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Toddlers: 24 Months+
blessed_wife
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My 2 1/2 year old does not talk.. at all :(
blessed_wife
member
My daughter is 2yrs and 7 months. She still doesn't talk much. Meaning, that she says words, but not sentences. A lot of the words are still in her own language.
We talk a lot in our house. We go out to friends house (who also have kids) or grandparents' house at least few times a week, so she does hear other people talking too. However, she barely talks. We always ask her to repeat things, and she repeats in syllables (say ch... then air... but she cannot say chair as one word). She definitely understands everything we say, and follows commands easily, even if they are as complex as - go to your brother's closet, on the shelf, next to mommy's purse there is your brother's shoes, bring them). She knows some colors, a few numbers, few letters, but barely speaks.
We tried to get her evaluated but were rejected - we speak another language in the house (and so do most of our friends / family) and they were unsure how to go about it.
Sorry for this being so long, but I really need some insight / ideas.
TIA
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Re: My 2 1/2 year old does not talk.. at all :(
She may be on the high end of normal. Try and find someone in your area who is familiar with bilingual families - they may tell you have nothing to worry about.
My daughter didn't speak much at that age. She knew probably 25 words, a lot of them sounded alike etc...We had her evaluated, mainly because MIL was so insistent that she should be talking more. DD knew "everything" understood "everything" she just is/was not verbal. And that is why she didn't qualify for speech therapy, her receptive language is too high. The therapist said that it would be worrisome if her receptive language was low, verbal would eventually come. And if we were still concerned when she turned 3 to come back to them. In the fall, we enrolled her in a Mother's Day Out program 2 days a week. And her verbal lanquage exploded. She is now putting together 3 or more word sentences, although still some words are hard to understand but if one has patience can figure out what she is saying.
You said that there is another language being spoken in the home, and yes, that may be adding to her verbal speech delay. But she also may just be taking her sweet time, taking it all in, like my daughter did. Is her pedi concerned? Have you thought about enrolling her in a MDO or part-time preschool class?
Hi!!
We speak another language at home too (french) and Jake is delayed in speech too. He has a vocabulary in both languages, but does not speak in sentences at all and other find him really hard to understand.
It sucks you were rejected, can you try again in a couple months? Seems to me they should figure it out instead of rejecting you. Jake is on the waiting list to be assessed.
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! So happy to see you again. How is that little dude doing? What kind of list is Jake on? Is it for French or English? but considering that you live in a place where both languages are spoken, it would not make a big difference, correct?
We always try to give her the opportunity to speak. When we ask her to find shoes, she can find them, if we tell her that she is putting shoes on the wrong foot, she'll change, but she refuses to talk back. We ask her to tell us what she wants, but she tries to find every possible gesture to explain herself, but uses limited words. For example, she will not ask to go outside verbally, but she'll show that she's cold, point to herself and say "hat, jacket, cold" and then grab a hat, put a jacket on (zips it herself), puts her shoes / mittens on and then points to the door.
It is not uncommon for bilingual kiddos to speak a little later but then take off in both languages. But it is possible that there is an actual delay being hampered by the two languages. While her comprehension is great, that may not be the case, but because she breaks words up, it's hard to tell.
When I've worked with children with that (ch...air), I have found singing is some times easier. Maybe try singing simple words out- changing pitch with parts of the words.
My own son was evaluated at 22 months and found to be expressively 12 months delayed, but 6 months advanced recepetively and he still qualified for 60 minutes a week. If he hadn't, my next course would be to go through insurance and find out how much they covered. In our case they cover 52 sessions a year with a pediatrician's script.
Don't leave a stone unturned. My inclination is your LO is fine, but still, in your shoes, I would still push to get her services. Or you can wait until LO is 3 and then have her evaluated by your school system to see if she qualifies for services.
OH. I would also look to put her in preschool. Good luck!
That's odd that they didn't even want to evaluate her. I have a bilingual friend in Boston who took her son to speech therapy. He qualified and it went really well. Have you tried another center? The state usually has several centers to choose from. You can try calling another one. That said, it's true that children in multilingual households talk later than others. We speak 3 languages in our house and DS just started speaking more and saying complete sentences. And his speech is not as advanced yet as others his age. He will be 2-1/2 next month.
He does however, understand 3 languages and speak words in all of them. It's important not to mix the languages too much. For ex., I speak only Spanish to our son although he hears me speak English to my husband, who only speaks English and Turkish. I don't speak Turkish so DH speaks that language to our son. English of course is the common denominator and is spoken outside the home, so it's the language of choice for DS. Still, I try to teach him Spanish as much as I can.
I'm sure your LO will start speaking more soon but a speech evaluation wouldn't hurt. Good luck!
Bilingual kids are known for delayed speaking because their little brains are learning two times as much as single-language kids. So while they tend to speak "late" they come out the better for it! Being truly bilingual is a fabulous advantage for kids later as adults!
Maybe check your local library for books on bilingual children?? I would totally do that.
Also, kids are just different! I know a little girl the exact same age as my LO and the other little girl is much more coordinated and physically developed, but speaks not even half as much as my LO (who is much less physically developed, walked and ran late, still has cautious balance issues... ). You get the picture.