Two Year Old Won't Talk

C.,

I know you have all ready received a lot of advice but I thought I would drop you a short opinion. My son (who is now 4) was mentally VERY smart. BUT, he just couldn't get the words out. Putting him in speech therapy was the best decision I could have made. He started it when he was 2 and by 3 he was into saying sentences. "I want milk" "Cookie please" and just a ton of short phrases. No more than 2 months after his 3rd birthday he took off with his speech and was saying complete sentences and words for anything he wanted. Not only did his therapist really work with him but they taught me a lot. I watched what they did and would work with him all week long on the same things. They also taught him sign language. So, until his speech took off he could communicate with me by signing. He could sign please, more, thankyou, eat, all done, play and just words that can make life a lot easier. It made my life so much easier. I could finally communicate with my son.

And, now that I have a lot of that knowledge I can understand other children and work with them much better.

Good Luck

Hi C.. I am a speech therapist. I haven't seen your daughter so I can only give you some general information. First, the American Speech and Hearing Association has a website that is very helpful. Here is a link to a page that you should read. I would specifically look at "How Does Your Child Hear and Talk?". Under the age range, it has a very helpful list of suggestions for parents.

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/default.htm

Several people mentioned Help Me Grow and someone asked how to find them. You can contact your local school district, the Health Department, or a local hospital speech department to find a contact number. I agree with a previous poster that it is better to find out early. Early intervention makes a huge difference for children when it is needed (they can determine that through an evaluation).

My first thought when you mentioned the "eh eh eh" with the milk cup is that she may be taking the path of least resistance. Without knowing if she is able to actually say the words (that is the reason for the evaluation), it would seem that using the simplest method is working for her (she gets the drink). You can try shaping by at least requiring her to make a verbal attempt even if it is just the first sound ("m" for "milk"...show her your lips together). You reward her for that by saying "yes, milk" and giving her the drink. As she begins to do that well, you require a little more of her, etc. AGAIN, I do not know your daughter. There may be a reason that she cannot say the words and she will grow very frustrated. If this is the case, she should definitely be evaluated. The worst (best) they can say is that she is absolutely fine and didn't need the evaluation. The speech therapist should give you a lot of suggestions and model how to help her develop more language.

Feel free to click on my name and email if you have any other questions or just need some encouragement.

Oh....I still remember all those eh eh eh eh eh.....from my daughter. She didn't even say as much as your daughter does at 2 year old. She only said "mama" or just "ma" , and not even everyday. Some of the days, it's ALL eh eh eh eh eh.......
I called Help Me Grow when she turned 2, and they setup evaluation test for her at the Children Hospital downtown. (I would suggest you call them NOW, because there used to be a waiting list) Besides this, I also took her to check on her hearing, even though I was 99% sure there's nothing wrong with it (since she was a baby, we had to tip-toe around the house when she's sleeping, the slightest sound would wake her up!)
So, after the evaluation, they decided she is qualified for speech therapy. They are held at YMCAs once a week? (sorry, kind of blur now, it's over a year ago) You have other options too, if you want the specialist to come to your house, it's once per month? (again, not sure)
For our situation, I don't know if her delay in speech is due to us being bilingual. But she started having more vocabulary around 28 month, and gradually improved. Now she's 3 and 1/2, I don't feel any delay in her speech any more.
P.S. I remember one thing from the therapy. Talk to her in short sentences, or even just one word. Like when you play toys with her, say "in" when you put the block in the box, or when the doll walk up the stairs, say "up". Make it funny, and hopefully she's join you in the game. So basically, when they say "something", and then something fun will happen is a nice motive. Good luck!!!

My 21 month old son is in the same boat. He's smart as a whip, knows EXACTLY how to get what he wants/needs, loves to look at books and can identify objects in them. He says Mama, Dada, Book, Dog, Cat, Hi. We have gotten involved in the First Steps program. I don't know where you are, but here in Indianapolis it is a free program (or very inexpensive based on income). Talk to your pediatrician about it as they have to call and make the referal. Based on the 2 hour assessment that they did (they come to your home for everything!) they are recommending an hour of speech therapy and an hour of developmental therapy each week and it's not costing us a dime!
It's hard, because I don't think of our son as "special needs" at all whatsoever, but I do think he needs a little push that this will help with.
Hope this helps!

Hi C.,

My son just turned 2 on April first and he was the same way. He waited forever to talk and what he did say wasn't clear. Usually mommy always understands her childs speech even when other people don't but I was at a loss. He wouldn't mimic anything we said. We knew his hearing was fine because he understood EVERYTHING we said.

We took him and had his speech evaluated and he has a speech delay. He has the vocabulary now, but his diction and pronouncement is way, way off. He goes to speech once a week. Help me grow is an organization that offers all kinds of therapy for free and will come to your house to work with your child. I would suggest a speech eval. It will look like alot of play at first, but it really does help.

Talk to her, if you're cleaning talk to her about it. If you're cooking talk to her about it. If you talk she'll talk and it will help her build her words. I've found that talking to mine like an adult helps, she may not understand everything but it helps them feel important.

Also you have to make her talk, if you know she knows the words then refuse to do what she wants until she says the right thing. Sometimes you might have to be firm with her. I've had successes with sign language, words that are too hard for my 1.5 y/o she can sing. You can try that.

Once she says the right thing praise her, "Good girl, thank you for asking so nicely."

I hope this helps.

Hi, C..
My brother and I are 14 months apart(I'm the little sister)and when we were younger he did the same thing.."eh, eh, eh" instead of using his words. My mom finally quit filling his cup unless he said or attempted to say "juice" or "milk". He never became dehydrated but he put up a fight. She just had to do a battle of the wills. Plus, once I started talking, he took right off. He wasn't going to be outdone. OR I have 3 kids, and when preparing for my second I read a lot of books about siblings. One piece of information was consistent--older siblings will sometimes revert back to infant or child-like states when a baby is brought into the home. She may just be trying to get your attention...in a not so pleasant way for you ;) Hope this helps. Goodluck!

Seems like you got some great medical advice here. Just a few simple suggestions...Do you use a pacifier? Try taking the pacifier away and see what happens. We were trying to limit our 22 mo. old's "binky" use to naptime and bedtime, but she was sick a few times in January & February and so I let her have it whenever she wanted (usually all day!). Now that we've taken it away for all waking hours, her speaking skills have blossomed. Within 6 weeks, she's gone from 1 word on occasion to 4 word sentences. I've also heard that reading to your toddler 20 minutes a day (5 minutes here, 5 minutes there) can really help increase speaking compentency. Good luck...

Hi C.,

Call help me grow, but you might also consider calling a speech therapist too. It is a myth that children are "too stuborn" to talk, and if she is not putting two words together, it does not really matter why, she is not learning by manipulating the speech herself, and the sooner you get her into therapy to start doing that, the more normal her languague development will be. Early intervention is essential, and will be much more sucessful now than if you wait even a year to start.

Don't mistake her intelligence as a substitute for making developmental mile stones on time. Plenty of children have issues with development who are also highly intelligent, so have this checked out thouroghly. Also, be very dilligent with her development as she ages, even if this is a very minor problem, developmental issues are usually not singualar, they come in twos, threes, or more.

Read about typical early childhood development, and be very attentive to anything that makes you wonder with your daughter and take her to developmentalists who can really sort things out for you. The worst thing that can happen, is that you will be told (by a someone who knows and uses the appropriate evaluations) that you have nothing to worry about. The best thing, would be if you could catch any issue early enough to be be able to do the most that can be done to help her.

M.

Man seems like my life with my kiddos, well what i would do is go get her checked out with first steps. They will come to your house and do it for you and than they will also want you to get her ears checked at easter seals. they are great with the kids.
What i have learned is that the stress you are going through day to day could be keeping her from wanting to talk i know this seems crazy but with mine i think they didn't want to talk sometimes than when i did want them to talk they just would look at me like i am crazy. I have a 6 year old (who talked all the time and would not shut up) than a 4 year old( she still has a hard time talking but is getting much better) than i have twins that is 3 now( they are the ones who got the help) and a 19 month old( she don't have no problems talking for her age). It is really hard right now for you b/c i been there and still going through this speech thing it sucks so much but if you get help now and not later than you won't have to go through what i have with my 4 year old and i hate my self for it sometimes. OH i hope you have help from family with the two right now b/c i know it is hard being prego with two little ones that little and being prego. if you ever need to vent you can just email at ____@____.com

where is this help me grow? I have an 18 month old niece who doesn't say a thing. I have been concerned about her also. She does the eh eh eh and it is very irritating.

Hi C.

I have the same problem with my 2 of my 3 kids.
My oldest is now 10. She still has speech problems. The thign is I never thought about therapy. I bought into the fact that it was a normal thing for some kids NOT to speak. She is a smart girl. Just hear the problem if she speaks too fast. Or if she is nervous. Her speech is hard to understand. We have to tell her to calm down and breathe then speak.

My 4 yr old son started to have speech problems about 22 months. He had a ton of words at 18 months. Then 4 months he barely said a word. My help me grow worker was there for my baby. She noticed his problem. She got us set up at the local children's hospital. They said that his speech was at 6-9 months. He was 2 at the time. I wasn't satified so I had him checked at the local special needs school. He was actually only 4 months behind. Hurray. He was put into the school 2x a week. He got his speech therapy. And he got to do a TON of fun stuff, swimming. His words started to come by December. Then I was encouraged to get him outside speech. The local hospital has a great program. He loves his therapist. He is now in regular preschool. He is a bit slow. but at times you can understand him clearly. SOme days are better then others. But he has speech apraxia. He working through the issues. He is getting better. He is a happy and loving boy. THey say that by the time that he starts 1st grade there should be little problem.

My 2 1/2 yr old daughter has speech delays. She also has weak muscles and walking/balance at times is hard for her. But she is in speech/occupational/physical therpay at the hospital. She is doing great. She is now speaking a lot clearer. The few sounds or momma/dadda has been replaced. It is now a phase "I DID IT!" or other 2-3 word phases and her words are so much clearer. She is in the same special needs school as my son was in. They both loved the school. She loves the bus.

Seriously
CALL Pediatrician, call local children's hospital, speech therapist. And your help me grow worker

You will need a dr referral for the evaluation at the hospital or speech therapist

maybe you could act stupid when she doesn't use words... my husband did that... like "i don't understand "eh eh" honey, what do you mean?" (even though it's clear because she's pointing or whatever...) then say the words you'd like her to say, "milk?" and wait for her to say it, or at least say "yes" or something.

my son was slow to talk-- didn't even say "mama" regularly till he was about 15 months... we had first steps out to evaluate him and they said he was a listener. he understood everything and just wanted to wait on the speaking part of things. he didn't even need therapy... but it was really reassuring for me to know for sure how he was doing. sure enough, he started talking soon and now he rambles on and on and could talk anyone's ear off about his rocket or bike or whatever.

does she do animal sounds? that counts as talking, and is one of the first things speech therapists do with kids. maybe you can work on farm animals for a while.

a lot of kids start talking by labeling things, but not really communicating.