So I know dd is behind in regards to speech as her 3 day older cousin speaks in 3 word sentences already...she'll be 2 next month and only has a handful of words.

At playgroup last week they had a speech pathologist. Obviously I'm already interacting with her and spend heaps of time singing, talking, reading etc but she doesn't respond .
Apparently she should have about 50 words now and be putting 2 words together. My GP wanted to see a big improvement from 18 months to 2 years but I'm afraid there hasn't been much to report.
She babbles but it's unrecognizable. DH thinks it's fine and she will talk in time. I agree but still want to know what's a reasonable amount of time to wait before seeing a speech pathologist? I don't want to ignore what could be an issue.
She won't even say Mama. Refuses to call me anything although she does call Dad!

There can be quite long waiting times if you go publicly so I'd go get a referral now if you're planning to use public services
If your going privately probably give it 6 months and re asses

But do you think she'd respond to the therapist?

I'm not really sure...but maybe RS could help? She's quite knowledgable on things like this...

I know our boy isn't any where as clear in his speech as DD was. But he is progressing, so I guess we aren't worried as there is definite progress.

I'm thinking if she isn't 2 yet I wouldn't be too worried myself.

I know my ds1 didn't really talk much at all until 2 and then he took off. Makes it hard for you when her cousin is a lot more advanced though. I'm the same as Mummsy and I wouldn't worry until 2

my son was the same at 2 years health nurse recommended speech therapy took him too see a speech pathologist and its amazing how much he interacted with the lady she played cars with him and had a great way of bring out all his sounds, she checked him again in 5 months time to make sure he is progressing massive difference she said there's nothing wrong with him he just needed more time. try not too stress too much but always better too get these things checked specially for piece of mind.

My daughter was a little behind on her speech too. My DH thought she was fine but I was worried. The health nurse organised for us to go to a special play group that would have specialists visit each week and give advice. And then we saw a speech pathologist independent of the group. They also organised a hearing test to make sure all was well there too. I'm pretty sure it was council run or a community based service?

Maybe see your Dr/health nurse and they should be able to point you in the right direction, I think it's good to get checked out early, much easier to "fix" at a young age. And remember, all kids develop at different speeds, no two kids are the same smile

RS, the above post is so informative and well written. My already high opinion of you went up another notch smile

I can't add much than what RS has had to say. But as other have said the waiting lists are long if your after public health. Lets just say that one of my boys has been on the public waiting list for the second time and we are still waiting and it has been almost 18 months. One of my twins was diagnosed with major speech problems at 3 years old. When we were assessed the speech person said he has major issues but not sure how he would respond being so young. We had great success and we made the practice fun at home. So did she at the sessions once a week.

If you have concerns I would be seeing your GP and getting a referral. Early intervention is the key. But as RS said just try to encourage speech at home. I know you probably are and it is really hard work. But when you look back and see the progress it is all worth it.

Sorry I have to brag. My DS that had the major speech problem is in year 1 now at school and has had no issues. This year all kids for year 1 to 6 have to compete in a public speaking competition at school. I found out on Friday that the one that had all the issues has made it into the next round. We are so pleased and all the hard work has payed off. I am about to ring the speech pathologist and take him off the waiting list as he is doing so well. So don't give up. She may just need time.

Good luck.

Something else to consider is to see if you local community health clinics have a drop in morning for concerns. The ones near me have one day a fortnight/month with about 3hrs set aside for 'drop-ins' where there is a speech pathologist, occupational therapist and physiotherapist available to evaluate children. All I had to do was show up, mark on a form which of the three I wanted to see (you can see as many of them as are necessary for your circumstances so I said I wanted to see speech and OT) and a brief run down of your concerns. It was a first come, first served type basis but they took the time to really listen to my concerns, had a short interaction with DS and were then able to say whether they felt that DS needed a more formal evaluation or whether they thought things were ok for now. With the concerns I went with they agreed that a more formal evaluation was needed and filled out the paper work to put him on the waiting list through the community health clinics for both OT and speech. The formal evaluations happened within about 3-4 months and then a month or two after that we started seeing the speech once a week and the ot every month or so (different issues). One thing to be aware of is that community health clinics aren't actually able to provide speech support once they're at school, at least in Qld they don't - it then becomes the school's responsibility or you have to go to someone privately, so it doesn't hurt to at least start the ball rolling early.

I'd been trying to get someone to give me a referral to a speech therapist for more than a year before I found out about the drop in clinic and just kept getting dismissed and told I was paranoid and my expectations of him were too high sad . It's frustrating because it meant that DS only had a term of speech through community health but we're lucky because the school he goes to actually has a full time speech therapist on staff and his teacher has already referred him to her for assessment and possible support at school based on the report I had from community health and the first few weeks of her interaction with him when school started (just waiting to hear the results of the assessment and whether he'll get any support through school now).

Leisa.

Thanks all. We have private so I'll wait until after 2. Give it another 6 months. The speech pathologist at playgroup was a community thing as you ladies mentioned.

Thanks RS. We do try. The Wiggles are helpful with the Apples and Bananas song etc.She does all the actions though but never sings. Sometimes just dances along lol
Repetitive books tend to get her attention like ten little fingers, ten little toes. She will point to her fingers and toes but won't say it!! So she can hear and understand just doesn't talk much.

All the stuff the Dr was telling me to do I was already doing which was frustrated because even DH felt like he didn't believe us.

I might wait until just after 2 and then make a call

Thanks RS a really good point about her words being a bit unrecognizable. She says things like "ish" which my mum realised was "finished".
She also says "bo" instead of "no" and shakes her head so that one was obvious

She often goes off on a babbling rant so I'm sure she does try and say some real words.
smile

I think if you are concerned about your daughters speech, you should definitely get it looked at because later on you don't want to look back and think 'if only I got it check out earlier' some will say that you are paranoid but I really believe in mothers instincts...they're usually right.

I was concerned about my daughters speech when she was only 11 months old, I took her to the gp where we monitored her progress for a few months and finally went to see a pediatrician where she have us a referral for speech therapy. We started speech therapy when my daughter was 18mths. She was diagnosed with a moderate speech delay and mild developmental delay. We started with private sessions while waiting for the public system. You can ask your gp and pediatrician to set up an 'enhanced care plan' for your daughter which will allow you 5 "free" sessions of a service u require for your daughter whether it be speech therapy, physiotherapy or occupational therapy. I say "free" because the amount Medicare pays is $50 and most services cost more than that, you will just pay the difference.

My daughter had two hearing tests which revealed that her hearing was 'fine'. It wasn't until we saw an ENT surgeon when my daughter was 31mths because she was getting recurrent ear infections that revealed she had 'glue ear' so it meant that she could hear...just not clearly. All that time when I thought "it's normal" for children not to get the words out clearly, it was actually because she couldn't hear the words properly...and in hind sight, I recall her being able to repeat high notes but struggled with low sounding words. So my daughter had bilateral grommets inserted at 32mths. Her pronunciation has improved but the word count is no where near as many as she needs at her age.

RS is spot on with all her speech tips, repetition, making a song of daily activities, adding on words, actions to communicate words, speech therapy through play, always putting a word to an action/object/feeling etc.

My daughter is now 3yrs and still going to speech therapy, going to daycare/preschool 3 days a week since she was 2yrs and once a week I take her to the library for 'storytime'. I currently have her on the public/community health waiting list to see a pediatric psychologist to check her IQ and signs of ASD. My daughter has always been a quiet and shy little girl, so it was always hard for us the distinguish whether there was an issue with speech or if it's just her personality. Call me paranoid but it would break my heart if in the future I realized that I could have done something but didn't...

Oh, and also, those 'unrecognizable' words are actually considered 'words' when the gp or speech therapist asks u "how many words" in your daughters vocabulary.

All the best to you and your daughter steph19, keep us updated on how your daughter is going! Goodluck!