Speech Delay

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baby_glendon

New Member
My son is currently at 19mth, he cant talk at all but he do understand what we are saying. Till now he can only say mum mum (eat) and hmm mo (she me / what). He cant say mama or papa. I am very worry for him. He is a very clever boy and manage to recognise many words, like merry-go-round, button, monkey and many many more coz he watch alot of educational VCD, he point to me when i take two flashcard n ask him which is monkey n so on. I am afraid he is zhi4 bi4 zheng4. He seldom babble too. I did told this prob to the doctor when he went for his 18mth's injection, but the doctor say boy are slower, ask me wait till he is 2, if he still cant talk at least 2 word, come back immediately.

What to do? I read book to him since he is 9mth too. Shd i refer to speech therapist?
 


Hi Joanne,

Dun worry yet, my boy can only talk at ard 22mths though he did blurt out a few words after 18mths old but he stopped after that and start at 22mths, he is 25mths now and he can sing alrdy. His PD also brought up the possibility of autism when he still could not talk at 18mths, nor can he point using his index finger. He also seldom babbled or maybe can say nope. U can help him by saying out what he is pointing to, like if he is pointing to bird, U say " bird" or "u like the bird" etc... Late talkers are smarter according to some pple!

Just continue to talk to him in proper language, and u will yield results soon if there is nothing wrong with him.
 
Boys are later. My son at 2, only could speak 12 words. However after 2, there seem to be a speech explosion. He progress very fast, within 6 months, he was talking within complete sentences. And now at 5, alot of people commented he speaks very well for his age. IThis speech delay among boys is quite common among my friends.

I had the same concern as you. So what my PD suggested that after he is 2 years old was to write down the words he can say. If there is an increase, then it is not a concern.
 
hi cherrie,

Thanks for ur experience, my boy is jus lik wat u say, no babble at all, bt he seen 2 b v smart, can fix 5-6pcs puzzle when he is at 14th mth. When he is at 9mth he can say mama n bababa le, bt aft 1, 2mth he suddenly stop too. Smetime i jus thinking y he is so smart n knw the word surround him, y jus he cant speak up, or babble at all. Tat y my hubby n i scare he is autism.

Jus wana knw if any bb out there who is same as my bb, seldom babble or can be say no babble at all at 19th, can speak at later stage? N if speak at later stage, wil cos any prob eg like can pronouce properly or wat.

Mummies out there pls share ur no babble bb experience
 
Hi joanne,

A PD said there are 2 possibilities on why a baby dun talk, one is bcos his memory skills is good so compensate for his speech delay, the other is lack of vitamins and minerals but for this, they will only do test after 2 yrs old. If his memory skills is good, u will notice he remembers lots of things and imitates v well.

My boy's PD said autism covers a wide area, talk late doesn't mean autistic. I suppose if ur kid is not hiding in 1 corner doing repetitive stuff over and over again, and he is interested in his surroundings, willing to interact thru some sign language and is friendly with the usual pple he is with, he shd be fine.
 
thanks god... Aft hearing wat u say, i feel better. I hope my boy belong 2 the 1st group ba... Hahahaha.. Smetime i did find his memory is super gd, jus show him 1x, n he remember wea i kep favourite toy up the cupboard, aft a few day wil point to the cupboard n ask me take, bt i act blur, dun1 tak 4 him, he wil make a mess wit tat toy, n end up me tidyin lik mad.
 
there is another possibilities is speak too many different language to him, i wonder izzit that the cause, cos i speak to him in english n chinese, sometime mix both together. =p I did come across article saying if i speak too nagging to bb, he will get confused too. eg instead of saying: look at the monkey jumping around the garden! We shd cut short like: Look! monkey jump!!
 
Yes, for my boy, if i talked too complicated, he would look around and wonder what to do....So must chop chop the sentences. When he could talk, then u speak in full sentences... Is better if u just speak one language to him, and leave the other to ur hubby. I used to speak mandarin to my boy, now i speak english, he looks so blur! I dun think is bcos different languages cause the refusal to talk, but if u mixed the languages, he won't master the languages properly.

Now my boy can talk, we hope he talks less, he got so much requests and comments, and talk non-stop. A few days ago, he talked till his voice went rough!
 
Now i been searching about speech delay in the websit. and never discover anything to do with memory skill, but more to

1.Hearing loss or recurrent ear infection (Otitis Media)
2.Mouth deformities or abnormalities
Difficulty with Mouth Movements (uncoordinated movement of lips, tongue, jaw)
3.Genetic Inheritance
4.Prematurity can lead to many kinds of developmental delays, including speech/language problems.
5.Neurological problems like cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and traumatic brain injury can affect the muscles needed for speaking.
6.Apraxia of speech (pls read more)http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/ChildhoodApraxia.htm

Mummies out there who are interested to know more about speech delay can refer to
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourchild/speech.htm

Im started to worry again... for no.5 and no.6 =S
 
2day i notice my boy imitate my m0uth m0vement when i ask him to say mama but jus trying 2 read my lip, no sound out fr his m0uth. I hope thing shd b getting better soon.

Nw my son is at 19mth, im trying 2 find him a 3hr programme to let him interact wit m0re people when he is 22mth, hoping he wil speak up faster. Normally im the only 1 at hme wit him, no 1 talk 2 u much, n the programme he attend nw is only 1-1.5hr, i tik n0t long en0ugh 4 him 2 interact wit other leh.
 
Joanne
I think you're really too worried le. Relax! My boy didn't speak much until he was like 24 months onwards. He knows to speak certain words then but right now at 35 months, his speaking has expanded greatly!

What they are going through now is listening intently and one day out of the blue, am sure he will speak out. The moment they start to talk, I assure you, they won't stop!!
 
Hi All i am also facing the same problem,my son is comming to 3 years this dec 28,,to be exact he`s 33 mths nw and is attening childcare,but he simply refuse to speak,he loves watching tv and can be so engrossed in it..tv shows that he watch are words world,little einstien,barney,mickey mouse etc.smtimes he will say words by words..but most of the time he will be speaking in another language which i suspect is baby language which we dun understand at all..he is also veri stubborn..whenver i read books to him he will only select words he wants to say like Apple,Dog,bus etc..and he can call his sister name..but other then that he he will blabble a whole sentence of words that we dun understand at all..i only hear him saying words like octopus once and he refuse to say it again..so should i sent him to a speech theraphy??waiting for a slot to put him in I CAN READ?? Any advice pls??Many thanks..
 
Johanna, I face a similar challenge with my 39mo boy. And he doesn't even want to mimic the words when we try to coach him and doesn't like to be taught how to do things. We brought him to polyclinic when he turned 3 and dr said he has isolated speech delay. We've been referred to KKH for an appointment in Feb. Hope it'll be useful.

My son just started nursery and it's quite stressful for me cos he can't express his wants (or needs) in words so I don't know how he'll cope in school with his teachers and peers. Also, I cant get feedback from him regarding school. I'm thankful that I've an open communication channel with the teachers though.
 
Hi Cyn,
He's just started classes in an early intervention programme (EIPIC) which we were advised to enrol him in during the KKH appointment in February. Wow, time flies huh? I didnt even rmbr posting here. Heheh. Much has happened since then.

Pls email me at [email protected] and we can continue to keep in touch there. Will be glad to share my experience and what little knowledge I have.
 
Finally found the right thread! My daughter also has speech problem and it's soooo frustrating.. guess you gals haven't got your babies potty trained like mine? Lin, PMed you. Do you know if there's any branches in Hougang? Is their fees ex?
 
mummies who have brought their child for assessment before. what exactly do they do to assess if your child indeed has a problem that requires intervention?
 
My son now 3.5yrs has been diagnosed last week for a mild case of Autism. What was being assessed: eye contact, how he react to others & his behaviour. At the end of the session, the psychologist didn’t know if he really is autistic thus needed to find out more from his school. & after talking to the school, they then said its mild.

But I am not convinced based on the following assessments:
1. He does not have much eye contact when you talk to him – com’on, you’re a stranger thus why should he have eye contact with you?
2. He only play with a group of friends & not much with new comers – we adults also dun talk much to new colleagues so does that makes us all autistic?
3. His speech is delayed – yes, this we dun deny he is slow reason being he was premature at birth
4. He does not play with the psychologist – of cos as the environment is new & they gave him so many toys that he didn’t played with thus he is more interested in the toys then the adult
5. He does not talk to teachers – think this is normal

KKH recommends us to go for the Early Intervention Programme that will help him but also mentioned that there might be possibility that the school will not take him, they might think that he is too good for their programme. So, if he’s considered ‘good’ for the programme, so why should we put him through this??

Currently what we intend to do is to help him on his speech & see what happens by the end of the year. Many of my friends & relatives all were shocked to hear that my son was diagnosed autistic as to them, he is just a very active normal kid with slight speech delay.
 
Zp1503 - I agree with u. Sometimes I feel the doctors' assessments r doubtful bcos I feel they go by checklist (by the book)-- checklist of autism but not checklist of normal kids. B4 they do any assessments tests, in their mindset, they already had the impression ur kid is autistic bcos that is y u bring to them. When I ask the pd at Nuh, I said can autistic kids b a cunning/scheming person? Bcos he can do things in a v cunning way (not unconsciously but is v aware n planned) such as he push his cousin's arm away fr his chair when she didn't notice while watching tv, he did it slowly abit by abit, thinking I didn't notice. N there was a period when he put his nose picking into his mouth n he know I will scold him so when he know I'm lookin, he doesn't do that but when he thought I'm not looking he put inside. The doc response to me was "oh! Autistic kids r like that, they r not aware of socially unacceptable behavior!", my son only 3.5yrs old n not even diagnosed yet, he already labelled him. My nephew is 16 now n he still put his nose picking into his mouth when he tot nobody is looking n he is not even autistic, he is a perfectly normal kid n still do such socially unacceptable behavior what!
 
that's what most of my frens said too, they just follow a checklist.

anyway, i saw ur earlier post that ur son has speech delay too. Is he going to any therapy? I am looking for some speech development programme for mine in the weekends.
 
Hi dear mummies,

There is quite a good range of literature out there on autism in our public libraries. Good to read and be more informed before we send our children for diagnosis or reject doctor's diagnosis. Websites such as autismspeaks.org and autismsource.org are just a few of good online resources to refer to.

Just to share, I recently read this book, "Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid: Survival Guide for Ordinary Parents of Special Children". It's hilarious, yet effectively addressing some very real issues faced by parents of children with special needs. You can find it at our public libraries too.
happy.gif
))
 
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