Should I be concerned about my toddlers lack of communication?

Question

My son is almost 2 1/2 years old and he still does a whole lot of baby talking. You can understand a few words occasionally but for the most part he mumbles so fast that you can' understand him. I know that some people out there are thinking well don't worry about it but the think that upsets me the most is that when he gets hurt or wants something he's tries to tell me but when I don't understand him and try to get him to speak he hits at me. I don't get angry about this because he doesn't actually hit me but I pity him because I know if we were over this communication hump it would be better. If I ask him to repeat things I say he can, but when it comes to conveying his emotions (he gets hurt) or something he wants (food, drink) I can't understand a word I have to guess what's wrong. So should I feel concerned about him. What should I do?

Answer 1

please contact your local early intervention program. Your son should be saying at least 5 dozen words. he tries to hit because he is so incredibly frustrated that he cannot communicate with you.

My son was 27 months old and said 10 words when he entered early intervention in February. he had horrible screaming fits multiple times a day because of our communication problems. The first thing I was told to do was go borrow a series of DVDs from the library called  "signing times" to teach him some signs. I did this for about 2 weeks before he started speech therapy. By the time he saw her he knew like 15-20 signs and the tantrums had started to get better. The therapist diagnosed him with apraxia and started seeing him 2x per week. By June he was starting to speak in short sentences. A few minutes ago he told me "the remote is hiding from me. where is it?". As you can tell, a little therapy went a long way with him. He only has oral apraxia...he cannot coordinate the movements needed to make the correct sounds. he uses both ASL (sign language) and spoken word all day long.

If you e-mail me with your e-mail address I can shoot you back a copy of a great article on developmental verbal dyspraxia. It makes a lot of sense and answers a lot of questions

Answer 2

I agree with the poster above me that you should try baby signs. My son uses them and he is a pretty easy going kid. When you teach him the signs you should still use full sentences and talk to him a lot. We got a baby signs book at Babies R Us for about $7.00, and it was well worth it!  They say girls pick up language quickly, but boys pick up math quickly. So, you may have a little engineer on your hands!!

Answer 3

When my son does this, I say to him "I would like a..." and wait for him to finish the sentence.  Then I ask him to repeat, "I would like a ____." before I had it over.  Have him try once, but be sure to give him what he wants even if you still have difficulty understanding, remember he needs practice.

Answer 4

Well, as you said a lot of people would say don't worry, and in the end they would be right, but as you are a mum, it is your job to worry. I agree that it is probably frustration that makes him hit out at you. Try baby signing such as Makaton - this isn't to replace speech, or to suggest your child is disabled, it can be a fun thing to do and may help you to communicate. It has been known to help speed up spoken language too. Check out the links.

Answer 5

A friend of mine had a similar problem [btw, the terrible twos are usually that period that toddlers have just before their vocabulary expands to include the words they need to convey their needs: "I WANT MILK!!!!!"] when he was little; it turned out he had a TERRIBLE adenoid/tonsil problem that was keeping him from speaking correctly, in addition to keeping him from sleeping soundly.

He ended up with surgery, which fixed the problem. After a year or two of speech therapy, he was clearly understandable, and he was a much nicer little kid to be around.

Keeping in mind that it's common for a toddler to get frustrated because he can't tell you what he wants, I would definitely have him evaluated by the pediatrician for any physical issues with speech/hearing.