Almost 3 years old - not talking!

Have you ever been to a speech therapist?

I second that question.

My son only said "mama" until he was four years old. The diagnosis was general speech underdevelopment. We started working with a speech therapist. When my son gestured to show something, I pretended not to see and began insisting that he try to verbalise his desire. The speech therapist said the most important thing was to work with the child every day, in addition to the sessions. So, for two years, I worked with my son without missing a single day. The speech therapist told me what to do, and I attended the sessions. First, we paid for a year of sessions at home, and the second year we went for free sessions at the local clinic. Now he's seven, and you can't stop him talking.

Following up on the third post, I want to say that I put in a tremendous amount of effort to get my son to start talking. The key is not to be lazy and not to skip a single day.

Sorry to butt in, I don't have children yet, but from what I've noticed with acquaintances, they start to chatter away once they send their kids to nursery, as they socialise with each other there.

An acquaintance of mine had a child who only started speaking at the age of 6. He wasn’t diagnosed with any mental disorders or developmental delays, even though he didn’t speak at all—only made sounds. At 6, he was enrolled in a specialised nursery with a speech therapy focus, and he began speaking very quickly, immediately clearly and with all the correct sounds. Now he’s 11, with no lasting issues, attending a regular school quite successfully.

The first question in the topic.

You need to see a specialist and determine whether the speech area of the brain is not functioning properly, which can be stimulated with medication under a neurologist's care. Or if the child has a "wooden tongue," oral massages may be needed, and you should stick to routine work with a speech therapist.

Don't speak about things you don't understand. A child who doesn't communicate for a full 6 years, doesn't ask questions and doesn't receive answers, misses 6 years of life and development within it. That chunk is simply cut out of life.
There's also the danger that if the situation is left to its own devices, it will become very, very difficult, sometimes impossible on several counts, to restore the possibility for the child to speak.
A child's brain in speech development is similar to that of people who have had a stroke. The earlier the situation is taken under control and corrected, the greater the return. And besides, not all children agree to work with speech therapists; that should also be remembered.

He didn't speak until he was three years old. We didn't do anything about it. I don't know why. Now the boy is ten. He speaks normally, like everyone else.

Oh. I'm actually dealing with this right now.

The child is 3 years old. At 2, we had a medical check-up – a speech development delay. The speech therapist suggested sessions, but it was too early and inconvenient for my son – he couldn't sit through them, and the speech therapist was either on holiday or I gave birth to a second child.

He started nursery at 2 years old. His speech was distorted. Yes, he expanded his vocabulary over the year, but after the check-up at 3, I started actively looking for solutions to our problem. The speech therapist again confirmed the fact of speech delay. And again, she's on holiday until autumn.

A neighbour (a psychologist-speech therapist) advised changing to a speech therapy nursery, but it's summer now and everyone is on holiday again. Can't get through to the commission. Waiting for August.

The neighbour herself refused to work with our son for money.

Literally yesterday, a private speech therapist came to us (I left a request on the Logoden website, she was the only one who responded) and spent about an hour with us, observed my son, asked me for information about the course of the pregnancy, childbirth, the child's first months, illnesses, injuries, etc.). In short, she gave us a "diagnosis." We agreed on sessions with her. Three times a week. They will be in a play format (pencils, massage, etc.). She still recommends getting into a speech therapy nursery. That is, this work will be long-term, but we haven't let it slide, so to speak, we sought help in time. I also need to make an effort, do the work, show patience – I've been given homework.

Since yesterday evening, I've been reading about this deviation – everything matches. Thank God I now understand what's going on with my son. It's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I understand his behaviour, his emotions, his difficulties. I understand how I can help him.

The child will speak in any case, BUT if left unattended, problems will start at school and it could haunt him for life. That is, the child won't be able to absorb information, remember new words, pronounce them, etc. What kind of work can a person do if they can't form sentences? If they don't understand speech? Can't remember information?

I've noticed that children only start talking when they're interacting with their peers.

11. You simply haven't encountered such problems up close. From a distance, everything seems simpler, at a layperson's level. Close people have told me that my husband and I are raising our son poorly, that he is so disobedient, stubborn, etc. But he cannot speak and therefore communicates information as best he can. Sometimes he hits.

My son's brain doesn't work properly—to put it simply. It's a deviation. It could have occurred as a result of an injury or an illness. And interacting with peers won't help.

Our relatives have a boy who is almost 4 years old and he doesn't speak, he also communicates everything through gestures, but he understands everything - he's very clever. The doctors said that he will start talking, he just got very frightened of something. Author, if your child shows you something with gestures and you understand what it's about, fulfil his request, and then ask him to say it. For example: "Danya, say 'I want to eat'" and let him repeat after you.

13. Hahaha! Do you really think it's that simple?

Mine didn't speak until three either... We didn't go to the doctor... He just started talking on his own by three... At first, he began repeating everything, and now at 3.3, he's singing songs... But I think it was due to laziness in his case... I understood him by his looks, and he didn't make an effort, but at nursery, there are other ladies who need to be told...

Hang in there, patience to you! My mum also worked with me at home. It's very tough. And speech therapy nursery is from age 4, right? And there was a commission in April, I'm talking about Moscow. A boy from our group is transferring; they opened a small group for those under 4.

15. Well, we were told to wait three years. So we waited, and now the next commission is only in September. I'll do my best to get into a speech therapy kindergarten, although it seems I'll have to travel far from home. Yes, the main speech therapy kindergartens are for children from 4 years old. But I specifically need to find one where there's a speech therapist in the younger group. That's the challenge... So for now, I'm working with a private speech therapist. I repeat, the free one at our clinic isn't much help—either they're on holiday, or we're too young.

Forsunka, what was the issue with your speech? What problems did it cause?

Could you tell me the number of the kindergarten where that boy went?

Hello, Author.

My child is now 5 years old, and at around 3 years old, they experienced something very similar to what you're describing. Currently, they have a general speech underdevelopment at level 3. This means there's still work to be done, but the progress has been tremendous. So, don't delay—start working with your child to help them improve before school (or even sooner). I recommend reaching out to the Institute of Correctional Pedagogy; we've been receiving care there for two years now. It's a paid service, and everything is confidential.

It's best to schedule a double appointment with a speech therapist and a neurologist (costing around 2000 for the combined session). The appointment lasts about an hour. During this time, they'll observe your child, interact with them, and ask you detailed questions about everything. They'll prescribe medications and recommend further examinations if necessary. I was hesitant to give my child medication for a long time, but eventually, at 4.5 years old, I "gave in" and started. I saw results, and there were no side effects.

What also helped us: the sea (my son recently returned from the seaside and started speaking noticeably better), interaction with peers, and a speech therapy kindergarten (though they usually accept children from age 4). If finances allow, consider individual sessions with a speech therapist-defectologist (on average, around 700 rubles for a 40-minute session). A regular speech therapist might not be much help right now, as they typically focus on correcting sounds, whereas a speech therapist-defectologist helps the child start speaking.

For now, you should focus on consulting with specialists and engaging in speech development activities—preferably in a playful format, at least initially. Additionally, communicate with your child as much as possible, ask them questions, and verbalise the answers.

You might also find this link helpful: http://adalin.mospsy.ru/l_01_00/l_010410.shtml

Download E.A. Yanushko's book "Help Your Toddler Start Talking: Speech Development for Children Aged 1.5–3 Years" online.

There are many books and resources available in online stores like Labirint (this is just an example; other stores likely have them too).

Finger games and developing fine motor skills also aid speech development. If your child enjoys it, try modelling with clay or playing with sand—these activities are very beneficial.

If you have any more questions, feel free to write.

17. The Institute of Correctional Pedagogy is currently on holiday. I was told to call after mid-August. The cost of a double specialist is 4,000 (( there are no prices on their website, and someone like a security guard answers the phone.

Can you quote the prices for the sessions? Or is this their price of 700 roubles for a speech therapist-defectologist. I pay 1,200 roubles for 1 hour at our home. I'm eagerly looking forward to the first session tomorrow.

Sorry, a joke on the topic, can't resist:

A 10-year-old boy doesn't speak. Suddenly, one day at the table, he says: "The soup is unsalted!" His parents are speechless, his grandmother falls off her chair: "Why have you been silent until now?" "What was there to say? Everything was fine!")))

19. We've also been "laughing" at this joke all these years. I once said: soon our daughter will start talking, but the older one still babbles and gestures.

But we also have family peculiarities - 3 left-handers on the female side. And that involves differences in how the brain hemispheres work. Regarding intelligence, the speech therapist said everything is fine.

I'm researching information online - our deviation is poorly studied. It seems it can even be treated with music.

Oh, these children... In my case, it was the opposite—my child started speaking early (knew 40 words by the age of one), easily repeated words, started forming sentences by one and a half, and by 2.2 years old, he could effortlessly repeat and say complex words like "funicular," easily learned to pronounce the letter "r," and had no issues with being understood... In short, the neurologist scared us (the parents) with something else—saying that such early development is bad because the child might start stuttering... Honestly, you never know what's better or how to handle it... Sitting here, I genuinely envy those with ordinary kids...(((( And I wonder why nature creates such extremes...((((

4000 already?? Wow...

You know, here in Zelenograd we just work with a local speech therapist - a defectologist, and we pay about 700 rubles for 40 minutes, but she actually spends almost an hour with him. We've been working with her for over a year, and her prices haven't changed. Did you like your speech therapist? That's really expensive... Although maybe prices have just gone up... Two years ago in Moscow, a session was around 700 rubles too.

At first, Sashka fooled around, didn't want to sit, and it all went somehow, but then gradually everything normalized. However, he "works" for cartoons/magazines/sweets. That is, he clearly knows that if he doesn't work well, he won't get any of his beloved cartoons. I'm preparing you for the fact that your child might also act up at the beginning.

We have sessions twice a week for 700 rubles, also at our home, but we started when he was almost 4 years old.

There's also a good but expensive center, Nevromed http://www.nevromed.ru/. We haven't been there, but friends went with their son when he was about 3.5 (similar problems to ours). They saw neurologist Marina Nikolaevna Zaitseva and liked her. Also at Semashko, but I don't know any specialists there.

Don’t envy :) The most important thing is to carefully monitor your son’s speech development, and if there are even the slightest signs of stuttering, go to the doctors right away. Our speech therapist says that stuttering can be treated these days... so don’t be afraid—everything will be fine :) Wishing you luck :)

My daughter started speaking just two months before turning three, whereas before that she only used about a dozen words, even though she naturally understood everything and knew all the objects since she was one, she just didn't speak. All children are different.

Dani's mum, please don't worry prematurely. There are children like this. And it happens that after the age of three, it suddenly comes pouring out like a fountain, unstoppable. I don't know your situation, where you live, or your social circle, but I can say that such minor delays are common in bilingual families where parents speak different languages with their older children, and also where songs and cartoons in these different languages are heard from the screen. In such cases, the child inevitably needs to organise and systematise their language repertoire. This takes time. But then, to the surprise of some, they can accurately determine who to speak to and how. And they certainly don't mix words from different languages in their speech. These language streams run parallel for them, but they start to establish themselves a bit later.

I've heard something similar, though not often, but in a different setting. There, a child who was considered delayed in speech development was taken to a speech therapist. They complained that the boy was silent, even though he seemed to hear and understand everything. The speech therapist tried to communicate with him. He says to him: "Say MAMA." The boy is silent. He says: "Say BABA." The boy is silent. A couple more such questions. After that, the boy opens his mouth and says: "How you all annoy me!" At that, the session ended.

My nephew didn't speak until he was three, and we took him to a speech therapist. He only had basic words like yes, no, give. Then it was like a dam burst—he just woke up one day and started speaking in full sentences, hardly mispronouncing a word!

These are all wonderful stories, but there are plenty of examples where things aren't so rosy. Just take my child and the children of two of my acquaintances, for instance.

Many people listen to such wonderful tales and only realise the problem by the age of 5, when the child remains silent. From the age of 5, it's veeery difficult to correct, and the consequences can last a lifetime.

So it's better to take some measures and not let the problem escalate. I'm saying this as a mother whose child didn't suddenly start speaking at three years old.

And I wrote that the parents did consult a speech therapist, of course. You shouldn't just rely on hope. You need to take some measures, not wait for a miracle.)

If a child lives in a normal social environment and from the age of two hasn't uttered a single word or sound... then, unfortunately, the idea that "he's actually quite clever, just doesn't speak" is a comforting fairy tale... In reality, the child clearly has issues specifically with the brain... Another matter is that our doctors aren't always able to pinpoint the exact area or specific impairments... So, intervention is absolutely necessary! And of course, one must be prepared for the fact that this child may not be entirely typical for life.

My son also only spoke individual words and communicated with gestures until he was about three. I tried pretending not to understand, and he would get angry and cry. I couldn’t keep it up. Then we bought a new apartment, and while it was being renovated, we lived with my parents. There, no one really understood his gestures and interjections. He got angry, cried, and within about two weeks, he started talking. How amazed I was! Full sentences, and even with my intonations. My son is now 17. He studies almost excellently. If your social circle with your son is quite narrow, it’s quite possible that he simply doesn’t want to make the effort—you understand him anyway. And don’t rush to label him with things like developmental delays. What kind of society can a child live in? A family where he’s perfectly understood, and a sandbox where the kids themselves can barely speak half the time.

Well, you've gone a bit overboard there, of course :)

If the child doesn't have a very severe condition and if you start working on it and giving medication in time, there's a very good chance that the child will improve by school age. Again, I'm speaking based on real-life cases.

I also know such stories. Let's hope that the author's case is exactly like this—that it's just laziness and nothing more.

Vizavi, it's far from simple! Good luck and patience to everyone! Everything will be fine.

What's with the chickens? Come on. Instead of going to doctors and getting checked, you're looking for excuses and quoting Shakespeare after seven years of silence. If there's no problem—what's the fear of getting checked? If there is a problem—the sooner you start working on it, the better. This is your child, after all. And you're playing ostrich politics. You don't know anything, maybe they'll outgrow it. Look, Mania outgrew it. Mania outgrew it, and Valya outgrew it. But yours might not outgrow it. Honestly, you should have been sounding the alarm a year ago.

To a speech therapist to start with, then depending on the circumstances. Actually, this is no joke. It can come back to haunt you, for example, with muscle pain in adulthood. It depends on the cause. Everything can be successfully treated and corrected. Sometimes it goes away on its own, and sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes it seems to go away, but then the cause makes itself known again.

Author, I haven't read the thread. Not speaking until age 3 is not a pathology! Many children start speaking in full phrases after turning 3. You need to see a local speech therapist and get into a speech therapy kindergarten.

Honestly, I've never seen a single non-speaking person))) And I seriously doubt that no one has ever had such problems. My opinion—everything in its own time. Speech defects correct themselves with the appropriate specialists. They will definitely start talking. My daughter also doesn't speak very well. The doctors said she can't keep up with her thoughts, she needs to learn to be calmer and not rush headlong somewhere. She just can't formulate her thoughts quickly. Sometimes in clear sentences, sometimes in gibberish....I panicked too.

I had a similar experience; my son hardly spoke until he was almost three. Words like 'ma-ma', 'pa-pa', 'ba-ba', etc., started as they should, before he turned one, but by three, he could name letters from the alphabet (almost all of them), yet he couldn't speak coherently—just some sort of mumbling. We naturally consulted speech therapists. At three, we enrolled him in a regular nursery, thinking interaction with other children would help, but it didn't quite work out.... Then, at four, we placed him in a speech therapy nursery. There, the group size is half as large, and the speech therapist works individually with each child. They also provide daily exercises to practice at home (overall, it's quite good for preparing a child for school). And, by the way, the school preparation itself is quite rigorous. Somehow, he started making an effort to speak, and before we knew it, he began talking fluently))))) He's just finished first grade and is moving on to second)))) The key is to work with the child at home, doing various exercises (for the mouth), and of course, if you can't get into a speech therapy nursery, regular sessions with a speech therapist are essential. Although we got into the nursery quite easily—we went to a speech therapist at the local clinic, who referred us to a commission. There, they observe and examine the child, and then they provide a referral to a speech therapy nursery. Good luck, everything will turn out fine for you.

You haven't seen it, so it doesn't exist? Strange logic. In Moscow, there are 15 specialised schools for non-verbal and poorly speaking children.

Calm down, you have an ordinary child. And stuttering is easily explainable. Absolutely all children around the ages of 3-4 can be prone to it, whether they speak complexly or simply. The thing is, when a child hurries to say something, their thoughts run ahead of their tongue, and they may stutter a bit. This is a characteristic of their age, not their vocabulary.

If you notice this, try to slow the child down so they don’t rush. In any case, this isn’t treated; this period will pass on its own as the child grows older.

If the child is a speaker of two or more languages, they might even go silent for up to a year. That happens.

I've already written here. My son is 3.9 years old—he spoke 9 words. That's it. We went to a psychiatrist. They prescribed treatment. At the speech therapist—treatment. But the medications there are the same as the psychiatrist's. Things like Pantogam, Phenibut, Cortexin. Sessions with the speech therapist-defectologist didn't yield anything. They said we need to work on sounds. What sounds? There aren't any. The child is silent. We went, paid money for arranging mushrooms by height and listening to the fairy tale "The Turnip." I could do that at home.

After a couple of months on medication, the child started repeating words after me, and with difficulty, sentences began to appear. He can't pronounce half the letters, mixes them up, substitutes one for another. Plus, a stutter developed. By the age of 6! we managed to get into a speech therapy kindergarten. The district clinic gave a referral to the speech therapy kindergarten, but getting in is hellishly difficult. Progress is evident. But because of our Russian bureaucracy, I lost time. They dragged me from one kindergarten to another for a whole year. I even threatened to go to court. Now, in February 2013, my son will be 7 years old, and in theory, he should start school. What school? I spoke with the speech therapist. She promised to keep the child in kindergarten for another year. The issue will be decided with the head. Anyway, I'll delay school as much as I can. And I'll keep pushing my child.

There's a speech therapy school in the city, only one.

But I have seen it. People who speak poorly. Those who struggle to express their thoughts. The inarticulate. Typically, along with this, such a person performed poorly in school. They have a poor memory. I've seen an adult who reads poorly, syllable by syllable. It's all the same thing. Consequently, such a person does not work in a prestigious job.

You might not have seen this. Here, on Vuman, everyone is top-notch. You don't move in those circles. But such people do exist.

Did you even understand the post you were replying to?

Goodness, you can't even construct a sentence properly yourself.

Hello! I am a speech therapist with extensive experience, holding the title "Specialist of the Highest Category." I have worked with such children. Good results come from the joint efforts of a speech therapist and a child neuropsychiatrist or psychiatrist. There is no need to fear this. Children begin to speak actively. Modern medications can help "activate" speech. Singing words is also beneficial. Start with short, monosyllabic words, then move on to two-syllable words, and so on, but consistently and systematically. The speech therapy chants by Ovchinnikova can be helpful (they can be downloaded online). Your efforts will yield good results.

We have the same situation, only our child is already 4. Every day, some short little words appear, but he doesn't really speak properly. I want to transfer him to a speech therapy kindergarten. We went to an osteopath twice, seven sessions each time. We understand him perfectly. A speech therapist came to work with us for about 2 months; after four sessions, he started repeating things a bit shyly, but then we went on holiday, and we haven't sought further help since. Now I've made an appointment with a neurologist to find out what to do next.

My daughter is 3 years and 3 months old. She speaks in an incomprehensible language: "aku taku tptp ashua nu," and so on. She uses only a few words: "give," "let go," "open," "mummy," "daddy," "yummy," "porridge," "more," "all done," and nothing else... When I ask her to say something, she ignores me, doesn’t even want to listen. I don’t know what to do? By the way, she pronounces these words clearly. We are a bilingual family—could that be the reason?

Music therapy helps very well. Singing helps correct speech therapy issues faster and more effectively. Well-chosen music for sessions - calms you down no worse than medication.