https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:57:03 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904198 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 22:00:54 +0000 MommySLP 2904198@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: I’m a SLP in early intervention and its great you’ve gone to the school district to get started with services. I just wanted to give you some resources if you want to look into apraxia, as there is a lot of (not great) info on the internet. It will be likely that a school SLP won’t give this actual diagnosis, even though they may think it is that. The good news is intensive speech at this early age often has good outcomes for kids with apraxia. Let me know if you have any questions.<br /> <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-apraxia-of-speech/symptoms-causes/syc-20352045" rel="nofollow">https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-apraxia-of-speech/symptoms-causes/syc-20352045</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/Childhood-Apraxia-of-Speech/" rel="nofollow">https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/Childhood-Apraxia-of-Speech/</a></p> <p>Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if they make some suggestions for alternative communication system. A lot of people think this would hinder verbal communication, but there has been a lot of research that suggests it will help verbal communication. Here is some info on that, if you’re interested.<br /> <a href="https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/AAC/" rel="nofollow">https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/AAC/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904197 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 21:42:56 +0000 Mama Bird 2904197@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>One of DS's friends had pretty much unintelligible speech till he was three or four. Apparently it runs in his family. Things were complicated by the facts that he's bilingual and that he got a ton of screen time until recently. He started speech therapy when he was around 3, and was in a special ed/integrated classroom until second grade, at which point he made enough progress to go into a regular class. He's still getting speech therapy after school, but it's for relatively minor stuff (trouble pronouncing a few sounds). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904164 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 18:30:42 +0000 gotkimchi 2904164@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: we had our lo enrolled in public school speech even though she didn’t go to preschool there. We did speech there twice per week. If she had gone to school there she would have gotten it 3 times per week. We also supplemented with a private slp twice a week for a total of 4 times per week and I think the consistency of that really paid off. I love our private slp much more then the school slp and the slp we saw at the children’s hospital. Our private slp doesn’t have to go by iep or anything like that so she can be outside the box and she’s super amazing. Now at kindergarten she gets speech twice per week and we were still doing our private slp once per week. We just dropped down to every other week with her but we want to keep her on for the summer </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904159 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 17:34:44 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904159@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@pachamama: thank you! I’m in CA but from what I understand the services that he will qualify for should be similar. We already did the evaluation and are just waiting for the IEP meeting that’s at the beginning of next month. </p> <p>CA has great early intervention program that I should have utilized before he aged out at three... of course I’m kicking myself for it now but we really just didn’t think he’d be this delayed. Now it’s been a waiting game to get him services since he’s over three now. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904156 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 17:27:41 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904156@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@jhd: we’ve been really good about not anticipating his needs (recommended to us by a speech therapist) but he will just tell us what he wants nonverbally. His communication is actually really good for not talking! I think the school setting would be good to encourage talking because he will have other kids to compete with for the teacher’s attention and I’m hoping that peer pressure might help🤞. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904155 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 17:23:58 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904155@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@crazydoglady: that’s a hard one! We’ve debated a lot about if he in unable to talk or if he just doesn’t want to... we are leaning towards that he can’t based on having so few words at 3.5. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904152 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:51:34 +0000 pachamama 2904152@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: just to give some perspective on what's out there in terms of intervention, here in NY he absolutely would quality for extensive services. They would come to your house for speech therapy and he would qualify for what we call Head Start, all free. My friend's son is moderately deaf and doesn't speak much, and he gets tons of services free through state programming. He can speak but it's very unintelligible. He's doing great but they had him in speech since 6 months old. His speech grew so much once he started Head Start. I would say the earlier the better so he can catch up, which I'm sure he will!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904149 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:25:06 +0000 jhd 2904149@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: school would most likely be a great motivator for talking. My son had a boy in his 3s class who didn’t/wouldn’t talk and the teachers were very kind but firm about using his words. I found that I was often anticipating what my son needed so he never really had to ask for things. They really have to communicate better in a classroom setting where they have to share the teachers attention. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904142 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:27:17 +0000 crazydoglady 2904142@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: It sounds like he is doing a lot of jargoning. Do you think it is mostly a will or skill thing? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904141 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:24:03 +0000 gotkimchi 2904141@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: she did have consistent words but everything was one syllable and nothing had ending sounds like hungry was hun cat was ca etc I think it was such an absence of sounds. She couldn’t make or produce many sounds in isolation much less in words </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904140 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:13:28 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904140@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@kayla0416: you’re not scaring me at all! I want to hear real stories, even if they’re not 100% positive! :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904137 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:10:48 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904137@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@jhd: no, he’s not in school or daycare. He has a babysitter but she’s family and he’s very comfortable with her. I have wondered if starting preschool will help. I’m really hoping that he gets into the special education preschool program though our school district. I just can’t see him being ready for the regular preschool next fall :bummed: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904135 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:06:28 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904135@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi: so far no one has brought up him having apraxia... I’m going to look more into it. What were the signs that lead to that diagnosis? Did she have consistent words she used even if she said them wrong? My DS doesn’t make consistent sounds/words for anything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904131 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:59:30 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904131@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@crazydoglady: he will not try to mimic us at all, he seems to understand that we want him to, he’ll even laugh at us and say no. He’s actually a really chatty kid though, he makes sounds and “talks” all day, just no words. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904128 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:47:20 +0000 jhd 2904128@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: I should add that DS still goes to speech every week but it's for articulation due to a repaired cleft palate. He really started to take off after 3.5. Is your DS in school or daycare? I hope you get the very best support possible and some stories of hope! :heart: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904127 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:44:57 +0000 gotkimchi 2904127@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Oh, just as an aside, 9mo before kindergarten her speech therapist was recommending assisted devices like iPads or other things that you can point to pictures. She did not need them by that time kindergarten started so improvement isn’t linear </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904124 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:43:04 +0000 gotkimchi 2904124@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 3.5yo at the time tested as less then 0.1% for intelligible speech. She had “words” but was not at all understandable. She was diagnosed with apraxia. We did extensive speech therapy (4x/week) plus ear tubes plus a soft pallete specialist plus clipped a tongue tie plus probably anything else you can think of. Now at 5.5 I would says she’s about 80% as good as her peers. If you have any specific questions let me know but you can get caught up it just takes a lot of work and I would explore all avenues of things that might help </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904122 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:37:11 +0000 crazydoglady 2904122@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: My son didn't really start talking until 3. He had some words but was extremely limited. He's still speech delayed (at nearly 4.5) but he has made leaps and bounds with his speech. What happens when you ask your son to repeat after you? Does he downright refuse? Is he "jargoning?" </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904120 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:27:43 +0000 kayla0416 2904120@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Purpledaisy: a friend of mine has a boy that has a severe speech delay. They started getting him evaluated and in therapy around age 2 because he wasn't really even making sounds yet. He was eventually diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. There are different levels of CAS and his is the most severe. I moved to a different town 3 years ago and lost touch with his mom a bit, but the boy is now 10. I know as of when I moved when he was 7, he was only speaking 2-3 word phrases, after years of speech therapy multiple times per week. </p> <p>This case is very extreme, I hope I'm not scaring you! I actually know another family with a girl that has CAS, but her case was much more mild and after a few years of therapy, she was mostly caught up by the age of about 5-6. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904116 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:15:12 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904116@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@jhd: that’s similar to my DD. She was slow to start talking but caught up around 3-3.5 years old. She really wasn’t talking still at 2 and then starting around 2.5 she made tons of progress and we didn’t even do any kind of speech therapy. Now she’s 6.5 and talks nonstop, like I have to ask her for 5 minutes of silence sometimes for a break😆. I expected the same to happen with DS but it hasn’t :bummed: . </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904113 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:01:00 +0000 jhd 2904113@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I know this is not quite the same, but DS1 only had one word until 22 months when he added a second. He very slowly started adding words. I felt like he would never talk. He was in speech weekly until 3 through EI. He didn't talk a lot until he was 3.5 or so, but like your DS he was very communicative and there was no doubt he understood us. And now he's 5.5 and in Kindergarten and literally never stops talking. I mean he's quiet at school when he needs to be, but he talks to me non stop when he's home. :heart: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/significant-speech-delays#post-2904108 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 13:50:54 +0000 Purpledaisy 2904108@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Does anyone have any experience with a child with a significant speech delay or know someone who has? Tell me about it!</p> <p>My DS is 3.5 and still doesn’t talk. We had him evaluated and start speech therapy at one place but the fit just wasn’t right and we decided to go a different direction. We are now in the process of having him evaluated by our school district to get into a special education preschool program. </p> <p>He doesn’t have any other real “problems” and he’s a happy, social, funny little guy. So far he’s tested negative for signs of autism. He communicates but just not verbally. He understands everything we say, can follow directions, etc. His only real word is “no”.</p> <p>I just don’t know anyone who has had a child who has been this speech delayed. Do you have/know any very late talkers? When did they start talking? When did they catch up to their peers?</p> <p> I’m not really looking for advice on how to get him talking, we’ve already tried all of the basics and are working with professionals to try to get him the help that he needs. :wink: </p>