HELP!!

[Siana-leah]

Ok so I need help from the mothers out there!
My son is a month over 3 yrs old...and apparently is not communicating enough to adults...they cant understand him...
I understand him most of the time....but i think hes using mostly one or two words and not sentences which he is apparently supposed to be doing.
Two people have said they can refer him to a speech therapist...but me and my husband are not keen on doing that...and he wont be seen by one for 12 months cos of the waiting list...
does anyone have some advice on what I could do with him myself? Im feeling a little down about it.

[***absolute_zero***]

First of all please do not stress yourself about this OK, his only 3 and every child grows at their own pace! I know how worrying it can be because all of my 4 kids went through this! Ok speechies are fantastic there is no doubt about it! But if you prefer to do this by yourself. Firstly have his ears checked just to make sure its not a hearing problem. If everything is OK there go online or to the shops and buy or print some sight word cards THAT have pictures of the word with them. Sit down with your son and play games, memory, snap or any game where its a bit of a competition to win and a game that he has to say the word, so if you were to play snap as he puts the card down ask him to say what the picture is. When speaking to him make sure his watching you, watching how your mouth looks when you say things etc. Just play for 10 minutes a day. Watch it though there are letters that children are not expected to say until they are seven ( I can't remember what they are). Its so hard being a parent its easy to just do things for your children. My second bub use to just make noises up until he was 4 and at prep LOL he did it because I knew what each noise meant and because I had two younger kiddies at the time it was easier for me to just do and react to his noises. When Chris understood that he was meant to talk and actually say words he took off he is now top of his class, he loves drama and reading and talks to people me very clearly LOL I had him tested for so many problems you wouldn't believe the worry I went through trying to work out what was wrong with him, in the end it was mostly just that he will only do things when his ready typical boy Please don't stress. Ask for some information at your local child health centre, with my first child they gave me a course to do at home.

Im sure everything will be OK, just take it one day at a time! I sometimes wish my kids never spoke LOL cause now they are totally out spoken they don't believe anything I say any more they are always right hehehe Just enjoy your little fella while his young

[***absolute_zero***]

There are some sight words with pictures on this website

http://www.storytimestandouts.com/begintoread.htm

Take a look around this website its good too

http://www.esl-images.com/index.asp

http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php

I will have a look around and see if I have any sites that I used for my boys There are some great online games for kids to play that also help their speech

Cheers

[Siana-leah]

thank you very much for all of that information!! it is very much appreciated!!
I will definitely use the cards...and he is interested in learning the words....i try to get him to repeat words to make up a sentence and he does pretty good
so it should only be a matter of time...
He came up to me this morning and he was saying something but i didnt have a clue what he was saying so i asked him to show me and he pointed to a toy helicopter....i was able to tell him how to say it properly...granted its a hard word for a kid his age but at least i can try.....
again thanks for the reassurance and the info.....

[Butterfly_Dawn]

Assuming hearing tests are all good... And prefacing this by saying I have no kids

does he like stories?? If so, you could 'read' together one of his favourite books, one that he knows really well by heart and when you get to bits you can say "and what did mr bear say next?" and hopefully he'll fill in the missing bits in sentences becasue he'll know the sentence - will give him practice at saying whole sentences and be good for literacy as a by the by.

Some kids just don't speak much at all until they've got the hang of it. I've heard of kids who barely say a thing until one day they just come out with fully formed sentences!

Just lookng in a book called briliant Brain Games for Kids, there's some good vocab based activities like 'exploring' different things and asking them questions like "can you tell me what that tree bark feels like?". Or a game called "where did we go" where you ask the child about what they did that day, so you can start with maybe , "can you remember what you had for breakfast?... then what did we do?" That game helps memory, time concepts and verbal skils. Getting them to differentiate things is good for vocab too (like car, truck, tractor, motorbike - or even Nissan, Holden, Kia etc if you're a high achiever- instead of just car and bike, or rose, daisy, daffodill, gumflower instead of just flower)

Keep an eye on how you talk too, a lot of adult conversation can become monosyllable too. Think about a shopping trip. "Hi", "200 grams of ham thanks" "yep" "thanks, bye" are not fantastically formed sentences really. If he's having trouble seeing how to put words together it might help if you go out of your way to make whole sentences as a demonstration, as tedious as that will be.

[Jessime]

As a mum to a 3 year old I agree with what others have said - DO NOT STRESS!! Remember that practically everything at this age is "normal". My 3 yo son has a jumbled up string of words he often says, it's him trying to sound to grown up!

Further to the other suggestions (and I strongly agree with the stories and flash cards) take a look at the basics. Start noticing how you and the other adults speak around your little one. Do you mumble? Do you finish words and pronounce them correctly? You are the number 1 teacher and your little one learns from your example.

Another little tip is to talk to him. When you're preparing dinner get him to say 'bowl' as he hands you his bowl, or 'carrot' as you're chopping up the carrot.

By these little things I've noticed that my little boy's speech has come far in a short time (he was slow to talk too). We've both learned different ways of expressing emotions too. As a working single parent my boy spends a good deal of his week in day care and it's been noted he's biting!! Eek! When we're feeling angry at home now, instead of hitting something WE (remembering who's the teacher!) stamp our feet on the floor and say "I'm so angry!", it actually works!!

Anyways, after my little whinge and essay - in short, remember to speak clearly and often to your little one, and remember that he learns from YOU!

[Siana-leah]

Thank you very much guys....
i have noticed that i have been a bit slack with my words....
the past 2 weeks i have been talking a lot more clearly and making him look at me and he seems to be improving...
he doesnt always get it right but i know there are some words he wont b able to pronounce until he is older...but he makes a very good effort...
i also found an interactive website that gets him to repeat a lot of words...
he is getting better which is great....
thanks again!!

[Mummy84]

hey! do not stress i only have a little baby now, but i do have family, and one of my cousins is now about to turn 5yrs, and has only recently started talking properly.. he understood everything but was too lazy to actualy say full sentences.. if your little one can understand then its all good.. they all do things at different times and its just being patient with them which will help them out! Good luck!!

[~Rose~]

Hey Siana, I don't know if this is any help but my son went through a stage in preschool where he was having alittle difficulty forming certain sounds and we were given actual tongue exercises for him (if that didn't improve it he would have had to go to a speech therapist but luckily it did improve). His problem was more a lack of strength in his tongue muscles (sounds alittle funny) but the excerises did the trick. They gave us alittle story (mr tongue and his house) and basically mr tongue had to clean out his house... this envolved my son trying to touch his nose with his tongue, his chin, his cheeks etc., and lots of movements with his tongue inside his mouth (it was a fun story with fun actions for a kid, so it was good) Also my son has a bit of an over bite and had alittle trouble making sounds made by pressing his lips together. So we used to practice these sounds with fun phrases that would make him laugh and enjoy it... like... big bouncing bottoms (hehe).

[Siana-leah]

thanks rose and mummy84
im not as worried as before cos my son seems to be picking up his words...not perfect but that can be expected of a 3 year old.
he says more at home which doesnt bother me cos most kids are fairly shy and talk most at home.
I know what u mean about the lazy thing...my mums brother used to grunt when he wanted things...grandma finally told him that he had to say
what he wanted or he wouldnt get it.
I realise that my son doesnt need too much pressure from me...and if im relaxed then he is too...
thanks again!!

[VerryBerry]

i may not be a 'mother' - but i am a very involved father so i hope i can offer something to you anyway

Layla is now two months older than two and a half

and i started having some of the same worries as you..but the two biggest differences in my Layla's development so far have been:

(1) - i started sending her to daycare three times a week (three half days) just for social development. This is HUGELY important because she is now around other kids her own age and hearing how other kids speak (or try) and communicate. This has made the biggest impact on her and she absolutely Loves going.

(2) - i started reading her bedtime stories every night. I read with her during the day as well, but she's too mentally erratic during the day sometimes where it's obvious she wasn't paying attention, so the bedtime story is more effective because she's relaxed and is on her way out and simply enjoys the stories (and the pictures) more at this time.

plus ..this has always been, but just to make sure...
... lots of praise... even if she/he is still saying it wrong, they're still kind of right, they just need time polishing their verbal skills.. let them know they're right so they and they'll work on it .. next thing you know, they say it proper and you're like WOW.

Hope that helps in any way.
enjoy and good luck.