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I'm certainly no expert, but I think reading to children is really important. That way, they hear lots of different vocabulary and intonation. I'm sure you probably already do this, but maybe just engage her in simple conversation about things in her world. And what about music? If everything else is on track as far as receptive language and comprehension, I'm sure her speech will catch up just fine in time.

My son has verbal apraxia. I noticed his differences at 18 months. He couldn't sing. He would say "twinkle twinkle star, up world high, like diamon, twinkle twinkle star". His receptive was on age throughout all of this. He had to be taught his articulation and parts of speech (he doesn't say is, am, are). Once we found an apraxia specialist he has been golden.

One of our major clues, was that his speech develops randomly. He may he advanced in a few memorized sentences (for example he said water with the r crystal clear but sandbox was saab).

If you qualify, you should do speech. She had him do a finger sign for each sound so he has to plan it and think about it before speaking. We really like tiga talk apps.

I am not sure how it works where you are, but I'd get an evaluation, part of that is you sitting in and seeing the strategies that they use.

My son has been in speech therapy for over a year now, and some of the things that he does with the therapist are muscle strengthening activties, like blowing bubbles, bite sticks, button pulls...all things to help the mouth, jaw, tongue get stronger to make the sounds better.

My son is very behind on expressive language while doing very well with receptive language. I'd definitely recommend just getting speech therapy started right away. Why wait? It can only help.

I didn't read any one else's comments.

I just thought I would say we were worried about this too!!

His doctor was never worried about it... everything I read and people in general seem to tell me he was behind.

I honesty didn't do anything other than talk and read to him which is what I would have done anyways.. In the back of my mind I thought he would need therapy.

Right around LO's 3rd birthday he had a word explosion, he talks so much!

I guess I'm saying if your doctor doesn't seem concerned maybe it's not something to be worried about?

We play a little game where we read her favourite rhyming books but miss out the last word of each line and she fills it in. We do it with songs too. Then after a few weeks of that we drop the last two words etc. E has picked up so much that way.

I'd also recommend getting a speech evaluation right now. The worst that could happen is they will start services and she'll phase out quickly. Speech is really, really important (for social, emotional, and academic development) and intervening sooner is nearly always the best bet. Plus, I'm sure the professionals will have a ton of recommendations for activities at home!

My son is 26 months and only strings 2 words together sometimes too but my pedi wasn't concerned either. He has nearly 200 words though and his speech really exploded when he turned 2. I admit I was really worried before he turned 2 but once his speech exploded I feel a bit better.

@brownie: Did your LO need to learn parts of speech at 18 months? My LO is 19 months and just now saying "I jump," etc!

And his version of Twinkle Twinkle sounds great to me - I have been impressed with my 19 month old singing, "How I wonder what you are," even though it is garbled. Or do you mean he didn't make the sing song voice?

@daniellemybelle: He is 4 now, so the parts of speech have been the last few months. His sentence structure still sounds like a 2 year old with a lot more big words. The twinkle twinkle was at 3 years old example. At 18 months he was dropping ALL last syllables. So dog was dah etc. one or two words he said the whole word but most were dropped.

@brownie: Ohh, okay. That makes sense. Glad you were able to identify his needs and get him the support he needed!