Speech Testing

crene84 · April 2014

I've seen some posts on here about how many words your LO is saying, but was curious if now that they're hitting 18+ months old, are you getting them tested?

DD is very smart..understands everything I say, takes simple commands, very social, no real concerns of autism at this point. But she doesn't say any two word phrases and doesn't have as many words as recommended at this point. She mostly runs around all day saying "mama" but she also says "dada" "baby" "pup" "bubye" "peek", etc.

My dr said we could wait a couple more months if we wanted and I really don't think she needs any kind of testing/special attention at this point, but of course I don't want to make a bad choice and have her struggle more later because of it.

LyndseylovesHugh · April 2014

DDs doc said two word phrases were a two year milestone and had no concern what-so-ever that she didn't have any. She knows about a dozen words but she is like yours in that she doesn't say some of them every day even though she knows how. Her ped also told me this is normal. So to me your LO sounds fine and I would trust the doctor if he's wanting to wait a few months to see. But it never hurts to get kids evaluated so if you are feeling strongly about it you should push for it.

Eta: I'm not concerned at my DDs speech at this point but if by her two year appointment she has not picked up a lot of words and/or is not saying two word phrases I will push for an evaluation. I'm in the camp that speech therapy is only going to be beneficial to a toddler.

jcieply · April 2014

My daughter doesn't say any 2word phrases and pedi wasn't concerned at all. She says a handful of things on her own and she tries to repeat a lot of words once we say them (maybe 40) but she also halves words like bath is ba and duck is du. Pedi said just practice saying them with her but no concern.

LyndseylovesHugh · April 2014

jcieply said:
My daughter doesn't say any 2word phrases and pedi wasn't concerned at all. She says a handful of things on her own and she tries to repeat a lot of words once we say them (maybe 40) but she also halves words like bath is ba and duck is du. Pedi said just practice saying them with her but no concern.

That's my DD too, if I say a word she will often make the first sound of that word back to me, so I know she's trying and learning.

KellersPrag · April 2014

UO time. I think worrying about speech right now is unnecessary. No verbal sounds at all? Yes, start to look into it. Babbling and at least making noises? Good to go.

My daughter literally has said one word ever, and it was for a period of maybe a week. She does not talk at all. I won't begin to worry until 2. Your daughter sounds like she is right on track for this age. 5 words is the base "milestone" for 18 months.

Hyaline · April 2014

I would absolutely not worry about your daughter at this stage. She's verbalizing and understands speech, she just isn't ahead of the game.

I feel like we sometimes expect our kids be ahead of the game and get worried when they're actually developing at an "average" rate. Average is ok. Kids don't need therapy or intervention for being average.

cmumama · April 2014

It's too soon to test. DS2 only says a handful of words and doesn't say them often, but I'm not worried at all yet.

redneckmomma25 · April 2014

G has about 10 words or so. I'm concerned. I'm sure she will talk eventually. We have our first interview on Wednesday then she will set up an evaluation in the next couple weeks. Maybe she will qualify, maybe she won't. I see no harm in getting help. I can only see positives coming from an eval. G is smart. She understands a ton. Babbles a ton. They had a couple concerns about possible signs of autism so they want to see her anyway.

jenmbott · April 2014

I think I could have repeated everything from previous posters. DD understands a ton, but says very little. Maybe 5 - 6 words. They aren't all that clear either. She gets her needs across with pointing, grunting and walking over to items that she wants. At her 18 month appt, the pedi said to wait at least a month before thinking about calling EI. I think I'm going to wait until DD is closer to 21 months before deciding if I should get an eval or not. I feel like there are a lot of babies that are ahead of the curve in terms of expressive language on the S12 board.

danabsd · April 2014

KellersPrag said:

UO time. I think worrying about speech right now is unnecessary. No verbal sounds at all? Yes, start to look into it. Babbling and at least making noises? Good to go. My daughter literally has said one word ever, and it was for a period of maybe a week. She does not talk at all. I won't begin to worry until 2. Your daughter sounds like she is right on track for this age. 5 words is the base "milestone" for 18 months.

Are you and YH still talking to her in different languages? My SIL and BIL did this with my nephew. A little more unintentionally but long story. And they were really worried about speech delays until they realized he was more just trying to figure out which language to use when. When he did start talking it was 1/2 Spanish 1/2 English. They didn't keep it up and now he knows as much Spanish as I do but again, different story.

Cheenomae · April 2014

redneckmomma25 said:
G has about 10 words or so. I'm concerned. I'm sure she will talk eventually. We have our first interview on Wednesday then she will set up an evaluation in the next couple weeks. Maybe she will qualify, maybe she won't. I see no harm in getting help. I can only see positives coming from an eval. G is smart. She understands a ton. Babbles a ton. They had a couple concerns about possible signs of autism so they want to see her anyway.

@redneckmomma25‌, are you comfortable saying what other concerns they had regarding DD?

redneckmomma25 · April 2014

Cheenomae said:

redneckmomma25 said:
G has about 10 words or so. I'm concerned. I'm sure she will talk eventually. We have our first interview on Wednesday then she will set up an evaluation in the next couple weeks. Maybe she will qualify, maybe she won't. I see no harm in getting help. I can only see positives coming from an eval. G is smart. She understands a ton. Babbles a ton. They had a couple concerns about possible signs of autism so they want to see her anyway.
@redneckmomma25‌, are you comfortable saying what other concerns they had regarding DD?

Part of the problem is trying to answer these yes and no questions in the office. I answered no to eye contact for more than a couple seconds. I never made it a point to try. She's busy I don't stop and have staring contests. After getting home and actually paying attention she makes eye contact fine. The other concern is she's an independent player. She doesn't involve me in her play. Pedi wanted me to play more with her (chase and hide and seek) vs playing with her with stuff. So I think she is ok but they will check her out to be sure.

I kind of hate the questions. I have 2 seconds to think about this stuff and most aren't things I pay attention to.

AlinnJo · April 2014

redneckmomma25 said:

G has about 10 words or so. I'm concerned. I'm sure she will talk eventually. We have our first interview on Wednesday then she will set up an evaluation in the next couple weeks. Maybe she will qualify, maybe she won't. I see no harm in getting help. I can only see positives coming from an eval. G is smart. She understands a ton. Babbles a ton. They had a couple concerns about possible signs of autism so they want to see her anyway.
@redneckmomma25‌, are you comfortable saying what other concerns they had regarding DD?
Part of the problem is trying to answer these yes and no questions in the office. I answered no to eye contact for more than a couple seconds. I never made it a point to try. She's busy I don't stop and have staring contests. After getting home and actually paying attention she makes eye contact fine. The other concern is she's an independent player. She doesn't involve me in her play. Pedi wanted me to play more with her (chase and hide and seek) vs playing with her with stuff. So I think she is ok but they will check her out to be sure. I kind of hate the questions. I have 2 seconds to think about this stuff and most aren't things I pay attention to.

My Pedi office mails me the forms a week before her appt. maybe you could ask your pedi to mail the papers for her 2 year appt? That way, you can look over the papers and actually take the time to read them and test them out. I can't imagine filling out all of those questions with my LO at the dr office. She would be pissed that I wasn't sharing the pen! Hope the evals are helpful @redneckmomma25

Edited for dumb spellcheck.

hmp1 · April 2014

I wouldn't be concerned with what you described. James had words but didn't really have a talking explosion until closer to 20 months. His pedi was fine with his progress, he was having new words at each appointment.

Hyaline · April 2014

redneckmomma25 said:

G has about 10 words or so. I'm concerned. I'm sure she will talk eventually. We have our first interview on Wednesday then she will set up an evaluation in the next couple weeks. Maybe she will qualify, maybe she won't. I see no harm in getting help. I can only see positives coming from an eval. G is smart. She understands a ton. Babbles a ton. They had a couple concerns about possible signs of autism so they want to see her anyway.
@redneckmomma25‌, are you comfortable saying what other concerns they had regarding DD?
Part of the problem is trying to answer these yes and no questions in the office. I answered no to eye contact for more than a couple seconds. I never made it a point to try. She's busy I don't stop and have staring contests. After getting home and actually paying attention she makes eye contact fine. The other concern is she's an independent player. She doesn't involve me in her play. Pedi wanted me to play more with her (chase and hide and seek) vs playing with her with stuff. So I think she is ok but they will check her out to be sure. I kind of hate the questions. I have 2 seconds to think about this stuff and most aren't things I pay attention to.

I think the questions can be really arbitrary and some are kinda dumb (they asked if DD "imitated household chores." FFS, *I* don't even want to be doing them, why would she lol?) I just tend not to worry about those weird, "twenty-questions" based milestones and just focus on the fact that DD is constantly learning and changing.

And yeah, some of the stuff isn't stuff you would pay attention to, or that you'd have to actually work on (like animal sounds. We don't do animal sounds. Does not mean my kid is delayed).

Cheenomae · April 2014

I second what everyone else is saying. I wouldn't be concerned either with what you've described. We also had to do that questionnaire right at the appt and it's hard sometimes. There were moments that I was sitting there thinking to myself, "well, he kind of does this and he kind of does that, but not really..." and wondering how I should answer.

It's tough though for sure and I also don't think an evaluation could do any harm. At the very least you can get some peace of mind.

hmp1 · April 2014

I always mention the ones that I might have answered "wrong" on the checklist to the pedi. Like the staring into space question. Both my kids do this when tired. I think it is very common but could mean more paired with other things. My pedi said he is only concerned if I answer a group of questions all one way but really only gives me pointers of things to do or look for but doesn't base referrals off of just how I answer the questionnaire.

OceanLover26 · April 2014

I would not be worried at this point. I think they are still getting out of their baby stages and tendencies at this age, and communication is still developing quite a bit. Each of my kids have had their word explosion at a different time. My DD is 2.5 years old and this past month or two has been just amazing with her speech becoming clear. Her effort was obvious and she babbled a lot and had a lot of words down, but many just weren't clear. Then, boom, she's a little parrot speaking so clearly. At her 2.5 year old well baby I asked the Pedi if she was concerned about it and she said she wasn't worried at all and so long as I understood what she said and she understood directions. Between 2.5 - 3years old is a huge for speech development.

I wouldn't worry till closer to 2.5 years old, but that's just me. I think like others, if you have the resources to have them evaluated and want to know where your baby stands and what you can do to help them stay on point then by all means, it couldn't hurt anything.

Dexter says about 7 words and a ton of babble. This week he's all about "pee-bah" (peek a boo) and spends more time throwing himself around angrily from teething. He can do so much stuff and understand little directions like "bring me your shoes" and "lets go have lunch", but he just isn't saying much yet.

IForgotMyLogIn · April 2014

FWIW we said the same for those two questions and our Ped had zero concerns.

MeatballEsq · April 2014

I have never seen this checklist you all speak of.

redneckmomma25 · April 2014

I didn't think the ones I answered no to were a big deal. I probably won't end up seeing the development pedi since their first appt is August. I'm sure EI will let me know what they think.

KellersPrag · April 2014

MeatballEsq said:
I have never seen this checklist you all speak of.

I've seen it but I don't fill it out until 24-30 months.

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