My little one will be two in November. I just don't feel he is advanced as he should be. He chatters about and pretends to talk but really the only thing he says is Dada, OK and yeah. He pushes around cars and says vrrrrooom. He "talks with his hands" meaning he will babble and move his hands around (a trait he got from me) I'm around him the most so I am sure this is a reflection of something I am doing wrong. He never calls me Mama but he is very attached to me. I've tried to teach him his nose, mouth, eyes and such by asking him "Where's your eye's"....every time it ends up with a finger up his nose. I am a WAHM mom and I am sure I am not putting the hours into him that I should but I can't afford to cut back either. We live in a rural area so Parents as Teachers and Mother's Day out programs aren't an option. I'd love to hear from current mom's who have babies around this age to see what your kids are up to? I should add, our first two were eager to learn and please and he just doesn't seem to care. There is 4 years difference b/t him and the next sibling.
He can follow simple commands like, Get your shoes, lets go to the bathroom, get your lovie, so I know he understands us, I just don't know if I need to be worried.
Wow! Thanks everyone! I was waiting on negative responses as to what I was doing wrong. You have all been so helpful. After I posted the question I began to think of other things he could say so he may not be as far behind as I was thinking but I am still going to talk to my boss today about cutting back my hours so I can give him the attention that he deserves. Thanks again everyone!
Sometimes when there is more than one and a little age gap between the youngest two, the problem is that everyone caters to the baby so he/she doesn't NEED to do things as quickly as their predecessors. Watch how everyone interacts with the baby. Do they just "know" what he wants so he doesn't have to verbalize it?
Expect more from him/her and you will get more out of him/her.
ETA - Fanged Bunny explained what I'm talking about exactly...
Original:
Please don't assume that you are doing anything wrong. You aren't a new mom - you're "old hat" at this. You DO know what you're doing.
Different children develop at different rates. What you DO need to do is talk to your ped at his second birthday checkup if he has not progressed a lot by then. Expectations of speech for a child under the age of 2 are much less than AFTER two years old. You need to ask the doctor for a speech evaluation after he turns two so that you know where he stands. If the therapist feels he's on track, that's great. If not, the sooner you know, the better. Early intervention can help SO much and the sooner you get it if there is a problem, the better.
This is my own experience with one of my children, T.. My son needed a lot of help, and this is exactly what the professionals explained to me. This is why I give you this advice.
Your son sounds as if he is verbalizing just fine. The fact that he can do pretend play as well as use his hands to place emphasis on things and babble he sounds perfectly typical. All children do not need to be advanced nor do they need to develop at the same rate.
Narrate your daily activities to your son, read to him, don't baby-talk to him at all. He will pick up more vocabulary as time goes on and he will be able to identify body parts as well. Give him time to show you what he knows and what he is learning. Unless there's something amiss you didn't mention your son sounds like a perfectly typical child and there's nothing wrong with that!
First, let go of your expectations. Each child is different. Kids hit developmental milestones in a broad window of time-- some will be very early and quick to pick up new skills while others are developing in different areas and take more time.
My best encouragement for you is to just play, sing and talk with your child when you can. Keep it fun, keep it light. He'll get it in time.
My second son was like that, he had speech therapy in our home. Get an evaluation by the county, they will have to come to you, unless you piddle around and wait till he's three, then it will be much harder. and get the DVD Baby Babble, great tips for moms
You've gotten a lot of good suggestions. If you decide to go the speak with your ped, get an evaluation rule, look into learning what the age brackets are for determining speech delays. Our boy had about 12 utterances at 2. We had him evaluated at 2 years and 1 week old, and he qualified for speach therapy. Had we had the evaluation b/f his 2nd birthday, he may not have qualified as 12 words would have been on the low end, but within the normal range for the 18-24 month age bracket.
Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.
Get him evaluated by your schools Early Intervention Program. He sounds li,e my grandson. He was evaluated at 2 yo and began speech therapy twice a week. Better to be safe than sorry. If he is speech delayed, cutting back your hours really won't make a difference. What will help is what they tell you to do with him. They will give you lots of suggestions of what to do during a regular day. Like for example, if he wants something and points to it, tell him the word and make him say something. Even if it does not resemble what he is asking for. My son wished he had gotten son evaluated earlier
I would, ask your Pediatrician.
Did he have his 18 month well-child check up?
Developmental things varies so much.
But so, ask a medical professional like your Pediatrician.
And ultimately, all kids are different.
But if you want a concrete answer, ask the Pediatrician.
A great place for you to contact is the Parent Training and Information (PTI) center in Kansas, a great bunch of ladies, called Families Together, (888) 815-6364 (KS parents) or http://familiestogetherinc.org
They will be very happy to help you with a free screening, and then going forward with the next step.
Good luck!
I would try doing things in more of a play setting. Instead of asking him where his eyes are, tell him you are going to "steal" his eyes. If He hides them from you, you know he knows what they are. If not, well then "steal" his body parts, and you can make a big game out of that. he can also steal yours.
He may also know more than he lets on. My DD LOVES to play ignorant... I can ask her to count with me, and I will get "13255371..." Etc... Yet when she is in her room on her own, I have heard her count to 20 without a mistake. Same with the alphabet... If I try to get her to recite it with me, she "can't" but I have heard her sing it entirely.
My theory (and her speech therapist's, because she is speech delayed..) is that she purposely pretends she doesn't know, either to get a rise out of me (come on.... you know this silly!) or to get me to play with her more trying to teach her.
I will say to press the issue at the next checkup. At my DD's 18 month, I mentioned that I didn't think she was speaking well enough. They blew me off,and at her next checkup she was even further behind. Up until they are three years old, you can get free help through early intervention. Once they hit three, you have to go through the school district or a private therapist to get help.
I wouldn't worry too much, or blame yourself. Kids progress in different things at different paces. All you can do is the best you can, and it will be good enough. I know that I did everything "right" as far as promoting good speech habits (story time daily, no baby talk, lots of talking to her throughout the day, etc) and my dd still ended up with a delay in her speech. Don't stress it, and don't push too hard to try to "fix" it. My DD is currently on a break from her therapy (we took the summer off, because she turned 3 in the spring, and therapy through the school doesn't start until fall) and it seems like her speech has improved faster after we took the pressure off.
If you have a smart phone or tablet, you can try download a talking animal app. My DD LOVES Pierre the Talking Parrot! She will sit and talk to him, and he repeats what she says back in a silly voice. It is great just to get her talking. ABC Mouse also has a free app with music videos for every letter of the alphabet. My DD and I sing the songs together, and it has helped her speech a LOT! Especially because you can pick a sound that needs work, and sing a song focusing on the sound.
I had very similar concerns when my 4 year old was that age. My pediatrician said she was not concerned, but I was. So she referred him to a speech pathologist who evaluated him. His therapist said he did test behind but not enough to warrant services. Also, there isn't a whole lot a therapist can do when they are so young, and he wasn't really behind enough to be too concerned about with boys, as it's very, very common for them to take a little longer. She gave me ideas of things to do with him based on what she observed and had me come back 6 months later. She tested him again when he was about 2. He was still behind, but again, not enough to warrant services.
He was tested once again at 2 1/2. Now he was old enough and began seeing her twice a week. He still receives services through the school, and he is doing great! Some kids just need a little extra help. Some kids just need a little extra time.
It never hurts to talk to your ped about your concerns. Good luck! It sounds like your son is a bright little guy. He might just need a little help talking about it.
Here is a site where you enter your kids birth dates and they send you daily, weekly, monthly stuff that will help you know if he's on track of not. If he's not then you need to take him to a university medical center than has a child development department where he can be evaluated. If he's behind the sooner you can start working with him the sooner he'll have some intervention.
I also suggest that you consider that you just posted that you work full time and you have a 2 year old son home with you that you aren't spending time with....who does he spend time with if you are working?
Perhaps being around kids his own age, in child care, he might be exposed to someone besides yourself and he'll pick stuff up a lot sooner from kids his own age.
You can't do both, work at home and teach your child speech pathology lessons, perhaps sign language, all sorts of other therapies that will help him better communicate his needs. He needs to be around other kids so he can learn by example from his peers.
Once he turns 3, if he gets diagnosed as delayed, he can start attending school at the local elementary. They may have one particular school that offers this program. It is a federal program for kids that are delayed and they need to start school at 3 so they can learn the stuff they need for Pre-K and Kindergarten. They get ahead of kids their age by doing these programs.
But anyway, this site will help you determine just where your son is supposed to be developmentally.
What does his pediatrician say? I'd start there.
