posted
My 31 month old boy has been saying "ma" instead of "yes" for the past year or so. Is it something to worry about? I always thought he would grow out of it. We have been trying to tell him to say "yeah" instead of "ma", but he just would say "ma yeah" for a little bit, then switch to "ma" again. He is a bit behind as far as his language skills go... and his 3rd birthday is coming up in 5 months.
Mah means "what" in Hebrew, so maybe he only speaks Hebrew and doesn't understand what you're saying? Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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What does he say? How many word vocabulary does he have? Does most of what he says make sense? Is this an isolated incident, or is most of his speech this way?
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings Is able to use at least two prepositions, usually chosen from the following: in, on, under Combines words into a short sentence-largely noun-verb combinations (mean) length of sentences is given as 1.2 words Approximately 2/3 of what child says should be intelligible Vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words Rhythm and fluency often poor Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled Can use two pronouns correctly: I, me, you, although me and I are often confused My and mine are beginning to emerge Responds to such commands as "show me your eyes (nose, mouth, hair)"
At 36 months,
quote: Use pronouns I, you, me correctly Is using some plurals and past tenses Knows at least three prepositions, usually in, on, under Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name Handles three word sentences easily Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words About 90% of what child says should be intelligible Verbs begin to predominate Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities Relates his experiences so that they can be followed with reason Able to reason out such questions as "what must you do when you are sleepy, hungry, cool, or thirsty?" Should be able to give his sex, name, age Should not be expected to answer all questions even though he understands what is expected
My son had big problems with speech, which is why I asked, but his problems have a distinctive characteristic. Parents with a child with his disorder go to the speech pathologist and say "He talks all the time, but it sounds like Chinese."
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
He talks all the time but it sounds like German! Of course my mom swore I sounded like I was Japanese when I was his age.
He can do most of what is listed for the 24 months. But sometimes he's not too clear. Often he doesn't finish a word, for example "juice" is "joo". We can probably understand only 30% of what he says. He only uses 40 words if not less, continually.
The only ones he can do for 36 months are the following:
-Gives his age -Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities -Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name
Wow I didn't know "ma" in Hebrew meant "what" He probably only does understand hebrew and is asking us "What are you talking about?" I would think that except for the nodding that always comes with the "ma".
We haven't taken him to a speech therapist.. though I have considered it many times.
posted
My little brothers and sisters had many of their own words like that, up to and even beyond that age, unicornwhisperer, and none of them turned out to have an issue (or...not at relates to language). So it can, at least, be normal and nothing to worry about, though it still wouldn't hurt to take him to a speech therapist to set your mind at ease.
edit: dang it. help, hurt, same thing, right? and out of interest, what does he say for "mama"?
Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
I'm surprised nobody has suggested seeing his pediatrician. They should be able to tell if he's on track enough for his age. Besides, you'd need the referral to see speech therapist anyway.
Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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It's only because you got to the thread before me, Theaca.
My advice, from someone who had twins who needed speech therapy, is to see the doctor, and ask the ped if he/she thinks you need to see someone.
But, for the record, you do not need a pediatric referral for early intervention, and until he is 36 months, he will be covered under the EI program.
I don't know about your state but in mine, early intervention is much easier to deal with and they do a better job than does the school system which takes over at 36 months. And that is not just my experience, it's shared by everyone I know that has experience with both.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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to wipe mom hemp coarse what? horse yard (three feet) to scold [used at the end of a sentence to show what precedes it is obvious] [used at the end of a declarative sentence to transform it into a question]
posted
Superstation is much the same way. He is 26 months old. He says maybe five words other than mama and dada. "Yes" is said as "mama" while he does a little dance. At his two year appt the pediatrician said it is normal for boys to lag behind. We go back in one month for a development check on the speech issue.
Posts: 399 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I hope this doesn't come off as being offensive to pediatricians, because I don't intend it.
I would have to urge Mommies to trust their instincts. If a pediatrician continually tells you everything is fine even when you think it isn't - call early intervention or whatever they call the program in your state.
I would rather have a speech pathologist evaluate where my child is than a pediatrician on speech issues. For one thing, the doctor isn't seeing this child for a long period of time. And I believe we moms sometimes will understate the case in the doctor's office.
Speech therapy can be a godsend for your child, it can work miracles but problems are always much easier to correct when they're caught early.
quote:At his two year appt the pediatrician said it is normal for boys to lag behind.
Boys do tend to be less vocal than girls but there isn't a separate evaluation for boys. If he's not meeting the right milestones, then just don't write it off to him being male. I know you're not - and I'm glad you're having another checkup on the issue, I would just urge you to have a speech pathologist do that check-up. EI programs vary by state, but I know in Alabama it's free, insurance is not an issue, if you don't have it no problem if you do have it they won't charge you or your insurance company - when I say it's free I mean it's free. Ours had a policy that once you made a call to them they had 30 days, by law, to have that child evaluated by an expert. They actually were much quicker than the 30 days, and everything was done in my home, without me having to even take them anywhere.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I know my family doctor didn't believe me when I told him repeatedly that things weren't right with my younger daughter. And he was so certain that it was just a case of "each child is different and she'll catch up" that I couldn't get any kind of referral information. I didn't even know anywhere else to go for it.
Finally, when the yunger was 5 and the older 8, we were selected to receive state-sponsored counseling services as a result of something that happened with the older child at school. That counselor saw just a "snapshot" of M and her development and immediately got the ball rolling to have an evaluation done through the school district's special needs initiative, which then led to a psychiatric eval which revealed ADHD and possible other treatable issues! I don't know what I would have done without that woman...
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
My boy says "mama" for "Mama" for those of you who wanted to know. I swear he knew "mama" when he was 3 months old.
I appreciate everyone's advice. I will look into taking him to a speech therapist. I know the free program they have here takes months to get him into, which is probably why I haven't tried to lately. Posts: 1417 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Our doctor also kept telling my our son would "catch up" and that boys usually lagged behind in speech. We took him to a speech pathologist at about 30 months and he was way, way behind. (I'm talking, his highest scores were in the 5th percentile, some of them didn't even register.)
Here's an interesting page that has some really interesting links.
posted
You could take him to the school district's early screening, which is free. They won't start with speech therapy till he's three, but at least you'll have an idea of what you're dealing with. Also, if you live near a college, you might check with their speech lab. Ours had a decent program that filled the gap for us between diagnosis and when the school took over.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
We finally saw the pediatrician for Superstation's speech development check up today. She is sending him for a full audiological check up (although we think his hearing is fine, it is always good to check). She is also referring him to the Early Intervention Program. Now we just have to go through the process to see if he qualifies.
He does have a few words now. Mama, Dada, hi, bye, I, me, you and some semblance of please. We think he might have said book, but we haven't been able to ask him while actually holding a book. Anyway, it is good for something to be happening about it now.
Posts: 399 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Sophie's insanely vocal, although she's also rather shy in public and refuses to perform on command. If you kind of sidle up to her and give her an hour or two to get used to her presence, she'll talk to you -- but she routinely frustrates our attempts to "show her off" by clamming up resolutely in front of people she doesn't know well.
She's not quite at 20 months yet, and she's got at least 50 words; I stopped remarking on them after 40. Her sentences are still largely agrammatical and only about three words long -- usually something like "Daddy, milk now! Please?" or "Get up, Dad! Play Peekaboo!" "No want apple! No! Want cookie!" (Her invitation to sing "Ring Around the Rosie" is "Ash-ashes fall down now?") And while she knows all of her shapes (including, oddly enough, "hexagon" and "pentagon"), every color tends to be "yellow."
That said, she mispronounces everything with a kind of slurred lisp. "Yellow" comes out "yayylow." "Pentagon" is "pennagon." And so on. We're working on getting her to sing songs in key now; she can get the notes right on "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" but none of the words, and has recently mastered "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
I can't begin to describe how freakishly lucky we are, because I'll be the first one to admit that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with this whole parenting stuff. I'm terrified of having a second kid, if only because I'm sure we've incurred some kind of karmic debt.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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No kidding. Rainbow (who'll be 4 in April) still says 'lello' for Yellow, which I love. I was sad when she stopped calling bandaids bandowies.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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She knows pentagon? The shape or the government building? *shocked either way*
My 3 1/2 year old says "Y" for all his "L" sounds - yellow is yeyyow, lion is Yion, etc. He also has a lisp, and can't say his "r's". He's the one who didn't talk at all until 21 months, though. Said Mama and Dada at a year, and then stopped saying anything at all for 9 months, until just before we were going to take him for a hearing evaluation - then he finally started. He still clams up if he thinks anyone is upset at him, and won't even say as much as yes or no.
Which is why it's such a thrill to have him jump on my lap and shout, "I yove you, mommy!"
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Jenna, my husband was still doing that when he got to school, and had to have speech therapy. I hear a lot about them playing some game or another with "pipes", and KPC yelling, "It yeaks! It yeaks!" Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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My mom has a list, and at 19 months I knew and used 62 words one afternoon. Many of those were names of her friend's horses.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Superstation has qualified for services through the Early Intervention Program. We have a meeting tomorrow to set up our Individualized Family Services Plan. He has been gaining more words, but he is still far below where he should be. I am both happy and sad that he qualified, if that makes any sense.
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posted
It absolutely makes sense, I know the feeling. I think you'll be shocked at how quickly he makes advances with the speech/language pathologist. I know I was. When they're working with the child it doesn't seem like they're doing all that much, but with my kids they just improved by leaps and bounds once we started EI.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
MamaS, I know just how you feel - I've had that feeling so many times with Aerin. You're sad that there's a problem, but happy that it's been identified and is on its way to being treated.
Tom, are you sure that Sophie can differentiate between colors? Andrew could only pick out yellow because he's red/green colorblind.
Aerin worked with a speech pathologist when she first started eating from a bottle. She and I used to have lots of talks during our sessions - I'll post the relevant parts of what she told me later on.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
According to my mom, I started speaking super early, but I would intermingle english and vietnamese and it took me a bit to seperate them. My brother on the other hand didn't start speaking until after three years old, and he turned out to be the genius in the family.
Posts: 298 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: Tom, are you sure that Sophie can differentiate between colors?
Yep. She's just started doing it correctly in the last two weeks. Now she runs up to me, brandishes a marker, and yells "Blue! Blue! Blue!" She seems very proud. That said, "red" and "green" are still problems for her -- she gets them mixed up more than any other colors -- so maybe that's something we want to keep an eye on.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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My brother had to see a speech therapist, but he also had some problems with his ears when he was little, so that might've had something to do with it. I remember he had to have surgery and have tubes put in.
He used to march around the Christmas tree yelling, "ME MAY FAWF! ME MAY FAWF!" His birthday is May 4th.
posted
I'm colorblind and I can say as a fact that its only been a problem once since I stopped taking art classes.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:Originally posted by pH: My brother had to see a speech therapist, but he also had some problems with his ears when he was little, so that might've had something to do with it. I remember he had to have surgery and have tubes put in.
He used to march around the Christmas tree yelling, "ME MAY FAWF! ME MAY FAWF!" His birthday is May 4th.
-pH
That sounds like what happened to me. I had chronic ear infections when I was little. After a long time taking medicine for them, the doctors put in ear tubes and cleared them up. I went to speech therapy for a while to relearn how to talk. People still think I have an accent, though they can't agree on what it is.
Posts: 2149 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Long ago, I managed to inhale a "t-tube"--a solid tube inserted into a tracheal stoma to wean someone off a tracheostomy. Naturally, there was a nurse on the scene, who was supposed to be assisting my mother in taking care of me. Said nurse, however, could not believe I could possibly have inhaled a t-tube, and persisted in searching for it on the floor, thinking it had fallen out, while I turned blue. According to my mother, she smiled at me and told me "Mommy's just u-p-s-e-t."
Suffice it to say, medical professionals aren't always right.
Given my breathing difficulties, it's not surprising I had some speech problems despite my verbal facilities in other respects (such as abruptly beginning to sound out street signs when I was two). Substituting incorrect sounds in a word is quite common--sometimes it's an actual speech disorder, and sometimes it just takes a while to catch on. I articulated some sounds poorly, but calling my mother "wa-wa" instead of "ma-ma" apparently wasn't related to that.
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Wild speculation: since kids learn to use language through trial and error, if a "made up" word gets the desired result, the little one will keep using it, because obviously it works. There's a toddler at church who says "dye" when she means "what is that?" Since her parents know what she means, they answer her "question" and tell her what the thing is. "Dye," to this kid, evidently means the exact same thing, conceptually, as "what is that?" She has a word that works, so why switch?
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Yozhik - my older brother apparently had an all-purpose word when he was a toddler. "Ditty" meant cookie, Gypsy (the dog), dirty, etc. He was the only child, and that word worked perfectly well to get him what he wanted; he apparently didn't really start talking until he was three and started playing with neighborhood children, who were not anxious to fulfill his every whim. Mom always says he didn't talk till he was three and he's never shut up since (he is both articulate and loquacious).
And, on the subject of pronunciations, once I showed up unexpectedly at a friend's doorstep, and her toddler greeted me with an enthusiastic "You Piggy!" While I was puzzling over why I was a piggy that particular day, I suddenly realized that I was all dressed up in skirt, heels, and makeup, and that she was accustomed to seeing me in grungy jeans or sweats. So I said, "Alayna, are you trying to tell me that I look pretty today?" "YES!" she pronounced with a delightful giggle before she scampered off. I think it will always be one of my most treasured compliments!
quote: Sophie's insanely vocal, although she's also rather shy in public and refuses to perform on command. If you kind of sidle up to her and give her an hour or two to get used to her presence, she'll talk to you -- but she routinely frustrates our attempts to "show her off" by clamming up resolutely in front of people she doesn't know well.
Tom, sounds like your girl has a very healthy set of boundaries -- good for her! (and you)
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:I'm colorblind and I can say as a fact that its only been a problem once since I stopped taking art classes.
Andrew had a lot of problems in his college chem lab. He also wanted to join the Air Force, but you can't join any branch of the Service if you're colorblind. Other than past fashion issues (I now control his wardrobe), he hasn't had many problems, either.
As to speech issues, the speech pathologist at the hospital told me that the number one problem she has is parents modeling speech problems back at their children because they think it's cute. Not only do they get positive reinforcement, but they don't get to hear the correct pronounciation of the word. It may be cute now, but it won't be cute when they're in school and incomprehensible to their teachers and mocked by the other children. I personally don't find speech impediments, lisps, etc. cute - probably because I know how difficult it is to correct them later on and I saw a lot of my Nexus and Y kids struggle.
Early intervention is so, so important and little kids really do make astonishing progress in short periods of time. I had a 4-year-old who maybe pronounced 1 in 5 words clearly and correctly. It was very frustrating for us - it was almost like having a kid who didn't speak English in the class. We all did a lot of pointing and signing. Just when she started speech therapy, they hired a permanent counselor (I was subbing). Of course they lost another about a month later (the turnover was a bad problem they never addressed) and I subbed again. I was shocked at how far she had come and I was so excited that I kept asking her questions to get her to talk.
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