Not Talking at 2 Years Old.

I highly recommend that your pediatrician contact ECI. They are incredible. My daughter was having the same problem with her speech. They came in, evaluated her and we have been seeing a speech therapist for a little over 6 months and have seen tremendous improvements. The problem is, ECI only intervenes until the child turn 3 and then you must either integrate into the school or go private, which can be very expensive. The evaluation is free of charge and then they work with you to make it affordable or even free, depending on the type of insurance that you have. If you have any additional questions, I would be happy to help. My personal email is ____@____.com.

Hi Lisa,
I suggest contacting ECI (Early Childhood Intervention). My son's speech was also behind due to horrible ear infections and not hearing very clearly. It took a while to get his speech caught up to where it should be, but now, he never stops talking.
You can find the ECI office closest to you by just doing an internet search.
R. B.
www.MakeYourOwnStuffedAnimal.com

My son was going through the same problems at this age. I talked to his pediatrician, and she checked his hearing. That was fine, so she then referred us to ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) for speech therapy. The speech therapist evaluated him, and she said he was about 6 months behind. She came out in about another month and did a little work with him and made some suggestions. By the time of our next meeting he had made so much progress that they dismissed him from speech therapy services.
My son has a very stubborn personality. He does something when he is good and ready. Telling him to hurry up is like telling him to go as slow as possible. I can look back and realize this now, but at the time I couldn't help but think something was wrong.
My suggestion would be to speak to your pediatrician and go from there. The speech therapist we worked with suggested many things we already do on a regular basis, such as reading to your child, exposing them to other children, trying to let them speak for themselves when they want/need something, and just talking to them as much as possible.
I wish you luck. I am sure you are doing everything you can. I always feel like prayer works the best when you feel like there is nothing else you can do.

My mom is a speech therapist for ECI. You can get a referral to them from your pediatrician or call them to see about getting an evaluation (I know there are several ways to get referred, but don't know all of them myself). They'll come to your home and do an evaluation and if your son shows a significant delay, they'll set up times to come see him in your home. ECI serves children until their 3rd birthday, and after that, they can receive help through the school system. ECI's number is ###-###-#### for Tarrant County.

You can contact ECI-Early Childhood Intervention (get the info from your local elementary school). They will give your son a free evaluation and provide services if needed.

My daughter is speech delayed, and I have a speech therapist come to my home once a week. I started worrying about her a few months before her 2nd birthday. I know that all kids devleop differently - but I just knew that there was a delay and wanted her to get help as soon as possible.

ECI is free (they will bill your insurance if you have it), and when your child is 3 they will help you work with the school district to get services from them.

Sara has been receiving services for about 6 months now, and she is making progress. I've had really good experiences with the folks at ECI - they're professional, caring people and my daughter just loves the ladies that come to "play" with her. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.

B

Lisa A.

Please have your child's hearing checked. He may not be processing things because he cannot hear them. God Bless you.

L. E. R.

You can contact ECI or you can take a wait and see approach. My son is now 27 months old. At his 18 month checkup his doctor said he was behind and might need help but that we would discuss it at his 2 year appt. I kept a list of every word/phrase spoken. At his 2 year appt. the doctor looked at my list and saw enough improvement that he didn't think speech therapy was necessary. My son has been a little behind in other things as well but eventually did them. My husband and I feel our son is "lazy" and is doing things at his own pace. We see progress all the time so we are letting him learn at his own pace at this point. It's all a matter of what you feel is the right thing to do.

I stay at home, so I make myself feel guilty a lot about his development. Every child is different and learns differently.

I have three boys and my last one is talking somewhat, he is about to be 2, but my first two didn't say much until they were 3. They said shoes and water and a couple other things but that is it. Now they won't stop talking. My six year old is in first grade and is doing great. The doctor even told me he should be talking more at his two year check up. I was a little nervous, but he didn't seem to have any issues, so I didn't let it bother me. I think boys just like to babble and girls talk so much faster. Boys like to make car sounds and other things.

My daughter was the same way, just wouldn't/didn't talk. Most school districts offer free evaluations. Once approved, there are several free services they offer. We received busing to and from school and free pre-K which was geared towards Speech Therapy. Our medical insurance also provided us with twice a week speech therapy. My daughter is now 12 (and will not stop talking). Blessing? Good luck!

I thought my boys were 'behind' when they were two years old and barely talking at all. However, since they are identical twins and they were a few weeks early, I wasn't quite as concerned as I would otherwise be. Plus, when I realized that they could follow just about any instruction I gave them and they communicated with each other quite well, I relaxed quite a bit more. We never needed to use ECI but I have heard that it is a great program if your little one needs it. :)

My son is delayed as well. We are currently going through the evaluation stage of ECI - Early Childhood Intervention - as mentioned below. It is a state-funded program. They will do the eval for free. Depending on salary, insurance, etc., there might be a nominal fee. I highly recommend checking it out.http://www.dars.state.tx.us/ecis/index.shtml

I would actually make an appointment with a good ENT first. The hearing test that they conducted on my 2 year old with ECI consisted of standing behind him and whispering to see if he turned his head - pretty stupid as a 2 year old will always look behind him. She said "no hearing problems!" but the ENT said that he was almost completely deaf. A fairly simple surgery cleared the whole thing up and he caught up. His case is not the norm, but I still recommend doing everything possible. You never know! Good luck!

Like several of the other mom's mentioned, I highly recommend you contact ECI. If you need a phone number let me know and I'll pull it out of my address book for you. We contacted ECI around 18months. My son also a delayed talker and was behind on a few other developmental areas. There is some paper work to get it started though, so recommend you get ball rolling ASAP. They will come out and do an assessment and then meet with you to talk about whether your son qualifies for services and if so which services. Therapies are done at your home which is very convienent and payment is very reasonable and done on an income sliding scale. ECI services only go through age 3 which is why I suggest you get things moving now so you can take advantage of as much therapy as possible until age three. My son made a quite a bit of progress over the year we were with ECI. At age three if your son still needs services, the school district steps in. In our case my son still is a bit behind and so we did evaluations with Keller ISD and he is in a special preschool program held at one of the elementary schools. I love his teachers and he loves school and the program. Wishing you luck.

In regards to videos there are several good ones you can order off of amazon -

I recommend "Baby Babble" (put together by two speech therapists)
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Babble-Speech-Enhancing-Babies...
and also have heard terrific things about the Baby Bumble Bee series (there are several videos this is one of the vocabulary starters:
http://www.amazon.com/Bee-Smart-Baby-Vocabulary-Builder/d...

Feel free to contact me if you have additional questions or want to chat

____@____.com
G.

My daughter is 18 months (only child) and is speach delayed as well. She can only say Mama, Dada, Go, Baba and now Tickle. I have heard her say new words before and then stop saying them. She babbles a lot! I am a SAHM myself and I feel like a failure. I read to her, repeat words to her, talk to her like an adult. I am doing everything I am suposed to but with no luck. Even the little girl that I watch that is younger than her can say more words.

We are now doing speach thearpy with ECI...we just started so I am not sure how it is going. I think she just doesnt want to talk. My mom said I could only say mama and dada until I was 3.

I was told by ther ST to give choice to force her to talk. Such as when feeding dinner ask her do you want Carrots or Pea's. Dont just give her items when she points and make a noise for it. Ask do you want your blankie? Ask again and then give it to her. Okay here is your blankie. She said repeat the word three times...any more than that is usless. So far this is all I have learned.

I will tell you one thing she knows what I am saying. We have worked since her birth on the sign lang. word for Food. She would never do it...I stopped doing it about five months ago. And then out of the blue with out warning she gave me the sign for food!

I think when she is ready to talk she will.

Good luck!

P.S. If you plan on using ECI (Free to most people) you need to contact your Peditrician about it now. ECI only treats kids up until they are three years old.