My 21 month old has stopped talking. He was saying 6 or so words, but I've noticed in the last few weeks he is only saying mama & dadda, and even then he's not saying them much. He is on the waiting list for speech, which is a very long wait list. He has great eye contact, plays with other kids fine, understands what we say (eg go get your shoes, he'll go get them etc) he's very engaging & will babble to me. Chucks massive tantys (but heading into terrible 2's argh!) and is starting to play properly with toys. Has anyone else gone through this & everything's turned out fine? Where do I go from here? He is very stubborn- it's his way or no way lol! My first child didn't talk much until he was after 2, but don't recall him dropping words.
4 Replies
Get into GP and get ears checked etc. Could be something as simple as blocked ears or infection, might be due to a leap and other skills taking more of his interest and ability at the moment.
Get a referral to a paed too, just to cover bases.
I'd go privately for speech therapy. It's the only way to go. If he is dropping language you don't want to mess around.
In the mean time see if you can get him to copy individual sounds. If he can before you hand over a desired item get him to say the first sound of the item. Eg 'c' for 'car' or even 'm' for 'more' of a favourite treat. I'd also start singing songs to him and skip out a word and see if he fills in the blAnk.
My daughter has a speech disorder, first you need to get his hearing checked, also poss try a developmental peadtrician they can test for everything altho their is a wait and finally a speech therapist. I would strongly suggest going private yes it costs heaps more but theirs hardly any wait list. If you have any questions Iam happy to help. My daughter was diagnosed as a 3 yr old and is now 7.
My son has always been cyclical on learning curves. So one week he might say 8 new words. Then only a couple until he's ready a few weeks later. The words he does say are clearly pronounced. He is 20 months and doesn't always talk, doesn't seem to like the game 'wheres your nose'. He follows instructions, seems to understand most of what I say to him. I'll worry about speech therapy if he isn't speaking when he's 4 or 5.