Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

For the most part, with the exception of a few words, ds only says the beginning syllable or sound of words. For example, he will only say the part in parentheses of words like (pi)g, (bea)ch, (fi)re, (pea)nut, (bir)d. He recently had a pretty significant explosion of vocabulary, in which hes gained a lot of new words and can even string 2 or 3 words together sometimes, but he still leaves the ending sound off of most words, so really only me and my Dh can understand him. And even we cant fully understand him sometimes. Hes currently 28 mos, and for a long time he had a very limited vocabulary, but not enough for his dr to be concerned bc at age 2 he did have at least as many words as they look for, but not much more than that. Is this something I should be concerned about at his age? He also mostly identifies animals by saying the sound the animal makes rather than the name of the animal (woof, neigh, moo, etc) which hes been doing for a long time now and even though we always try to correct him by saying the name of the animal he is still doing it.

Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

I think you should wait to closer to age 3 and get him evaluated for speech. I wouldn't worry about what your pediatrician says so much - ours kept telling us my dd was fine but I pushed bc my husband and I were also the only ones most of the time that could understand her. He told me as long as we are understanding 80% of her words - and even after we said it was no where near that, he still felt like she would "catch up". I got her evaluated anyway as soon as she turned 3 and she is now going into 1st grade and still receives speech 3x a week. I am glad we got her the speech starting young bc I can't imagine how much worse it would be if we didn't.

ETA- I am no expert in the field but with my experience with my own child that was doing a lot of what your saying (dropping the end part of words) - I think he will qualify

Message edited 8/13/2018 1:10:36 PM.

Re: Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

I feel it couldn't hurt to get an evaluation started through Early Intervention. If he doesn't qualify you can always wait until he is 3. At 3 you'd have to go through your local school district though.

Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

Actually depending on his birthday, you could start with CPSE. Try calling the Special Ed department in your school district and ask. I was able to do this with my son.

Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

I think the final consonant deletion is supposed to be outgrown by age 3.

Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

Personally, I would have him evaluated now. The worst that could happen is he catches up and doesn’t qualify.

Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

I would have him evaluated now. There’s no harm in an evaluation. My son is 18 months and we have been having speech therapy since 17 months because I felt he was behind(didn’t have the basic mama dada baba). I am paying out of pocket because my insurance is giving me more than EI was I was only getting 1 45 min session with EI and I don’t feel that was enough. I can see a huge difference between my twins (I know don’t compare but it’s hard not to) my son getting the speech also has hearing issues so it just made sense for us to do it! Rivals can’t hurt and if he does qualify the extra support with speech will be beneficial! Good luck!

Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

i'm a speech therapist-- that sounds like a phonological process we call "Weak Syllable Deletion".... when kids leave out the "weaker"/ unstressed syllable of the word. (because is just doesn't stand out to them as much when they hear the word...) its "normal" up to about age 4.... but i would just start now with repeating the word back to him the right way, and really stressing the weaker syllable that he's leaving off, so he can really hear it. i think that should help, especially since you said he's recently had a vocabulary explosion... so he just needs more practice/ exposure to the right way of saying the words....

Message edited 8/13/2018 8:13:41 PM.

Re: Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words

Re: Normal or not? Almost 2.5 yr old only says beginning sounds of words