At 18 months E has very few distinct words and communicates a lot with gestures I mentioned it to her pediatrician who said that EI was an option but that she wasn't overly concerned and I could go either way right now. If you contacted EI at 18months did you find it helpful to get started early or would you have felt better waiting? Conversely if you waited until 2 or beyond do you think you should have gotten in earlier or was waiting the right call? I want to do whats best for E but I also don't want to be the mom who called wolf.
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I'd get an evaluation now. Doesn't hurt to start early and they won't at all be upset if he passes. If he doesn't he'll just be closer to getting caught up
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This might not match exactly what you're asking, but...
So I was worried sick that my son was behind on speech. He didn't have more than 12ish? words that were clear. His pediatrician also offered EI but said he wasn't concerned about it. (I had speech therapy when I was 5, so I think I just worried a lot)
We ended up not pursuing EI and just went with it. He started picking up words left and right by the time he was 2. Like I'm talking everyday I came home from work he was saying something else. He is now newly 3 and he speaks so clearly, in sentences, and only rarely can I not understand him.
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We had speech concerns for awhile but at a 30mo evaluation she scored above her age for everything except actual speech which was scored at 27-30 mo so her age. They said because of this she didn’t really qualify but since they could see what we were talking about and she was getting frustrated we started speech. We were promptly discharged because the therapist said she couldn’t really bill our insurance when she was working at her age level. So this was like aug-dec. After the following summer I asked for another evaluation (so now she was 3.5) and at that evaluation she scored in the 0.1% so basically not understandable and way below her age. So in my opinion I think at 3 is when they really expect them to talk and be understandable. The speech we had before that probably helped but my lo has a pretty severe delay and she pretty much didn’t qualify and this was through our well known children’s hospital. Oh and it’s true that what they’re doing in 30min per week doesn’t make a difference it’s what you do at home so if you could get an evaluation and just get some pointers for home for now that’s probably what I would do. Or google some speech things - there’s a ton of resources online.
Hopefully this made some sense and if you have any questions let me know.
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Kind of in line with @gotkimchi: I’d say the standards are much lower at that age and it would be hard to qualify for much or any service. Our son has a pretty severe articulation delay at age 4.5 enough to receive speech multiple times a week, whereas he BARELY a qualified as behind when we had him tested at under 3 years old, and we took him to private therapy.
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@snarkybiochemist: at 18 months I would’ve expect 10-15 words and good receptive language (following directions, responding to you). The words may not be full words and may not be understandable to everyone. I think there is a reason they call it early evaluation so I would do it but you may not qualify.
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I distinctly remember my son not having a lot of words at all at 18 months and being a little worried. From then til 2 he has his explosion! I guess it can't hurt to get an eval but it might be digging for trouble and she's perfectly fine. (Fwiw my son currently speaks like a 4 year old at 3yrs but it did take him a while to get warmed up!)
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at 18 months she has maybe 5 words if I am being super generous with definition of what a word is, its mostly sound and babble. I think I will call for an eval, if they don't think she qualifies then ok I worried for nothing at the very least maybe they can point me in the right direction for stuff to do at home that would be beneficial.
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I would do it. My son was identified at 18 months to have a referral to our version of EI and I was also concerned that I was jumping the gun. Turns out he has apraxia and wouldn’t have gotten better without lots of therapy. I’ll be forever grateful we saw a private SLP who suspected it and that our doctor made the referral. He started therapy at just under age 2 and he’s almost 5 and close to being caught up for his age. I’m of the mind that if you need it, you’ll work on it early and if you don’t, you’ll still gain info that can be helpful as their language develops.
I would pay attention to sounds your child makes. Red flag in our situation was using only 1 or 2 sounds (gah) for everything. There should be some variation in consonants and vowels even if they aren’t put together to make words yet.
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Definitely do it! I did EI for speech for my son. His first teacher was ok but his new one is amazing and helps so much! She helps give us tips to improve his speech. My son still doesn't talk talk yet but he is getting better each day. We got a referral at 18 months as well. EI is free. Use the resource while you can cause at 3 you have to move to a different program...that's how it is where onlive at least. Did you qualify for speech? Normally they come out and do a evaluation and will tell you if your child needs it.
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@snarkybiochemist: I would do the eval. It takes some time to get the process started. Both of my boys have received speech therapy through EI and it’s been great. If she doesn’t need it then that’s ok too!
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We had an evaluation done at 18 months for my second. He had maybe 4 words at that point and was not making very many different sounds when he babbled. I was worried he was having trouble with articulation. He was also later to eat and struggled a little with some foods my first ate easily.
The evaluation was great! They were amazing with him. The child has to be VERY delayed in one area to qualify for aid and I knew that would be a stretch because he understood everything and would follow pretty complicated instructions and he was hitting all his physical milestones just fine or ahead.
I learned a lot from watching the evaluation and I am glad we did it. Now at 2.5, he talks all the time and conveys complicated ideas easily, but there are still funny things he does with his mouth when he talks. Despite that his speech is clear... so here we are.
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I'm in a similar spot. I started the process when my son was 18 months old. He had maybe 3 words and not much babbling. At the screening (done at a non profit affiliated with the state), they tested for cognitive, fine and gross motor, receptive and expressive speech. He was fine for everything except expressive speech, where he tested at an 8 month level.
He does speech therapy once a week, she comes to our house and is mostly teaching us how to work with him. After 3 sessions, he's gained 3 more words. Maybe he would have progressed with out it, but for me it's worth it. I'd rather try to address it now, while its not as big a deal, then when he's older and it's more noticeable that he's not talking.
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I would call. T (our first foster baby, who went home to his mom) had maybe 2-3 very unclear words at 18 months. We were concerned, but it was early and he was going to transition home and no one wanted to get the process started mid transition. We didn't push hard enough, and it took quite a long time for his mom to get him into head start after he went home. He did NOT have an explosion, and while his receptive language was great, his expressive language is still very delayed and he is almost impossible to understand, still, at 3y9m. He qualified as soon as he started school around his 3rd birthday, and has been in speech ever since, but he is way behind. If you're concerned, I'd get the ball rolling now.
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My friend is going through the EI process for her child’s speech delay and it took about 4 months from getting the pediatrician referral to actually have their evaluation appointment. After that, it was about another month to get on the therapists’ schedules. I don’t know if the wait times are as long where you are, but it’s probably good to find out. Unfortunately for my friend, because it took so long to actually start receiving the services, her child is going to age out of some of them after only about 6 months.
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Called today to get the process started, the coordinator wasn't in and will be calling me back on Monday. I have no idea on the wait time in our area and if E has some kind of explosion while we wait then fine, but I dont want to count on her just magically learning to talk. Thank you all for encouraging me.
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@snarkybiochemist: I think it’s good you called! Your LO may not even qualify, you’ll have to see.
I called for my son when he was 18 months. He barely had any words, but his receptive language was excellent and he was successful in communicating in his own way. EI was great for him, I was so glad we did it. Takes a while to get it all lined up too so good to put in the call. He got in a solid year of speech therapy, and it was fun for him! We did have one therapist who was a bit of an alarmist and was constantly worrying us about him, but I feel like we just set him on the right path sooner rather than later
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I would seek both private and EI. A child has to be very delayed to qualify for EI but that doesn't mean that a child doesn't have a need for a service. As a public school teacher, I don't think all parents realize that just because a child doesn't meet the criteria for EI does not mean there isn't a need just not a big enough need to qualify for public services. The most important part in services if the provider teaching you how to be a daily provider for your child. Good luck and be the squeaky wheel that gets the grease!
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We had a nagging feeling our daughter was behind at 18 months but waited until her two year appointment to get a referral since she was saying close to the bare minimum number of words. She’s now 2.5 and I honestly don’t know how much it is helping but it can’t hurt and ours is heavily subsidized by our state and partially covered by insurance so there is really no downside. It can only help.
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E was evaluated today by our EI team and they don't think she qualifies at the moment. I feel reassured since they gave us some things to work on and ideas to help her communicate better. She is also in their system and I have a contact if she doesn't make progress over the next few months. I am still glad I called.
Does anyone have any great tips for at home speech activities or things your kids really responded to? Even though we don't qualify for formal speech therapy I would like to try some stuff out at home to help her out. -
This was something I found and my speech therapist now used this list to give to parents. Here are toys and stuff to help promote communication and cognitive skill.
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A couple things I remember from our early speech therapy (which was more about teaching us as parents how to encourage speech and not much child-therapist interaction) :
-holding items close to my mouth to encourage him to look at my mouth when I was speaking
-creating games where a word or sound was needed for the fun part to happen. My son liked cars a lot so for example putting a car at the top of the ramp and me saying 1,2,3 go and then let it go. I would do it a few times and then next time just do 1,2,3 and look at him to try the 'go' so that I can let the car go down. Anything that has an easy verbal pattern like that.
-giving simple choices and encouraging verbalizing answers instead of pointing (or along with pointing)
-lots of repetition
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