[Luvhannah]

My daughter from Guatemala turned two in March and as a teacher myself I am still concerned about her speech. She probably can say 30 words that anyone could understand but after that it is babble. She just recently put two words together when she said daddy truck and I was thrilled. I had her evaluated by our state's early intervention services last October and they found no real problem and said she would catch up because she is so far ahead of others physically so once she puts her energy into talking she will do fine. Should I contact them again to see what my options are? We are around other two year olds who are easily talking in two words and more so it worries me. Thanks for your advice. She was in an orphanage for a year if that makes a difference.

[momofMikhail]

I would absolutely try early intervention again. My ds has been taking speech therapy for 10 months now, and his speech has improved dramatically. Also early intervention ages out at 3 years old, so if she needs it now, you will want to get her started as soon as possible. With ds we have to use one word at a time for new phrases (usually for a few weeks) before he word say the entire phase together. Good luck, and I hope your dd gets the help she needs.

[SKL]

I would support getting an updated evaluation. I understand your concern, as my daughter was behind the curve at two, and hearing her peers chatter made it seem even worse than it was. In our case, things got a lot better around your daughter's age; but, my daughter has been home since she was 9 mos old.

One thing I did that may have helped: shortly after my youngest turned 2, I started having them watch DVDs with kids' music 2-3 times a week. They have always listened to a lot of music, but the videos helped to connect vocabulary with images, and showed kids acting out the songs. Maybe it was a coincidence, but my girls both started talking a lot more around that time. Other things that have coincided with my girls' speech spurts have been (a) going out and having new, exciting experiences and (b) being around other kids, whether or not the other kids are ahead of them in speech.

Good luck!

[Lauren57]

I would add another vote to the recommendation to get another eval. My son never qualified for early intervention, but I still had concerns about his speech. I had an eval done at 3 1/2, same story--although he was "behind" he was not "behind enough to qualify for services". At 4, he finally was "behind enough", and a year of speech therapy before kindergarten made a huge difference. I really had to persevere, though!!

Lauren, mom to Michael who is finishing kindy in 3 weeks!!

[bethy724]

I would have another evaluation by a Speech Path reccommended by your pedi. My sister tried working thru the county/school system/ESL & they said her daughter was fine while a Speech Pathoologist worked with her for almost 1 year & the results are amazing. Sometimes I think school systems/counties try to save resources for severe cases.

[bmarsicano]

My daughter came home at 20 months and I wanted to get her into early intervention. They came and evaluated and said she was only about 4 months behind so don't worry. By that time she aged out and I tried our town's resources. They evaluated her based on what I told them, never saw her, and thought that she didn't need any services, but if she's not talking by kindergarten to let them know. Hello?? So I was on Medicaid and called them and she has been going to the hospital for almost a year and a half 2 times a week and she is doing so much better. They found out she had a weak tongue so she couldn't make the sounds correctly. Next week will be her last week there. Now I think I need behavioral therapy for her.

[Luvhannah]

I feel also that our state's money is only for severe cases because they just kept telling me over and over that she will be fine. Also I may need to get behavioral therapy for mine she is busy, busy, busy. It worries me as to how a therapist would even get her to be still. I appreciate your help. God bless you and your little ones.

[Theslaws]

I agree with getting another opinion. I am a pediatric speech pathologist who works in an outpatient clinic. The school systems/Early Intervention can only provide services if the child is atleast 30% delayed (atleast that is the rule in MI). Many of the kids I see dont qualify for services through the school/state but still need treatment. Just because they dont have 30% doesnt mean they arent better off with some therapy. So I would recommend the EI eval as well as possibly looking into an outpatient facility (if she doesnt qualify for EI). I always say trust your mommy intuition!

Good luck. Feel free to PM if you have any specific questions!

[Beachbaby]

OMG -- I wish Geoff was where you are!! He also turned 2 in March, came home at 14months (it'll be a year next week) .... he did qualify for EI --- as he only has about 5 words in his vocab. .... honestly, sometimes I worry, sometimes I don't. Our two bio girls were both speaking in sentences by 2 -- however, I know american-born boys who didn't speak in sentences until 3 --- so, we'll see. We're doing EI and it seems to be working ok (we're starting with signing of course) .... but no worries yet, he understand EVERYTHING we say, so that's a good sign he'll eventually catch on!!

Good luck!!!

[whereintheworld]

I'm thinking you might want to consider getting a private consultation. I'm guessing that she isn't far enough behind to qualify for services through EI, and in some locations, the assessment is done purely to see if you hit the cutoff, not for the purposes of identifying needs.

I do have another suggestion for you, though. See if you can find a copy of the book "It takes 2 to talk" through a library or maybe even EI. It is simple reading and gives great ideas for things you can do to prompt more language. There is also a short version of it for late talkers.

We are 18 mos into speech therapy. For a while, we were doing both private and EI. My son didn't combine any words till just after turning 2.5 y.o. He's still behind, but I think the things that made the biggest difference were spending more time around peers that talked more than him, spending more time with us "playing" but using the strategies from the books above, singing and acting out LOTS of songs, and us spending a lot of time every week working on the things the speech therapists suggested. Sometimes it feels like "Life is a speech lesson."

Good luck!