Comments about ‘My baby isn't talking: late bloomer or speech delay?’

It's amazing how wide the range of development is. Our daughter was speaking in complete sentences by the time she was 18 months. One of our sons, on the other hand, spoke fewer than a dozen words at age 3, although he understood everything. But he taught himself to read well before kindergarten. Now, both of them now are successful young adults.

I think if parents, especially mothers, have concerns with this with their child, they should do something about it. Mother's intuition or percsption on such things are usually correct and doctors and professionals would do well to listen carefully to the parent's concerns. Parents with purpose is a good thing to look up on the internet.

My nearly-three-year-old doesn't seem to be -quite- where she ought to be, speech-wise. Though she knows and understands dozens of words, she cannot pronounce any consonants except bilabials (b, p, m) and a couple of dentals (d, n).

She babbles to me, her books, and her toys constantly, but it's still a struggle to interpret what she's saying.

She has an older sister who frequently speaks for her, and my two-year-old is very much a tomboy, so I wonder if maybe she's just a late bloomer. On the other hand, three of my husband's siblings and two of mine required speech therapy, and three close relations (two siblings and nephew) have Asperger's Syndrome (now labeled as higher-functioning autism).

Just to err on the side of caution, I think I'll have a pediatric audiologist/speech pathologist see my daughter, just to rule out any medical problems. Hopefully my daughter will hit her stride and things will be fine--the easiest and least expensive route--but we'll do whatever needs to be done.