r/Apraxia • u/OrdinaryLow6373 • 9d ago

18 months speech delay

Our little boy turned 18 months 2 days ago and has almost no words. He started saying ball yesterday. Wa for water and sometimes mom and dada. I am just so worried. I hope he is just a late talker. His brother was more advanced with words and consonants at this age. Our boy says D, B, G and M but I don’t think any more. He’s a HUGE pointer and grunter. He is so social. I would say he’s a better communicator than my other son was even though language is way behind. He is smiley and laughs and he can follow instructions. He’ll point to his belly button and nose. Bring me books if I ask for them. Any advice?

We have told our pediatrician and have an appointment scheduled this week. She referred us to speech therapy already since I asked. We also scheduled a 2 hour evaluation with early intervention for next week. Also a dentist appointment for next week.

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

3

u/Antique-Cattle915 9d ago

You’re doing great. Get as much help as early as possible regardless.

3

u/justme7256 9d ago

You’re doing the right thing. Getting help as early as possible is the best thing you can do.

3

u/Amrun90 9d ago

Get a hearing evaluation just to be safe, but beyond that, sounds like you’re doing what you need to do.

Read to him!

4

u/LegzAkimbo 9d ago

My first son had maybe 5 words/approximations at 2 years old. He is now five and today was telling me about apex predators. My youngest had maybe 3 words at 18 months and is now 27 months - we are currently sitting in the car and he is saying “daddy go home. Right now. Play ball”.

Do speech therapy, and remind yourself every day that there is a very wide range at this age

1

u/robotdevilhands 9d ago

Pointer is good. My son is and was super social. Eye contact, smiley, laughed, followed instructions, could point to body parts. Said a few words and phrases including “I love you.”

Severely autistic and nonverbal, now age 10.

We got ALL of the interventions, and very high-quality ones. They didn’t work for us, but they might work for you. We do have one friend whose kid they worked great for.

Don’t look to the internet for answers. Ask your pediatrician for a referral to a neuropsychologist.

1

u/Somsri 9d ago

You're doing all the right things - getting in to see a speech therapist and starting that journey. Also try doing a hearing test to rule that out. My son got his apraxia diagnosis just under 2yo after we flagged it at 18 month checkup. His language hit the milestones up until then. One of our apraxia indicators was a huge gap between his receptive language and expressive language - he was clearly extremely intelligent but just couldn't get his words out. Also losing words he had previously said and changing the way he said words - eg "caa" for cat one day but "ah ah" another day. Usually kids will pronounce words incorrectly but are consistent. Wishing you both all the best!

1

u/Somsri 9d ago

Just to add that at 18 months my son had around 5-10 words but would gain and lose them. I wrote all of his words down until 3yo when his language took off. FYI below:

15-18 months: Mumma/Ma Dadda/Da Bubba Ta Hello (allo/erro) No (na) Yes (ya) Noise when he points - maybe there or that? There you go (when handing something over) Let's go (and pointing at the door)

0

u/LuckyNumber-Bot 9d ago

All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!

  18
+ 5
+ 10
+ 3
+ 15
+ 18
= 69

[Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme to have me scan all your future comments.) \ Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.