Speech Delay...

I am a speech pathologist and have worked with kids in the ECI program as well as in schools. I would highly recommend that you contact Early Childhood Education. They will guide you towards getting into their program as well as getting you set up at the schools. Keep in mind that there is a processing time to get into the program, so call as soon as you are able.

My son didn't speak his first word until he was 3, now at 8 we won't shut up. Give it a little more time and prompt him to answer you. I started keeping a log of all the words, complete or not, he was using and they racked up quite quickly. With my son he just didn't need to talk, and therefore didn't.
Best,
EEvans

Elisa -
As the mother of a nine year old child with apraxia of speech (oral motor planning disorder that causes a profound and severe speech delay) I can tell you the absolute worst thing you could do is take a wait and see approach. Pediatricians that tell you "they will speak when they are ready" are irresponsible and very shortsighted. Luckliy I do not have a ped like this.

Every second you wait is potentially a second lost for your son. Time you DO NOT get back. If you agressively pursue evaluation and diagnosis NOW and there is no problem - you have lost nothing.

If you do like I did and say "He/She will talk when they are ready" you lose invaluable time. And I started with ECI evals when my daugher was 18 months.

There is a difference between a speech delay and speech disorder. delays go away over time. disorders require intervention.

Check out this book - "The Parent's Guide to Speech and Language Problems" I found it on amazon. Published last year. I only wish it was available when my daughter was T..

PM me if you have any questions.
Been there.
Done that. Still doing 7 years later...

If you have a child with apraxia or suspected apraxia - I chronicle our experiences with my daughter at apraxiabaon.blogspot.com.

My ten year old was severely speech delayed as a toddler. We adopted her when she was 17 months and was told there was a possibility she was autistic. She had a vocabulary of about 6 words at that time. As it turns out, she had a chronic issue of water in her inner ear tubes. What she was acutally hearing is what I would hear if I were lying with my head under water in the bathtub. We took her to a pediatric ENT and he diagnosed her problem, put in ear tubes, and changed all of our lives for the better. She is an extremely bright child and had been so frustrated because she wasn't able to communicate. Speech therapy, sign language and of course ear tubes created a new world for her. Now at 10 years of age, she's developed a listening problem, but can speak and hear like a champ.

My son has speech delay problems and has been in early intervention education programs since he was about 2 1/2 (He is now 4 1/2). These programs have really helped him. The state programs are free to you and your family. When he turns 3 the school system will take over. The earlier you intervine the better it is for him. I had my son in both the private speech and early intervention programs. If you have any questions I would be happy to try and answer them. --S. B.

Three of my children are speech delayed. Most states offer Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) at no cost or low cost and they provide speech therapist to work with your child. They come in to your home or your child's day care and do an evaluation and then explain what they can do to help, then you decide if you want their help or not. They have been great with our kids.

We also use a Speech Therapist at our hospital. Our pediatrician wrote the orders out and sent them to the therapist. Now our kids go 2 times a week and she is wonderful. She is more expensive than ECI would be.

The thing that both therapist have told us that has really helped is to make your child try to say a word whenever they want something. Even if it is just a sound or growl at least they know they have to ask before they can have whatever they want. And when they are trying to say words repeat the word back to them the correct way. Flash cards are also great to work with them or reading to them.

Good luck!

We have a speech delayed three year old due to hearing loss. He just received a Cochlear Implant in October. My advice is to seek speech services privately. ECI wasted our time and our money and did not help our little man. Our son attends preschool, receives services throught our school district and also receives therapy at the callier center. Early intervention is key...... UNT has a wonderful PLP (preschool language program) that I would highly recommend. Our story is different from most delayed kiddos, but never the less, we are playing catch up. Private, aggresive therapy that is based around clinical research is the only way to go! You have one chance to catch him up!

Hello, I just found this site and your question. I am a speech pathologist here in Midland. Yes, this is a fairly common problem, but he may need some help. If you call my office, I can mail you a developmental chart that shows you how many words your son should be using and at what age. Very helpful. We offer screenings for $25.00 if you want one of us to check him to see if there are significant concerns. Good luck and please call for additional help, ###-###-####. Ask for Debbie.

My youngest daughter has speech delay issues. We actually were worried about autism and then at about 14 months, she seemed to "join" our family. She is still a quiet child and hardly ever talks around people she doesn't know well, even family members.

I mentioned it to my pedi and she helped me get in contact with ECI (early childhood intervention). Every county has one. When your child turns 3, you can get services from the school district. Personally, I would get a move on so that you start out in ECI... the evaluation process is much more thorough in my opinion - Ihave older children who had speech with the school. From the time my pedi referred me ( you DON"T have to be referred), to the time they came out to evaluate my child was a month.

It is based on income and generally the first 6 months is covered and then they file on insurance- school district is covered- so by the time your child turns 3, your 6 months will be up.

In our case, it is like my daughter was just holding out on us. Her vocabulary has tripled since this past August when I had her evaluated. So much so that I decided to wait and have her evaluated at 2 (in march) just to see where she stands and so I could use my 6 months then if needed. It is just like she decided she was going to start talking and there she went. She actually won't say words if she doesn't say them correct either. My oldest child is named Forrest and she can't say that, so she has started calling him Wade, which is his middle name. ( I call my kids my both names...esp when in trouble :) ) It is a funny thing, but nothing I had seen before with a child.

Anyway, Good luck. I hope you contact your ECI and get the ball rolling... having my daughter evaluated was the best thing for me, I had a lot of guilt issues about it and very worried as well. They measured all her strengths so it was great to see where she went over her age group as well...

We also have a child in the state ECI (early childhood intervention) program. We called because something was just "off" with him, and have found that he is globally developmentally delayed. A lot of people would look at him and think he is normal, but we see that he is not where he needs to be. I called thinking that it would be better to check to make sure nothing was wrong than to ignore it. We have insurance so they bill that, and he will go into the school program at 3. We are also working with a team of private doctors. This is just too important to ignore, and they may come out to say there is nothing wrong. But it's better to worry over nothing than to ignore something. And the evaluation is all free. It doesn't hurt to check! Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

We thought we had an issue when my younger son was that age and older son was about the same age as your daughter. First, it's not unusual for boys to not be as verbal as girls, particularly if you son is very physical. Also, your son may not have the chance to speak much with an older sibling that is likely very verbal (that was the case in our house - my oldest son was speaking in sentences at 18 months). However, I wouldn't worry about it until he's over 3 - that's when my younger son started talking more. My younger son did have some immature speech patterns at age 6, but not enough to require intervention and he's now 12 and is quite articulate. He's also a very creative child and still extremely physical, so I think this could just be an individual difference. Have you discussed it with your pediatrician? If your pediatrician is concerned, then I would follow-up with the testing that is provided by the school systems that others suggested.

Elisa,
I agree that you should go to the FREE testing offered by LISD's early learning center.... if you're in the LISD school district. If not, your school district will have free testing also. Just call and ask.

Speech delay can mean a variety of things. Including variations of autism. My son had speech delay and he was later diagnosed with Asperger's autism.

Early intervention is key and they have so much more to offer now than 16 years ago when my son was born.

Good luck.

I have a friend who's son was speech delayed. He had about 10 words at 4 years. She bought the babybumblebee tape series and helped him up to speed and now, there is no prob. His pediatrician really felt he'd talk when he was ready and he's had no problems in school. Sometimes younger children don't speak as much because everyone anticipates their needs. And, they did that with him.

I have a family member who's son is definitely delayed and won't do anything.
My point... Early Intervention is KEY! I am from MD, and not familiar with Texas schools, but in MD, the counties all had programs for infants/toddlers that would eventually be in their schools.
There are so many variables that cause speech delay. I am unclear if you decided he was speech delay or if a doctor did.

Good luck. I know there is so much help out there.

Oh my gosh i was thinking for awhile that my son was the only one that was doing that. My son uses about three spanish words and the 3 to 4 other words. But please if you ever find anything out please let me know and i will do the same for you its weird because my son he under stands what you tell him in fact he loves to help me wash dishes help sweep the house and he really loves to help with the wash.

Good Morning, I have a son that is 18 months old and is still not talking or eating yet. Our Pedritician referred us to a clinic that offers feeding and speech therapy but so far its not workign yet. I'm sorry that i dont have any suggestions because everything that I've done hasnt worked yet.

My son started speech therapy at 2 and a half. He had few words and could not use T. word phrases. We went through the local public school system to get him evaluated and speech therapy. He got intense therapy for about T. years and is basically all caught up. He does not have a noticeable delay now. The therapy helped. Starting preschool helped. I would contact your local elementary school. In the Northside school system the evaluations and therapy are done by the language therapists at the elementary schools. Also, I would notify your pediatrician of your concerns and ask for their advice. You may be able to get speech therapy/evaluations through your health insurance too. If your son is not in preschool or not interacting with many other children, I would consider taking him to the playground more often or to mom's day out or having other people babysit him. I suspect that part of my son's problem was that I anticipated his every desire; thus, he did not have to express himself.

Good luck. This is a very common problem with T. year-old boys. Having been through it, and seen other friends go through it, I would not be concerned in less the speech delay is combined with behavioral problems.

Finally, I know this sounds crazy, but the more constipated my son is, the more he stutters, the more difficulty he has speaking. Once he has a BM, things totally improve. He's on Miralax and that has also helped. THis is the same situation with my friend's son too. Go figure!

Good luck and hang in there. It seems scary, but there are a lot of great free resources out there for you.

My 4 1/2 year old has a speech problem. He is very hard to understand. He has been in speech therapy since he was like 1 1/2. The best advice I can give you is to take him to ECEC and see if they will evaluate him. My son has been going there since we moved back the middle of the school year last year and they are wonderful. I would say the sooner you can get him into speech therapy the better and the faster he is likely to start making progress. If you have any more questions please feel free to contact me.

My son is/was is speech delayed. He's 9y/o now and still has some problems. The key to helping thme is getting the help they need- Early Intervention. Speech therapy, PPCD and having a scheduled day. When my son was 2 1/2 he was in speech therapy and he's days were charted- Basic on a board he knew everything that we were going to do with pictures. Also talk to he even if he doesn't talk to you. Label everything with words and pictures. He start PPCD [a program for children with disablitlies at public schhol] at 3 y/o.
If you want any other info. Personal message me...
Good Luck I know it's hard.