Our two year old still doesn't talk a lot. He excels everywhere else but speech is just not his jam right now. He listens to what we are saying and responds to everything we say. He knows what objects are and even try's to say what they are. A little background if you haven't seen my posts before is that he comes to work with me every day in a private office. He is not around other littles besides occasionally with our friends and their kids on the weekend. I definitely don't think it helps that he is in a work environment everyday and not around other kids. We just don't have the option right now. We realized over the holiday that he was so frustrated he couldn't tell us things. . We are frustrated too because his toddler fits are at an all time high. He points, he babbles, he says a few key words, he is learning new words but it's still not enough. My husband is starting up his own business right now and we are pretty cash poor at the moment (embarrassed to say but it is what it is) 
I don't expect us to be like this forever but we are living paycheck to paycheck recently. We had to stop paying our health insurance last month because it was close to $700 a month (that's the lowest plan no joke and we don't get it through our family business.) We wanted to get him into speech therapy but it's not an option for us right now. We found out through our pediatrician that it has to be something through our health insurance and some plans don't even cover it. If we paid for it out of pocket she said it would be very costly... It was hard for me to write this because I would do anything to help him progress in his speech. Our home is filled with love and besides work I devote every single moment to him. Any of you mom's out there have or had a late talker? Is there anything we can do at home to help him progress? 
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I would look into state funded health insurance for your son. Medicaid or CHIP (if it gets funded again). Since it's a rough time financially for the family, you may be able to get him covered. The earlier the intervention the better the outcome. Also, you should be able to have him evaluated by EI for free without insurance. They can help you get a better idea about whether and in what areas he is actually behind and needs services.
Beyond that, I would try to look up speech therapy videos on YouTube and start actively working with him on trying to develop words. Speak to him ALL the time, narrate everything you're doing and let him watch your mouth when you talk. Encourage him to say things when he wants something. Don't just get his cup because he pointed to it, try to get him to say cup.
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@paigeface: I'll start by saying, I hear you on the living paycheck to paycheck. It's tough when you have no other option for childcare. You gotta do what you gotta do. With that being said, it sounds like his receptive language is great. I can see where his expressive language is slightly behind from what you're telling us. I'm not sure if your DS is a young two or an old two BUT he's understanding your requests, pointing, and attempting to express himself. I'm sure if your income prevents you for getting free or low cost insurance for your son, but maybe looking into that would be an option? Only my kids and myself have insurance. Kids have free insurance through the state and mine is through my job but DH has nothing because it's so pricey. An option for free kid time is the library!! I'm not sure where you're location but so many libraries have free events for toddlers and kids! I know it can be tough but I'm hopeful you guys will be just fine!
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@paigeface: I’m a speech therapist that works in early intervention. Much of my job is parent training since I’m only with the child 2-3x per month. The program I use typically is Hanen It Takes Two to Talk. It’s really a parent program and I highly recommend it. The book is about $50 new but you may be able to find it used on eBay or at a library. I’ve included the link to the book & the website. You can also search for therapy videos.
Depending on your state, early intervention is free or can be a very low cost. I’m in California & it’s free here if you make less than $96,000. Which state are you in? You can wall me for more information.
https://www.amazon.com/Takes-Two-Talk-Practical-Children/dp/0921145527/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511885995&sr=8-1&keywords=It+takes+two+to+talk
http://www.hanen.org/Home.aspx -
When we had this issue, signs are a good way to help him be able to communicate.
We took a free course through Early Intervention on the It takes two to talk by the previous poster. I read the book and it's easy to follow.
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@paigeface: Yes, I'm curious to know where you live because you should be able to get a free assessment through Early Intervention.
In CA, where I live, its handled through a county or regional office and they sent a case worker to our home for intake and an SLP from Easter Seals to observe our son right before he turned 2 (all of it free). At the time, we were told he needed to be 30% behind in speech (so 8 months behind) to qualify for services, but he was more like 6 months behind so he just missed the cut off.
HOWEVER, the SLP gave us concrete things we could work on at home to encourage speech and our caseworker told us if we didn't see progress in 2 months, she wanted him reassessed again to see if he would qualify for services. For us, we decided to put him in a school that had a full day preschool program to force him to be in a situation with other, more verbally advanced children (the school goes from 2-5 years old) and we worked hard at home with him on all the exercises and approaches the SLP told us about.
If we had qualified for EI, the cost sharing was done on a sliding scale. We were above the income cap for it to be free, but even then the cost I thought per session was extremely reasonable - like $85 and she said she would only have to come out every few weeks (maybe more frequently in the beginning and then like once a month to check in).
Because of our efforts, despite not having EI, our son is in normal range at 3 years old. We had many frequent language explosions in the last year and we are so relieved.
Everyone, our pediatrician, school, our SLP, the caseworker, etc. - told us age 2-3 is HUGE for speech development and that children who are behind and get help at this point are usually able to catch up to normal by age 3. So even though we didn't use EI or have therapy, we did feel it was SUPER important to work hard with our child on speech at this age. I was working and pregnant and DH was working 2 jobs at this time and we just told ourselves we had to just really work to make every minute at home count for speech.
That said, its not as if there are no options after this point.
However, EI does phase at age 3 and the speech therapy stuff is then handled through the public school system (at least where we live). Its a similar assessment and therapy situation. Those services are almost always free, since its a special ed situation.I would definitely look at the resources mentioned above by @mommySLP: and know that even if you had EI services, its really a coaching mechanism for the parents to work on stuff with their kids. You totally CAN DIY a lot of this stuff and I would very seriously look to see if your area has a preschool co-op for your child. Usually, you have to put in some volunteer hours as the parent, but it cuts down the costs dramatically and a lot of the places around here, even in pricier Northern CA, you can get a half-day slot 3 days a week for about $250 a month.
I know you said your husband was building a business. My husband is also a small business owner and works long hours, but I really got on him about taking a big role in our son's speech. PLEASE make sure your husband is really involved in this. The research shows over and over that dad's have a huge impact on child speech development - apparently it has something to do with dads speaking more conversationally to their kids whereas moms tend to highlight specific words or objects. This is DEFINITELY true with our family - DH NEVER talks baby talk with our son and when our son asks a question, DH gives a full adult answer.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114767/
When DS1 turned 2, I had DH take over bedtime pretty much 100% of the time and use story based books. With me, DS1 mostly wanted to go through word books (because that's what I had gravitated towards) and he would want to know what a specific object was. I was really obsessed with him knowing more words, but after meeting with our SLP, I knew he needed more contextual speech and language, so DH took on story books every night. Whenever our son asks what something is, DH gives lengthy responses and answers. Their interaction is MUCH more conversational and academic, even if at the beginning it was one sided.
The result of this is that our son has a solid vocabulary of words and objects from his interactions from me, but about 6 months into us really focusing on language and having those conversational interactions at school and with his dad, he started (literally overnight) just using full phrases and sentences and expressions correctly, in context.
Just this weekend, I told DS1 to leave so I could put DS2 down for bed and he was resisting and then finally he pouted and grumbled "fine, I don't care" and huffed off. It was hilarious and obviously kinda sassy, but I was dying laughing because he used it so spot on perfectly.
Sorry for the novel, but yes, please look into what resources are available. If nothing else, I would try to save for ONE session with a private SLP and get guidance/resources and then maybe schedule another session in a few months to check in and check progress.
I don't know if you attend church, but if so, I would also look into Sunday school or religious classes on service days as another 1-2 hours of free group learning your child can have access to, as well as MOPS groups that also usually provide free or low cost childcare for 1-2 hours with other children, and maybe a local Mother's Day Out program as other opportunities to carve out group time for your son.
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As others have noted, take a look into Early Intervention. It has been amazing for my son, but more importantly, it has been a great learning experience for me and DH about ways to improve language and communication. DS is still on the lower end of the scale and is currently being evaluated by the local school district's preschool program to see if he qualifies.
Honestly, the best thing you can do is learn new techniques for getting your child to speak to you and very deliberately engage him verbally as much as possible. Like anything else, a new skill has to be practiced, so don't feel discouraged if there are no language explosions. Slow and steady is good too
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Ditto on the early intervention recommendations. Where I am in California, it is offered through the public schools. I think that children as young as 2 years old can get evaluated and receive all kinds of great services. You don't pay for this. I figure its funded through property taxes and what not that covers the schools in general. Hopefully the schools around you have a service like this.
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I hear where u are coming from. Our DD aged out of early intervention at 2. It took awhile but through internet searching and just calling places and talking to lots of other mom we finally found 2 places that offered services at a large discount or free. No insurance needed. I know it can be a daunting task and it can be very time consuming but there are some things out there! We also went through the local school district and she was evacuated and placed in there preschool therapy program completely free. Don't give up!
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@paigeface: I don’t think good receptive speech but lacking expressive speech is a problem yet at two! At least that’s what our pediatrician told us. He will probably catch up so don’t stress too much mama!
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@paigeface: hugs, mama! It is so clear you are trying to do the best for your son and your family! I think you got a lot of good advice above. If finances are prohibitive and you need to get creative, one thought I had was setting up a picture communication system to help your son feel less frustrated about getting his needs met. There is an offficial version of this but I think you could try to put something together without paid training.
Here is a link:
https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/picture-exchange-communication-system-pecs-non-verbal-children/Also does he know any signs? Baby signs could help with the communication in the interim too. There are a bunch of YouTube videos with signs.
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My almost 3 year old is just over the last 2 months finally starting to talk more. The frustration...oh man. Our tactic was to stop letting siblings talk for her (or adults for that matter). We'd ask her to show us what she wanted or was trying to tell us and then we'd articulate it and ask her to try repeating. As long as she made an attempt even if it was unintelligible we complied or presented other options that were acceptable. Over time she'd repeat more and now is pretty caught up to her twin brother. It's hard though.
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I'm sorry about the insurance situation! Not sure if you've already looked into early intervention, but their services may be free. Where I live, they are, but insurance is supposed to pitch in for those who have it. It's definitely not the case everywhere though
It sounds though, like he's making good progress and may surprise you in a few months. DS was in very much the same place at two, and started talking in little sentences somewhere between 2 and 2.5. The kid talks non stop in two languages now, and you'd never know he was delayed. His best friend also talked late and had more of a struggle, but in his case the late talking runs in the family, and no one was really surprised that his speech didn't take off till he was closer to four.
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Like @mommyslp: I'm also an SLP and highly recommend the Hanen It Takes Two to Talk program. If you could get your hands on the book, I think you would find it very helpful. If you went to therapy, most of it would echo what is taught through the program. http://www.hanen.org
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I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for the responses! The advice was wonderful. I have bought a copy of the "It Takes Two" book and we are now working on this with him. Also happy to report that we got him health insurance. We ended up only getting him health insurance at the moment but we are happy that he is at least fully covered!
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@paigeface: YAY!! It's only up from here!
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