Turning Two with Speech Delay

As many of you who are regular readers of my blog will know, C is not really talking.  At 23 months old she can say Yes, No, There, That and Mama.  Dada has also come in the last month.

At 15 months the average child can say 5-6 proper words.  C could say none and the only sounds she was making were “throat sounds” (grunts and groans) and not “mouth sounds” like baba, gaga, mama, dada etc.  I was concerned that without these building blocks she didn’t have the tools to move onto proper words.  When I mentioned this on my blog, many commented that I was overreacting, that by 20 months everything would have caught up and she would be on a level with her peers.  Unfortinately it appears it was me that was right...


20 months came and went.  By this point C could say Yes, No, There and Mama.  However by 18 months the average child can say up to 20 words, this increases to 50-200 by the time they reach their 2nd birthday when they should start putting 1 or 2 words together. The gap between C and her peers was widening, not closing and we were referred to Speech Therapy ar 21 months.

The speech therapist had a small room will a selection of toys spread out on the floor.  I was very concerned that C may be too shy to interact but the therapist was lovely and made C feel at ease straight away.  First she spoke to us to get some background to why we were there.  Then she spend some time sat on the floor with C doing pretend play.  They made pretend sandwiches using toy food and then fed them first to the dolls and then to us.  C proved that her understanding and language skills are right on par, proving that is purely a speech issue and not a language and development issue.

The therapist was able to pick up things in the way C interacted with us that we hadn't even seen ourselves.  Like how she uses "Dee dee dee" to get our attention or to answer a question she hasn't got the words to answer.  I am so used to her behaviour that I'd never stop to analyse this. 

Her speech problems were recorded as "Moderate" and the therapist wanted to see her again in 3 months time, soon after her 2nd Birthday.

C with be 2 next week therefore soon we will have our follow up appointment.  I had been hoping that there would have been a marked improvement at this stage but in reality she can say 1 additional word.... "Dada".  As she nears the "terrible twos", tantrums are becoming more frequent.  This is exacerbated by the fact she can't explain her wants and needs.  Yes we do a small amount of signing and I have learnt to phrase questions so they can have Yes and No answers, both of which she can say, but they are no substitute for proper speech.

It makes me so sad that this is happening, that she is having this problem for no obvious reason.  She is such an intelligent child and her understanding of the world around her is so acute.  I feel her lack of speech is holding her back and I have no answers on how to help her over and above what I am already doing.