food/toy/animal) and developing word combinations to use in context (things go "on" the table, the door/window/package gets "open"ed). I'd talk to your therapist about appropriate speech goals, as well as language goals

2lovelyboys · September 2011

No way would I give up on therapy...if you can still get it, DO IT. It does not hurt, it only helps. He can only get better and stay on track with therapy. I look at it as an extra activity for my kids (although they do need it), I feel like there are many learning reasons to keep them in it and if they aprpove it, do it. So many kids don't get qualified who need it. He is so young, no need to take that away from him.

Assembly_Reqd · September 2011

I would never, ever, ever give up ST. I worked to hard to get it.

Clearly, your LO is seeing a benefit. Keep it if you can.

There are plenty of things to work on besides two syllable words. What about different ways to get spontaneous words? making choices, singing along, etc, etc. I would ask the ST for a speech development milestone chart. Maybe she has something from a textbook she could copy off for you. I am sure you could come up with some goals together. Good Luck!

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ST ?'s at 24 months

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