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20 months old and still no words!



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amother
OP


 

Post Sun, Sep 19 2021, 9:26 pm
My baby is an adorable and clever 20 month old who has yet to say his first word.
I have posted about him before.

He has been getting speech therapy, and so far has learned 3 words in sign language very quickly. Now, over Yom tov, he won't be getting therapy for the next two weeks or so, but I try to enforce whatever he has learned in therapy.

Thing is, he can not produce a single sound that is a consonant.

I sat him down and put my face close to his and say "Mmmmmm" for Mama, and I can see he is watching me closely and struggling to say it, but all he ends up doing is opening his mouth and saying "aaah". I tried pinching his mouth together to show him...He keeps trying and trying, but all he can say is ahh or oh. He understands what we want from him but he simply cannot produce the sound.

He is trying so hard, I feel like crying.

I dont even know what I want with this post. He is working with an excellent speech therapist. His hearing is excellent BH. I'm doing all I can. But I am just so mystified about why he cannot say the b, p, m or any sound . He is trying but he can't do it.

Today he heard me tell my other kid, "I'm gonna count until 5...one, two, three, four..."
And suddenlyly we all heard the baby say something that sounded like FIVE without the consonants. He is so on the ball, but is so frustrated that he cannot speak. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?
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amother
Moccasin


 

Post Sun, Sep 19 2021, 9:47 pm
SLP here. Sure, this is standard fare for us -- I've actually watched a continuing ed video where the therapist described working with a 5 year old who talked a mile a minute with no consonants!
So, right now you have 2 goals. 1) to get her communicating, in whatever way she can, to ease her frustration in the short term. 2) to get her actually saying consonants and using them in words. It sounds like right now your therapist is targeting goal 1. If you're not seeing as much of goal 2 as you would like, bring it up with her. You also made need a different SLP who uses a more motor-based approach. If you can find a PROMPT therapist that is also a good approach.
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amother
OP


 

Post Sun, Sep 19 2021, 10:58 pm
Thank you. The therapist mentioned something about using the prompt approach but I'm not sure what that is.
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amother
Bone


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 5:07 am
I replied to a similar post earlier in the summer -- had a kid who also made no consonants at that age, and talked for a long time with vowels. Finally began making consonant sounds at age 3. This was 15-18 years ago, in Israel. At that time he got a "childhood apraxia of speech" diagnosis which I don't think really fit. But I belonged to the Apraxia-Kids listserv for many years and found it a very supportive group of parents with speech-challenged kids. I'm not sure the listserv is still active, but there's an Apraxia-Kids website with a directory of speech-language pathologists (who might be qualified to help your child even if the issue isn't "apraxia"). You should also look at the PROMPT Institute website for an explanation of what PROMPT therapy is ( https://promptinstitute.com/ ) . The site has a PROMPT-trained SLP search function. They helped me find a PROMPT-trained SLP in Israel many moons ago.
It's great that your child is communicating, showing comprehension, and possibly "talking" in vowels. Try not to worry too much (I know it's hard). Chag sameach!
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amother
Aquamarine


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 8:36 am
My 26 month old is the same! My heart is breaking for her because she has so much to say and can't say it. She's starting speech after sukkos and I'm so excited for her.
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amother1223




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 8:48 am
Please have him checked by a preferred provider/myofunctional therapist for tethered oral tissue. If you tell me your location I can help you find someone.

Your pediatrician and most probably current speech therapist is not trained in this area and not taught about it in medical school or college for speech therapy- therefore they may discount the need or say there’s no tie- however, they don’t know how to properly diagnose and treat.

No hating- I know (not sure why!) this topic is controversial and I’m trying to help mom
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amother1223




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 8:49 am
Also rule of thumb, common doesn’t necessarily mean normal. Kol ha kavod for advocating for your child
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amother
Teal


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 8:52 am
amother [ Moccasin ] wrote:
SLP here. Sure, this is standard fare for us -- I've actually watched a continuing ed video where the therapist described working with a 5 year old who talked a mile a minute with no consonants!
So, right now you have 2 goals. 1) to get her communicating, in whatever way she can, to ease her frustration in the short term. 2) to get her actually saying consonants and using them in words. It sounds like right now your therapist is targeting goal 1. If you're not seeing as much of goal 2 as you would like, bring it up with her. You also made need a different SLP who uses a more motor-based approach. If you can find a PROMPT therapist that is also a good approach.


ANother SLP here. I wouldnt necessarily jump to PROMPT but it doesn't hurt. OP, where are you located? Maybe we can suggest a coworker if you are interested in additional support.
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amother
Tiffanyblue


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 9:05 am
Slp here as well.
I understand everyone jumping to prompt tx. But I will add, please sing some familiar songs with her and practice greeting chains/or other simple conversation/words that are very common. Children, especially with apraxia (if that ends up being the dx) are much better with routine/rote speech. One of my first cases, a child who really struggled just to say his name, would sing happy bday and the wheels on the 🚌. But it really helped practice sounds and build confidence and he bh grew so much from there. Keep on talking to her. While you play, or even just doing errands- talk out loud!
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southernbubby




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 9:07 am
How do we know that these kids can actually hear sounds? Maybe they have fluid in the ear or something else preventing them from hearing.
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dankbar




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 9:22 am
My dc spoke maybe 5 words by 18 months but now not even 2 yet repeats everything. No therapy. Bh. They sometimes develop later on their own pace.
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miami85




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 9:28 am
My son was diagnosed with Apraxia at 22months and I found that his most productive years in speech was when his therapist used a PROMPT approach. Other speech therapists were good for "language" which he also struggled with but in terms of sound production, PROMPT worked much better, but you can't "request it" as an EI or CPSE therapy. He's 10.5 now and while he talks he still has difficulty with some sounds. He was always a "chatterbox" but at 18 months when he should've had at least 15 words he had MAYBE 5 and all used the same sounds. He clearly WANTED to talk but was getting frustrated that we didn't understand him.
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amother
Tiffanyblue


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 11:38 am
southernbubby wrote:
How do we know that these kids can actually hear sounds? Maybe they have fluid in the ear or something else preventing them from hearing.


Op mentioned hearing is excellent. Usually thats one of the first things to get checked to rule out speech/language issues.
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Aurora




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 11:45 am
Just wanted to say some children are slow talkers. It runs in my family.
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amother
Moccasin


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 11:53 am
Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that Prompt is the only method that can help. That is just one exa of of a motor based technique. There are many others. I'm not Prompt trained and have successfully worked with this pattern.
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honey36




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 11:58 am
Here's another slp vote to at least try prompt.it can't hurt.

Also for consonants, I wouldn't start with m sound since it's a nasal sound so more complicated.

Keep trying with p and b or even t and d. Sometimes cvcv or vcv, VC or CV words are even easier than the consonants by itself for kids with apraxia.
Start with words like Abba, bee, pa, baba, dada etc
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amother
Moccasin


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 12:06 pm
For any SLPs following this post, if you haven't already, I would highly recommend that you check out Pam Marshalla's work.
Pammarshalla.com
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tweety1




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 3:03 pm
My kids never say a word before age 2. The most they might have said is mamma and tatta. Sometimes only one of them.
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amother
Poppy


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 3:06 pm
Just curious what determined excellent hearing? A hearing test?
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amother
Teal


 

Post Mon, Sep 20 2021, 3:12 pm
amother [ Moccasin ] wrote:
For any SLPs following this post, if you haven't already, I would highly recommend that you check out Pam Marshalla's work.
Pammarshalla.com


I want to get her marshalla guide but I dont have 120$ to spend atm Twisted Evil
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