Does my son have a problem?

Question

My twenty-five month old son is very bright. He knows all of the alphabet by sight, can identify any letter if asked and knows all of the letter sounds. He also can also identify about thirty body parts and thirty animals and their sounds. He has been doing all of the above for the last four months or so. He just has a bit of difficulty forming words. For example; he will call a fire truck a dee-dee-dee. But if he is asked what a fire truck says, he will make a perfect siren noise. Or, he will thank someone for an item received with something that sounds similar to "Thank you", but a stranger would never know what he had said. He will make the syllables, but not the actual word. However, he can say "hello daddy” and "hello mama" perfectly. It's so strange. So, what's the deal? Should my wife and I shell out the money for a speech therapist, or just give him a few more months?

Answer 1

If he can verbalize the letter sounds, then he has no problem, it sounds like he can hear and speak. Many boys don't start talking until well around 2 1/2.

It sounds like you are spending a lot of time teaching him and this is great, but make sure you don't burn him out. Make sure he gets lots of play time.

Next time you take him to the doctor, verbalize your concerns, of course by then you may be tired of hearing him talk. Mine is a non-stop talker, I used to pay him to play the quiet game.

Answer 2

Give him MANY more months. Speech is not related to 'brightness'. Most children by the age of 2 cannot pronounce most words that they can say very well. That's usually why the parent can decipher their child's words and strangers can't. It's very normal for you to have a bright child who can't YET correctly pronounce everything. By the time they are 3.. you will be able to understand most of what they say, and by the time they are 4, you will understand everything. On a side note, stuttering is also normal. Most children will go through a stuttering phase around 2 that can last until they are almost 4. Congratulations on having such a bright boy.

Answer 3

I'm sure you have done this, but check your insurance coverage. You might have coverage for 10 visits, like going to a chiropractor, and see if your son would be covered to visit a speech therapist. I took my son to a speech therapist when he was 4, as he would not pronounce words/letters properly. It sounds more like he is just being a 2 year old. Let him be a two year old. If he gets to be 4 or 10 and is still calling fire trucks dee-dee-dee's or dogs WHOOF-WHOOFS, than you might want to consider shelling out some dough

Answer 4

I wouldnt shell out any money on a speech therapist yet, my daughter is 4 and my nephew is 5 and they are both in speech therapy at their schools. Many schools provide free speech classes once they are older. If I were you I would just spend one on one time with your son and sound out certain words. My nephew for a long time would call certain things by other words or sounds but knew what sounds they made and now he can with help from his mom and his speech teacher say the words properly .....give it a little time and work and I am sure he'll be saying the proper name. Hope I was of some help.

Answer 5

He's perfectly normal. My son is 5 and still has problems pronouncing some words. I took him to a speech and language therapist to be assessed and he's right in the proper range for all of his sounds. Some of the sounds such as th and r can take longer to develope in some kids. She said that they don't become conserned until the child is around 6. Hope this helps and God Bless

Here's a chart to give you roughly the age where they should know certain sounds

http://mi001.k12.sd.us/speech.htm

Answer 6

give him some more time. my son starting talking late too, past 2 years, nearly 2 1/2 but when he did start talking...could not get him to stop. he still talks with a lisp at 3 1/2 with problems with some letters like s, f, r. i took him to a speech therapist who said that he was well within the range of his age group. no need to worry.

other also suggest to me then which i found to be effective is to enroll him in day care or a play group. the socialization with other kids helped jumpstart the talking process.

give til 3, if he's still the same, maybe you should seek a specialists opinion.

Answer 7

Wow, he sounds like he's very bright! Kids have to learn so much, and they just pace themselves in their own ways. Learning to talk is multi-faceted- it's either a form of communciation or a game/puzzle to kids. Girls, as a general rule, like to communicate, whereas boys like to solve puzzles. So it's actually very common for boys to know their letters and numbers, but not necessarily be able to speak words clearly. For similar reasons, boys will imitate sounds on their own, whereas girls like to be asked. For example- a boy will see a cow and say, "Moo!" A girl will wait until you ask her what a cow says, and then happily answer, "Moo!" This isn't a true rule, but definitely a common trend.

All children are different, but they all eventually end up at the same place. Very few kids get to kindergarten without being able to speak words clearly. And, if he's still struggling then, speech therapy at that age will not be too late.

Give him time, and enjoy it. Once he's ready to communicate, he will. And then you'll wish he'd hush up! =)

Answer 8

At his age there wouldn't be much benefit to a speech therapist, though you might want to get his hearing checked thoroughly. I'm guessing he's an only child- coach him more with words and make a few attempts to get him to say something properly before you respond or give him something. My nephew went through something similar.. He hardly spoke until he was almost four. He just had no reason to as he could communicate in other ways. Good luck!

Answer 9

Just wait and see. It sounds like you have a very bright and talented young boy. :) Don't get a therapist yet, because he is still very young to be speaking. He'll get the drift of it when he gets a bit older. My son has a speaking problem, he'll be 4 in October. He can't say his SH or CH or TH and his R's. I'm going to try to get him some therapy later. He's starting preschool this year, in about 1 month! AHH!! Scary thought. :) Just don't put too much pressure on him-he'll just get frustrated. Try working with him as much as you can, but not too hard. It sounds like you and your wife work a lot with him already, so I doubt he'll lack in anything. :)

Good luck.

Answer 10

I am going through the same problem with a little boy i look after.
he has not started to talk yet, but the reason for this is because he has an older brother and sister who does everything for him, gives him what he wants when he points at it for example so he is not needing to learn to talk.
if this sounds like something that could be happening with your child try saying the word of what ever you giving him out LOADS then give it to him. don't be scared of going over the top it all helps for example if it is a cup say simple C.C.C.C CUP do you want your C.C.C.C.C CUP
hope this helps.
Good luck.