He wont talk

[daydream**believer]

My 2.5 year old wont talk.

He says Mum and Dad and thats it.

Hes not deaf. I know that because he hears and understands everything we say.

Next week we have an appointment at Child Development Clinic.

Anyone else have this issue with their little ones?

[meh_too]

Reading through this thread reminded me of my youngest son pre-school speech problem..

His father (still) has a very broad Liverpool accent. When my son spoke to me it was with an Aussie accent and when he spoke to his dad it was with a Liverpool accent. When he spoke to everyone else, it was a mixture of the two.  No one outsdie the family understood a word he said. I took him to a speech therapist before he started school to learn to speak only with the Aussie accent.

[vampire-teddy]

my godson didn't talk until he was over three and is now 21 and perfectly fine.  he went on holidays with his parent and was mixing with similar aged cousins and just started talking.

[daydream**believer]

So Mr 2 had his appointment with the speech therapist last week and, well, he didnt talk.

But they did give me some ways to tackle his not talking issue and im happy to say he has now added "bye bye" and "dink" to his vocabulary. Small steps but we will get there.

Next appointment is next week

[the_bob_delusion]

Put him on to Rudd, it'll get to the stage, he'll tell Ruddy to shut up.

[the_great_she_elephant]

Is he able to understnd what you say to him and follow simple instructions?

Boys are often slower than girls to start talking.

[clair.de.lune]

How did you get him to say bye bye & drink?

[bella_again]

I would give him lots of visual clues and options.  It wouldn't hurt to take pictures of things around the house or download from the internet pictures of everyday things then associate the picture and the word.  When he is hungry or needs a drink make him talk and ask for the drink he would like.  initially that may be with pictures ie a picture of milk or water, give him a clear options.  If he points to the milk say milk and ask if he can say it too. Emphasise everything in the process and talk through the steps.  Eventually he will talk more.

Some children talk later than others it does not neccesarily mean that something is wrong but your speech therapist will be able to assess his skills and give you some ideas on what you can do practically.

[kyliecrv]

Amy, it's great that he has 2 words so quickly, he must know them and choosing not to speak them!
I'm sure he will come along quickly once he starts.

[kyliecrv]

Is it more common for boys not to speak so early?
Just by reading this thread it appeared to be?

In my own experience with my 3 children, 1st born was a girl and chatted practically from birth! By the time she started school she had a huge vocabulary and could read & write basic texts.
2nd child was a boy with a 2.5yr age gap)... He was a lot slower to speak and my family used to tell me that there was something wrong with him! I really felt like his sister was talking for the both of them, and he was just soaking all the info in around him..... He spoke as needed and being in pre-school helped him heaps!

Last baby now has teen siblings and they constantly encourage her to speak, at 18 months we wrote a list of her understandable words and it was around 40.

[daydream**believer]

Yes, she ele, he understands everything and follows instructions.

clare-  I was told to say the word 3 times then say "now you say it". Then i was told to make a big deal out of any sound he made, even if it was nothing like the word i was trying to get him to say.  Lots of "good boy" and "Yahhhh"

So i did that and now he is making more of an effort to actually say the words properly