[honeybabysaunt]

Thanks for offering your help! I have just recently purchased the two Baby Babble DVDs for my children. 2 1/2 and 15 months. I had no idea how much help SLPs could be. Both children are picking up very quickly. And they are teaching each other sign language.

One of the videos focuses on P, B and M. , and it shows how to teach your child to say those sounds. They are doing well at these.

How do you teach R? My oldest's name is Reed, and of course, he calls himself 'Wee'
When I stress the sound the R makes, he says it as ''oooo"
So his name is ooooowee.

[wendy1214]

First off- I did sign lang with Dominic and he did great at it- YOU have to be consistent with its use for them to pick up, but it makes them able to comunicate with you before they are verbal. He had so many signs at one point, and because we said the word each time we signed it, I think it helped a bit with his verbal.

Now- my question. Dominic can say all our names- he could say Meredith before he said his other sisters name Andi- strange, but he calls himsefl Duncan, instead of Dominic?? I try to sound it out, and on occasion, he will say it back, but then it is more like Don-in-iicc. Did we just give him a hard name to pronounce? It is cute, but we try not to encourage it. Any suggestions?

I am not too worried. He is 28 mos, and can recognize his colors, shapes, some letters, and knows D O M for his name. And even "counts" 1 2 3 7 9 5 4 8 too cute!

[twilson79]

Lynda, my DS, Mikey is almost 21 months old and has no real speech. He says Nana, Mama, Dada, Ba (ball), Bye-bye, Hewo ()...and that is about it. He is currently going throught the infant and toddler connection and has gotten OT, now he is in educational therapy. We are gonna have a speech therapist come with the educational therapist next week to do an eval. The educational therapist thinks he has a "lazy tongue" and wanted to watch him eat. He used his tongue very well while eating though. He is trying to copy but he cannot say the words. He does not try to copy all words though. He understands everything you say but he still babbles most of the time. I can usually tell if he tries to copy a word I'm saying--even though it sounds nothing like the word--I hope this makes sense. But have you ever heard of "lazy tongue?" TIA.

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by honeybabysaunt

Thanks for offering your help! I have just recently purchased the two Baby Babble DVDs for my children. 2 1/2 and 15 months. I had no idea how much help SLPs could be. Both children are picking up very quickly. And they are teaching each other sign language.

One of the videos focuses on P, B and M. , and it shows how to teach your child to say those sounds. They are doing well at these.

How do you teach R? My oldest's name is Reed, and of course, he calls himself 'Wee'
When I stress the sound the R makes, he says it as ''oooo"
So his name is ooooowee.

Don't stress over teaching him that sound -- you just keep repeating his name correctly. /R/ is one of the LAST sounds to develop... and the hardest to teach b/c you can't see what your tongue is doing while producing the sound. 2.5 is too young to try and attempt to teach it.

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by wendy1214

First off- I did sign lang with Dominic and he did great at it- YOU have to be consistent with its use for them to pick up, but it makes them able to comunicate with you before they are verbal. He had so many signs at one point, and because we said the word each time we signed it, I think it helped a bit with his verbal.

Now- my question. Dominic can say all our names- he could say Meredith before he said his other sisters name Andi- strange, but he calls himsefl Duncan, instead of Dominic?? I try to sound it out, and on occasion, he will say it back, but then it is more like Don-in-iicc. Did we just give him a hard name to pronounce? It is cute, but we try not to encourage it. Any suggestions?

I am not too worried. He is 28 mos, and can recognize his colors, shapes, some letters, and knows D O M for his name. And even "counts" 1 2 3 7 9 5 4 8 too cute!

YOU keep saying it correctly. He will eventually 'get it'. Sometimes it just takes a bitof time. And for his age, he's doing fine. I don't expect perfect pronunciation at 2 yrs of age. Clarity isn't important as long as they consistently say it the same way. He always calls himself "Duncan" -- and to him that's his way of saying "Dominic". If he sometimes called himself "Duncan" and other times "DunDun" and other times "Domincan" and etc.... then I'd be worried due to lack of consistency. (Hope that makes sense)

[twilson79]

Originally Posted by LyndaSLP

Don't stress over teaching him that sound -- you just keep repeating his name correctly. /R/ is one of the LAST sounds to develop... and the hardest to teach b/c you can't see what your tongue is doing while producing the sound. 2.5 is too young to try and attempt to teach it.

I don't want to but in honeybabysaunt, but you know my kids have issues and it is best to catch things early. Reed is very quiet, it might be because his dad was quiet (as a child--not now--we both know that). But I never hear him talk. I'm glad you have videos for them. I would love to borrow them or bring my kids to your house to watch them. Reed is 2.5 and I have probably heard 10 words from him, it might be because I only see him on holidays and birthdays and he gets shy, but I just want the best for my little nephew.

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by twilson79

Lynda, my DS, Mikey is almost 21 months old and has no real speech. He says Nana, Mama, Dada, Ba (ball), Bye-bye, Hewo ()...and that is about it. He is currently going throught the infant and toddler connection and has gotten OT, now he is in educational therapy. We are gonna have a speech therapist come with the educational therapist next week to do an eval. The educational therapist thinks he has a "lazy tongue" and wanted to watch him eat. He used his tongue very well while eating though. He is trying to copy but he cannot say the words. He does not try to copy all words though. He understands everything you say but he still babbles most of the time. I can usually tell if he tries to copy a word I'm saying--even though it sounds nothing like the word--I hope this makes sense. But have you ever heard of "lazy tongue?" TIA.

Lazy tongue = weak muscles in the tongue. It has nothing to do with your child's willingness. I hate that term "lazy tongue" for it implies that if your child "just needs to try harder" when in reality it's an issue with weak tongue/mouth muscles. Ask if he needs to do tongue/mouth exercises.

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by twilson79

I don't want to but in honeybabysaunt, but you know my kids have issues and it is best to catch things early. Reed is very quiet, it might be because his dad was quiet (as a child--not now--we both know that). But I never hear him talk. I'm glad you have videos for them. I would love to borrow them or bring my kids to your house to watch them. Reed is 2.5 and I have probably heard 10 words from him, it might be because I only see him on holidays and birthdays and he gets shy, but I just want the best for my little nephew.

honeybabysaunt -- how many words does Reed say? At his age, (as a SLP) I am less concerned with HOW a child pronounces a word than the AMOUNT of words they say. Pronunciation does NOT have to be perfect.... you are looking for consistency NOT clarity. Ex: at a young age (read previous post for exact age as I can't remember today), my son would say "gi-aaa" for "giraffe" Pronunciation was awful BUT he never said "gi-aaa" for anything but a "giraffe" THUS "giraffe" was a word in his vocabulary. It counted toward "how many words does he say?"

now... Reed may be a quiet child.... and he may talk your ear off at home, using lots of words, but say little to nothing around other people (my son was soo like that!).... by 2.5 he needs to have waaaay more than 50 words (I will find more exact # for you later, if you want it!)

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by grace.maddie

lynda, i have been meaning to ask for a while now, but kep forgetting...my 36 month old dd talks non stop all the time and has forever. she is using f in place of cl, like instead of clark she calls my mom nana fark, and instead of fairchild she says sairchild but then instead of spooky she will say fooky....is that pretty normal for her age? i am not too concerned since she talks so much and has a huge vocabulary. but i know how problems can be harder to fix if they go untreated fo too long, so i wanted to make sure this isn't a problem. thanks!

My question to you: How much of her speech does a stranger understand? Anyone who does not spend daily/weekly time with her can be considered a 'stranger to her speech', thus can answer the question for you. At 3, I expect someone who is a 'stranger to her speech' to understand 75% of what she says.

If they do, no worries.
If they understand less, then I'd look into a speech evaluation.

[twilson79]

Originally Posted by LyndaSLP

Lazy tongue = weak muscles in the tongue. It has nothing to do with your child's willingness. I hate that term "lazy tongue" for it implies that if your child "just needs to try harder" when in reality it's an issue with weak tongue/mouth muscles. Ask if he needs to do tongue/mouth exercises.

What kind of exercises would they do? Is there a website that might shed some light. My issue is that I am at work and they do Mikey's therapy at my mom's house, so I am not there for it. The speech therapist already advised when she comes my mom needs to be there in order to see what she is doing and practice what was taught to him during that session. I will not be there and I don't want her to forget anything. I have spoken to the speech therapist and asked if I could get handouts. I have asked my mom to write everything down as well.

[couponlover85]

Thank you for doing this....My son just turned 4 years old and I have a hard time understanding him. I might understand about 60-70% of his speech. My neighbor, who sees him about once every 2 weeks, can't understand him either. He puts together sentences just fine. He can form 5+ word sentences but half of the sentence i have to ask him what he said over and over again before I can figure out what he said. He does have an evaluation scheduled by a speech therapist next week I would just like your opinion.

The other concern I have is, he drools constantly. Not to the point that his shirt is soaked but, if we're reading a book together and he's leaning over the book he's drooling on it. I asked the doctor about it but, she didn't seem to be overly concerned about it because she didn't answer my question. I would like to know if this would affect his speech and if you know what causes it.

[BStroh]

Originally Posted by LyndaSLP

At 24 months old, he should have 50 words and starting to put 2 words together.

How many does your 22 month old have?

He has about 45 words and has put two words together on occasion (no chair, hi dad, theres dad) but not consistently yet. He will be 2 March 14. He's also had a little rough start in life, had to have surgery on his left kidney at 10 months and 19months but you sure wouldn't know it by the way he acts!

He sees a speech therapist and he just had his 6 month eval. This time, he tested WNL (within normal limits), last summer he was more than 30% delayed so he qualified for services. Now, we are still eligible for services for another 6 months. It was our choice to decide to continue with the services or decline. We will continue another 6 months and hopefully no longer be eligible KWIM?

Thanks! You are such a wonderful help on this board!

[jillibean1978]

My nephew is 2(Dec.1) and only says 3 words. I can think of dada, mommy and juice. I really don't recall any other words coming from him. I have him and his brother 5 days a week and most of the time overnight as well.
I personally think that his mother used drugs and drank while preg. and I say this because I seen her smoking pot with the younger one......he's 1(Dec.13). And all he does is cry....doesn't say any words....no sounds.
I'm not saying that every kid who doesn't speak that it's because of this....I'm just wondering if it could be a possible reason. Thanks!!!

[grace.maddie]

Originally Posted by LyndaSLP

My question to you: How much of her speech does a stranger understand? Anyone who does not spend daily/weekly time with her can be considered a 'stranger to her speech', thus can answer the question for you. At 3, I expect someone who is a 'stranger to her speech' to understand 75% of what she says.

If they do, no worries.
If they understand less, then I'd look into a speech evaluation.

strangers can understand almost everything she says, she just says a few words strange, but ppl still know what she is saying, so i guess i will not worry about it. i thought it was pretty normal, but i thought it best to check with someone who knows! thanks again!

[aidan&logansmommy]

Thanks for offering your help Lynda!! I have been reading through this thread and gleaning lots of info to help me. Logan is delayed in speech and was scheduled for a speech eval a few weeks ago, but we had to reschedule because he was sick. They are now coming again during the second week of February. He is 20 months and only says a few words like mama, dada, Aidan, uh huh, ok. But he does not even say those words very often. Receptive language seems to be excellent. Anyway, he has dysphagia (swallowing disorder) due to unknown reasons. No underlying diagnosis has been found. Our feeding specialist thinks that the speech delays are related to the dysphagia, and I agree. I guess my question is, can I get what is needed from just a SLP or should I be concerned about OT? We talked about OT, but the feeding specialist thought that a good SLP could do all he needed without us having to get additional services. Are there specific questions or issues that I should bring up before they assign a SLP to us?

I am really concerned about his speech development, but he has also been slow to do things in all areas, yet when he decides to do something, it is almost instantaneous. So, I try to calm my anxieties. Do you have any suggestions on things to do at home that might help? And can you come to my house and give him private therapy???? (Just kidding!!)

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by couponlover85

Thank you for doing this....My son just turned 4 years old and I have a hard time understanding him. I might understand about 60-70% of his speech. My neighbor, who sees him about once every 2 weeks, can't understand him either. He puts together sentences just fine. He can form 5+ word sentences but half of the sentence i have to ask him what he said over and over again before I can figure out what he said. He does have an evaluation scheduled by a speech therapist next week I would just like your opinion.

The other concern I have is, he drools constantly. Not to the point that his shirt is soaked but, if we're reading a book together and he's leaning over the book he's drooling on it. I asked the doctor about it but, she didn't seem to be overly concerned about it because she didn't answer my question. I would like to know if this would affect his speech and if you know what causes it.

Definitely go through with the speech&language evaluation: by 4, your neighbor should understand 90% of what he is saying.

The drooling could be a sign of weak oral muscles (esp muscles needed to keep lips shut). Weak mouth muscles could negatively effect his speech clarity. Try some of these simple exercises: blowing bubbles; drinking from a straw (eliminate all sippy cups, replace with straw cups); licking lipop/icecream (make sure the tongue is moving instead of the food stroknig the tongue); blowing cottonballs across the table (make into a game: each of you blow cotton ball toward finish line, race to see who can get it there first)

[sunshinesahmom]

I have a question. Can I pick your brain?

M 3 year old DD(4 in April) talks ALOT! but she has several things that she can't pronounce. Fish becomes Bish, Dixie(dogs name) become Dithie, a couple others. She is SO smart, is there an exercise we can do together?

Thank you for you time!!!

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by sunshinesahmom

I have a question. Can I pick your brain?

M 3 year old DD(4 in April) talks ALOT! but she has several things that she can't pronounce. Fish becomes Bish, Dixie(dogs name) become Dithie, a couple others. She is SO smart, is there an exercise we can do together?

Thank you for you time!!!

Do strangers understand her 80-85% of the time? By 4, strangers should understand her 90% of the time.

And "stranger" can be anyone who is unfamiliar with her speech. Anyone who does not see her on a daily/weekly basis. If grandma only sees her 1x/month -- her opinion would work.

[sunshinesahmom]

Thanks for responding!

No, strangers understand her about 70-75% of the time. Even her daddy has a hard time sometimes!

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by sunshinesahmom

Thanks for responding!

No, strangers understand her about 70-75% of the time. Even her daddy has a hard time sometimes!

Then I would recommend having a speech/language evaluation done by a speech therapist. You can get a free eval via your local school system. In the USA, the school systems are responsible for helping those children who need help from the age of 3 - 21. PM me if you want help figuring who to call.

[GardenCat1971]

Just wanted to say thanks for offering your services.....

As a mother of a child w/ special needs including serious speech delays I know how invaluable and precious your time is to us!!!! My son has been in speech therapy since he was about 20 months old and it saved his life and my sanity!!! He's now 4 and a month and still in speech therapy 2-3x's/wk and now we're looking at Asperger's Syndrome as his diagnosis. We're hoping to get him into full time preschool at the school where he does speech so that he get even more help. BTW, I *heart* our current speech therapist. She is just wonderful!!!

[sunshinesahmom]

Thanks SO much. I have a great elem. school my son goes to. I'm going to get w/ the school next week!!!

Again, thank you for reaching out to share!

[Easrthartisan]

Just wanted to mention that my youngest daughter has a speech delay. She was diagnosed at 15 months (tested at a 8 month level) when she still wasn't crawling as having "low muscle tone". She was having speech, physical occuaptional, and developmental therapies.

Within the 15 months to age three, she quickly climbed the ladder to success, losing qualifications in certain therapies. At the age of three she aged out of the program. She will be four in late September. We got her into an early childhood program that has been able to continue her speech therapy. She is so cute listening to her talk. Everything is the color "pint" or "boo".

I am very proud of her and grateful of the therapist.

I will admit it was very difficult when she was diagnosed. I just cried and cried thinking what did I do. Did I take something I shouldn't have while pregnant, was it because I got pregnant with her too early, was it the birth control. And I would ask her doctors, her therapist, anyone that had any experiene what they thought was the cause. And they all told me the same thing, this is something that happens, nothing causes it, and it is really common.

It sometimes gets very frustrating for her when she tries to tell me or others something and she can't express herself fully. I even have a lot of people ask me if she is autistic. She is a wonderful, loving, and functioning little girl (some have said she has stole their hearts), she just can't talk as well as other 3 year olds.

[mandi05]

Hi! I have an almost 4 year old who has been diagnosed with apraxia. His therapist at school (he goes to a special needs preschool) says it's pretty severe. How often should he be getting therapy?

Do you think I should purchase special workbooks/worksheets, toys/tools to do things at home? His therapist is using the Kaufman approach with cards and worksheets...should I look into that and have her teach me how to use them? What should I do at home?

This isn't our first special needs venture.... Brenden (my son), has global developmental delays, speech apraxia, and global hypotonia (low muscle tone), but I just feel like we aren't doing enough to help his speech.

P.S. As a special needs parent, I'd like to offer my knowledge and experience to any one who has questions or just wants someone to talk to!

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by mandi05

Hi! I have an almost 4 year old who has been diagnosed with apraxia. His therapist at school (he goes to a special needs preschool) says it's pretty severe. How often should he be getting therapy?

Do you think I should purchase special workbooks/worksheets, toys/tools to do things at home? His therapist is using the Kaufman approach with cards and worksheets...should I look into that and have her teach me how to use them? What should I do at home?

This isn't our first special needs venture.... Brenden (my son), has global developmental delays, speech apraxia, and global hypotonia (low muscle tone), but I just feel like we aren't doing enough to help his speech.

P.S. As a special needs parent, I'd like to offer my knowledge and experience to any one who has questions or just wants someone to talk to!

How often is he getting therapy?
I would ask your SLP to teach you things to do at home with him that go along with the approach she is doing. You may not need to 'buy' anything -- she may be able to copy stuff for you to use at home.