Life With A Baby - Speech therapy for toddlers

Friday, June 18, 2010 1:12 AM

Message # 360631

Deleted user

What's the usual age for babies or toddlers to start talking or conversing? Do we call the doctor or speech pathologist immediately if baby seems delayed with speech and communication? What are the warning signs we have to look out for? Have you had to send your child to speech therapy sessions and was it helpful?

Sunday, June 20, 2010 12:48 AM

Reply # 361434 on 360631

Diane

How old is your child? My twins were late talkers. By the age of 2 they both only had about 5 words each. My pediatrician wasn't concerned as she wanted at least 5 word sounds but I was concerned! I had read that by age 2 they should have 50+. It worried me that they weren't talking.

We here in Ontario do not need a doctor referral to call the Preschool Language and speech. I called after our 2 year appt. It's a very long wait (9 months for my son to be seen and 11 months for my daughter to be seen!!) so if you do have any concerns I'd call. No harm in being put on the wait list early enough.

In our wait by the time they were 2.5 they did have a language explosion. By the time they were 3 they were talking in sentences. By the time we were seen for our assessment everything was within normal range of their age but they had pronunciation issues. We are holding off on Speech therapy at the moment and will do another assessment in August. The pronunciation issues they have are appropiate for their age.

I also have a 19 month old but no need to call as at last count he has about 20 words.

I'd say if you have any concerns at all there is no harm in calling and getting assessed. Also because the wait time is long for York region.

Thursday, June 24, 2010 3:37 PM

Reply # 370933 on 360631

Anonymous

Check with your Public Health department. They often visit Early Years Centres and do quick assessments. It's free and an easy way to see if your little one(s) are on track. You might also find a checklist with what your child(ren) should be doing at different ages on the Public Health website. Check out http://www.beyond-words.org/erik.htm. There are links for 6 to 48 months. Hope this helps.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:05 PM

Reply # 374322 on 360631

sarah

The waitlist for publicly funded SLP is very long. However, if you have benefits through yours or your partner's workplace, you can always start privately until your child's name comes up on the waitlist via CCAC or through the region. Apparently, kids should have about 5 works before they are 18 mts. Kids develop at different rates, so there is a range of "normal." However, mama knows best! If you are concerned, put your child's name on the waitlist now because the waitlist is so long--better to decline an appointment than to need one and not have one.

Saturday, July 10, 2010 4:23 PM

Reply # 380030 on 360631

Joan

My son had been referred to see a speech pathologist and we had been on the wait list for 10 months. He was born premature by 10 weeks (2.5 months) and so it wasn't a concern at first. However, as time passed, he kept on failing the communication tests for the EIS program and the Women's College Neonatal follow-up program. So, finally our early interventionist decided to refer us just in case. My son is turning 2 years old next Wednesday but his speech is limited. We don't really have a problem at home as we have developed out own way of communication, however, I have started taking him to sing and sign classes to prepare him for school, just in case he does have a speech problem. Another thing I was told to teach him is to use a picture book. Whenever he wants something, he will bring me the book and show me the picture. This is also a way to help him communicate with his day care teacher and friends.

Sunday, July 11, 2010 9:39 PM

Reply # 380668 on 360631

Kimberly

Its pretty sad that the waot list is that long!!!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 12:53 AM

Reply # 407543 on 380030

Deleted user

Joan Man wrote:My son had been referred to see a speech pathologist and we had been on the wait list for 10 months. He was born premature by 10 weeks (2.5 months) and so it wasn't a concern at first. However, as time passed, he kept on failing the communication tests for the EIS program and the Women's College Neonatal follow-up program. So, finally our early interventionist decided to refer us just in case. My son is turning 2 years old next Wednesday but his speech is limited. We don't really have a problem at home as we have developed out own way of communication, however, I have started taking him to sing and sign classes to prepare him for school, just in case he does have a speech problem. Another thing I was told to teach him is to use a picture book. Whenever he wants something, he will bring me the book and show me the picture. This is also a way to help him communicate with his day care teacher and friends.

You mentioned the EIS communication tests. Would you tell us how this is administered or what practices are done to assess any speech problems?

I think you're doing great and efforts highly notable to help your child break the speech barriers. I hope he's doing much better by now. I guess he's just a bit shy. Isn't he?

Please enlighten me, what's EIS?

Last modified: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 12:53 AM | Deleted user

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 1:03 AM

Reply # 407546 on 360631

Deleted user

Thanks for the many helpful comments and insights.

Here i go again, what's CCAC and SLP? We're learning a lot of new abbreviations here.

The E.R.I.K. Early Referral Intervention Kit is a great resource and a cool website of York Region. Thanks for sharing! Here, lemme re-post the link from an earlier comment: http://www.beyond-words.org/erik.htm.

Last modified: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 1:03 AM | Deleted user

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:04 AM

Reply # 443377 on 407546

Deleted user

Hi Nina, this is a great post!

Liam started growing his vocabulary at 18 months, and is now almost 2.5 with lots of words. However I find that he is very slow to learn English (we only speak Russian to him).

My co-worker's son is about a month older, and speaks his own language, while there are two languages spoken at home. I generally heard that it takes toddlers longer to start talking full gear if there are two languages at home, especially if the parents tend to mix them in a single conversation or a sentence.

Hope this is another little tip that can work its way into your research :)

Speech therapy for toddlers

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