I just want to offer: feeling uncertain or insecure about your kid’s prospects is normal and healthy. Be curious but also explore the idea that a delayed kid is happy+great too. Also, pretty much everyone learns to speak normally eventually. Irrelevant personal anecdote (my speech-delayed kid is not really an ‘einstein’) follows:
My 1st was mildly precocious in signing, speaking, singing; I felt uncertain about my 2nd, who was many months slower on his first words yet did have ~80 words by 2 (below avg, though his understanding seemed fine) and now at almost 3 years is normally competent+chatty. It’s apparently more common for boys to have this sort of delay. I wondered if some chipped teeth (avoided dentist during covid) might have contributed. I read into him a low desire to verbally communicate (insecurity of some sort? preference for physical grabbing/pointing/showing?) yet he loves to narrate + interact now. He only rarely tries to hum/sing—some people are musical, seems mostly unrelated to speech. He got started trying to speak mostly in the context of peekaboo type 1.4 year old game playing (“oh no! you’re stuck” “the ball is stuck!” repeatedly wedging self or toy behind couch). Sounds like a completely different trajectory/mechanism from your son’s speech delay. (My 3rd is 4 mo old but far more expressive w/ babble+eye contact than her sibs—perhaps competing for limited attn or fed by more toddler stimulus?).
I’m very confident that a follow-up to this post in 2 years would be “well, totally normal speech now”.
pretty much everyone learns to speak normally eventually
Well, Camarata says that 60% of late talkers catch up within a year or two.
In my kid’s particular case, the odds are much higher than 60% because I have a lot more information about him than just the one datapoint that he’s a late talker. I’m not worried.
It’s apparently more common for boys to have this sort of delay.
Yes, I forget the ratio, maybe 80⁄20 or 85/15? I don’t know why it’s so lopsided.
I just want to offer: feeling uncertain or insecure about your kid’s prospects is normal and healthy. Be curious but also explore the idea that a delayed kid is happy+great too. Also, pretty much everyone learns to speak normally eventually. Irrelevant personal anecdote (my speech-delayed kid is not really an ‘einstein’) follows:
My 1st was mildly precocious in signing, speaking, singing; I felt uncertain about my 2nd, who was many months slower on his first words yet did have ~80 words by 2 (below avg, though his understanding seemed fine) and now at almost 3 years is normally competent+chatty. It’s apparently more common for boys to have this sort of delay. I wondered if some chipped teeth (avoided dentist during covid) might have contributed. I read into him a low desire to verbally communicate (insecurity of some sort? preference for physical grabbing/pointing/showing?) yet he loves to narrate + interact now. He only rarely tries to hum/sing—some people are musical, seems mostly unrelated to speech. He got started trying to speak mostly in the context of peekaboo type 1.4 year old game playing (“oh no! you’re stuck” “the ball is stuck!” repeatedly wedging self or toy behind couch). Sounds like a completely different trajectory/mechanism from your son’s speech delay. (My 3rd is 4 mo old but far more expressive w/ babble+eye contact than her sibs—perhaps competing for limited attn or fed by more toddler stimulus?).
I’m very confident that a follow-up to this post in 2 years would be “well, totally normal speech now”.
Thanks!
Well, Camarata says that 60% of late talkers catch up within a year or two.
In my kid’s particular case, the odds are much higher than 60% because I have a lot more information about him than just the one datapoint that he’s a late talker. I’m not worried.
Yes, I forget the ratio, maybe 80⁄20 or 85/15? I don’t know why it’s so lopsided.