[Luvhannah]

As a mom to my daughter from Guatemala who will be two on March 7 and we will celebrate her first birthday together. I am still worried about her speech. As a teacher, I know if you get behind in an area it is hard to play catch up. She only says about 15 words that others can understand. She has not put two words together at all. She was evaluated in October but they said she was physically ahead of her age and they thought she would be all right with talking just call back if I had concerns after she turned two. Just wanting to hear from some of you who have been through this. I thank you for listening and helping me.

[SKL]

Well, the last time we had a speech thread I was just about where you are now, and wasn't too happy about it. Since then, both of my daughters have made great strides. My youngest daughter came home at age 9 months and turned 2 in January. She acquired receptive vocabulary very quickly, and spoke her first 2 words at 10 months old, but her speech acquisition from there was slow. Just around her second birthday, her spoken vocabulary took off and suddenly I couldn't even attempt to catalogue all the words she could say. She still uses only very simple sentences, but just before age 2, she mostly only combined "I" with a handful of other words.

I believe that a factor in my daughters' speech improvement is that I asked their nanny to transition to Spanish-only interaction with them. Her inaccurate English was confusing them. And her trying to push them to repeat the confusing stuff was making them lack confidence. Once she stopped trying to "teach" them English, they both lightened up and the words began to flow.

I also started letting them repeatedly watch some kids' song videos and selected movies on DVD.

Aside from that, it seems something just clicked due to their age. At some mysterious moment, they decided that it was worth the effort to try to communicate most things verbally. Now it's great to "hear" how much they really do know about their world!

[karla-k]

our bio son turned 2 in November and had fewer than 10 spoken words in his vocabulary. we started speech therapy, and he has made radical strides. I think it was partly the speech therapy, but mostly he just decided to do it.

this same son didn't walk until 17 months and one day just stood up and walked across the room. he really doesn't do something until he is confident he can do it well and then he takes off.

I would try to get your DD into speech therapy, but I wouldn't get too worried about her just yet. she will catch up and someday you'll wish things were a little quieter

[guatparents2be]

i have a couple of questions:
how long has she been home?
was she speaking spanish at all when she came home?
do you speak any spanish?
gotta have that info before i weigh in.

[Luvhannah]

My daughter will be home a year March 12 and she came home saying no words in Spanish. She was in an orphanage which the early intervention specialists say that made a difference. I can speak some Spanish and I do try that with her too. Thanks for all the advice.

[cborsa7]

My daughter will be home a year March 12 and she came home saying no words in Spanish. She was in an orphanage which the early intervention specialists say that made a difference. I can speak some Spanish and I do try that with her too. Thanks for all the advice.

Our son came home at 9 months, he is now 20 months and we have had him evaluated by the parents as teachers program. We had the same concerns, as Nicco rarely speaks any English words. We have had him in a Spanish class since he was a year old. He speaks more words in Spanish than English but does understand both. He tested above average in all areas accept verbal. Our evaluation concluded that he has only being hearing English for a short period of time compared to the Spanish (9 months more) and that he will eventually "catch up" with his English. If you are not noticing any other delays with your daughter I would think this is the case for her. She only experienced Spanish for her first year of life, so that needs to be taken into consideration. Keep working with her and I am sure you will start to notice real strides in her vocabulary soon.

[Guatemom]

Cristian is also only speaking a handful of words...but we know that he has several physical factors working against him, such as his recently repaired cleft lip (which he still has little to no feeling in and may never regain. His nostril and lip were completely re-done), and also his ears. His left ear tube came out in Nov, and this week we go (again) to the ENT to see if they will schedule t-tube surgery. He has some minor hearing loss due to the awful infections (he's maintained inf's since coming home a yr ago), and as of his appt before last, his left eardrum was retracting. He's been going to the ENT about every other week. Whew! He does nod and says one-word things, he just cannot hear the pronunciation (sp?) of words...so all we get a lot of times are just the syllable sounds. I hate for my baby to undergo another surgery, but the t-tube will open up a new world of sounds for him, and I'm sure his speech will follow,

[ej-momtobe]

We were in a similar situation, where DS was behind the 'normal' milestones, so we had him evaluated shortly after he turned 2. Others had told us not to worry, but he's our baby, of course I worry. We got him evaluated, and he did just barely qualify for therapy. The evaluators were able to give us some tips to help us, so we opted out of therapy. Simple things like No TV, reading to him (which we always did a lot of) and make him attempt to say what he wants instead of pointing and going WAAAAAA. What really helped his speech get up to speed fast was being around his peers and imitating them.

You mention that you try to speak spanish with her too. I am all for bringing the child up bilingual (not sure if that is your goal), but that does cause delays in early speach, because the child is trying to learn things in 2 languages (2x the work)....but well worth it in the long run. That's one of the reasons why DS's speech was delayed. If you are doing spanish, be sure to be consistent with the spanish you are using. If you are just using a handful of spanish words to try to make things sound more like they did in guatemala, that may or may not be work. Most people I know from the US sound totally different when using spanish than native guatemalans do.

Good luck. Something people told me was not to worry as long as DS continues to make progress.

[cborsa7]

You mention that you try to speak spanish with her too. I am all for bringing the child up bilingual (not sure if that is your goal), but that does cause delays in early speach, because the child is trying to learn things in 2 languages (2x the work)....but well worth it in the long run. That's one of the reasons why DS's speech was delayed.

This couldn't be farther from the truth.
According to linguists and child development experts, children who learn second and even third languages acquire vocabulary at the same age and rate as children who speak English only, and they do not experience any long-term language delays. In fact, regular study of a foreign language is statistically proven to improve a child’s skill, vocabulary and comprehension of his or her native language. Additionally, children who study foreign languages consistently out perform their peers on standardized tests as well as in the classroom.
Of course you will always find those who won't agree. Our children are those which test consistently in the 99 percentile on the Iowa basics and learned their foreign language as babies. Don't underestimate your child's ability to learn, it is so important to them.

[SKL]

Originally Posted by cborsa7

This couldn't be farther from the truth.
According to linguists and child development experts, children who learn second and even third languages acquire vocabulary at the same age and rate as children who speak English only, and they do not experience any long-term language delays. In fact, regular study of a foreign language is statistically proven to improve a child’s skill, vocabulary and comprehension of his or her native language. Additionally, children who study foreign languages consistently out perform their peers on standardized tests as well as in the classroom.

I have a couple of comments on this.

First, I agree with you 99%. Our children are blessed in that they are already exposed to at least two languages, and fostering their mastery of both will create great assets for them.

However, I would say, first of all, that the studies I've seen have shown that there are delays in the native language when multiple languages are introduced. Maybe they speak the same number of words, but on average, they speak fewer words "in their first language." Not always, as all kids are individuals.

Second, a lot depends on who is teaching the second language and how. If a child has two caregivers who each exclusively speak a certain language to the child, that seems to be the ideal situation. When one parent switches between the two languages, that is less ideal. And as in my daughters' case, when someone with only rudimentary skills in a language tries to teach it anyway (whether it's the first or second language), that is likely to cause confusion and delays.

As a single mom, I struggled with how to help my kids maintain Spanish while learning English. The girls were getting confused when I switched around, so I started speaking only English, and they were really doing well - well ahead of "the curve" despite having only been home a couple months. When I brought in our Honduran nanny and she was working with them in (inaccurate) English, they became nearly mute. When she switched to mainly Spanish, they started talking much better. I am sure there were many other factors at play, but I do believe there exposure of a child to multiple languages can temporarily be a stumbling block if it's not planned carefully.

That said, a "delay" doesn't necessarily mean a problem, because most children catch up and then some. Even a child who is delayed in this manner may very well be ahead of the curve by Kindergarten.

[melissa41]

Our son, home at 7 months, turned 2 in Nov. At the time, he rarely spoke 2 words together. "Me more" was his favorite phrase. He has a huge vocabulary of words and can name all sorts of animals and objects in books when we look through them and I ask him. He knows how to say lots of food items, etc. In general he is just not a huge talker. I am a teacher but was not really worried since he understand everthing and I know he has a big vocab. In the last 2 months, I can definitely see a big difference...much more 2 and 3 word sentences. I have chosen not to have him tested. Normally I am a huge worrier but I just have that mommy gut feeling that he is OK. (And my pedriatrician thinks so too.)

[Luvhannah]

Thanks again for all your advice. We will be going for check up on March 10th so I will ask our pediatrician. God bless all of you!

[JustBarbara]

DS will be three on Friday!! and when he was 18 months I think he had about 10-12 words - forget putting two together. There was some improvement over the next few months and I even asked the ped if he should be evaluated - she said wait a couple more months and then POW! his vocabulary just exploded and he is now extremely verbal and effectively communicates using 10-12 word sentences.

As for understanding what I was saying - he was very aware so I was not worried. He also has been exposed to Spanish, Russian and some French since he came home at 5 1/2 months so I am going to respectfully disagree on the 'delayed development' that some posters have suggested with more than one language. All kids are different so of course there will be some who might be better sticking with one language.

The other night we were readig The Three Little Bears and I usually read aloud and leave the last word or two for him to finish - when Goldilocks tried the first big bowl of Kasha it was too hot. Kasha being Russian for porridge - ah so much to learn.

[UVAwahoo93]

Bella came home at age 14 months. After being with her for 6 weeks I put her in daycare- a home provider with 4-5 other kids of various ages. Imagine my surprise when she and anyone there would be surprised when Bella actually opened her mouth and talked to me- aparently she didn't talk at all at daycare! I switched daycare this December around Christmas for other reasons. Within a few weeks Bella's vocabulary doubled. It's now been only 2 1/2 months in the new daycare (a center with a class-10 kids)-she has just exploded in vocabulary and is suddenly speaking in 2-4 word sentences. So, not only the home environment needs to be taken into account. I didn't realize Bella was holding back until she bloomed.
Carrie