Speech Therapy

Getting ready for bedtime with Papa and Teddy

At her 18 month appointment with the paediatrician, I voiced my concerns vis-a-vis our daughter's lack of speech. Although she was babbling quite a bit, her only consistent word was "Mama". The paediatrician, however, was unconcerned. She did ask that we make her two-year appointment a little early as to avoid bringing two babies at once (given that Baby # 2 is expected around Baby #1's 2nd birthday).

Her 2-year appointment with the paediatrician is approaching in a little over a month, and I found myself worried about Baby # 1's speech (or lack thereof). I had been replaying imaginary conversations in my head. "She still only says "Mama"?  Why didn't you tell me earlier? You will have to meet with the speech therapist as soon as possible!" would say the paediatrician. She would go on to delineate what was normal and average for a 2-year old: Speaks about 50 words but understands even more; links two words together; uses simple adjectives such as "big" and "happy"; speaks clearly enough for parents to understand some of the words. My responses would vary from defensiveness, explaining that the Brat's father also spoke late, but speaks perfectly well now...to fear of a pervasive developmental disorder.

Until last week, that is. At long last, our baby has added to her vocabulary. These are a few of the words that we believe she now speaks:

Baby
Maybe (half-way between Mama and Baby?)
Car
Girl
Truck
Circle or Purple (we are not to sure)
No (sometimes pronounced as Na)

Oddly enough she calls her papa "Ma" (half of Mama?).

But at least there has been progress. This happened rather suddenly about two Sundays ago, and she has been adding to her list almost daily. She still has quite a bit of catching up to do compared to the average 2-year old, but perhaps speech therapy can be avoided after all!

Speechless in Montreal

She couldn't decide between the two...

Every month since baby #1's birth, I have been receiving e-mail notices from Babycenter.  These notices deal with such topics as the baby's physical development, age-appropriate issues, and milestones. Up until now, baby #1 has been well ahead of the pack for physical development, and most milestones. She crawled early, walked early, and much to our dismay also climbed before the average tot. Speaking, however, is another issue.

Our baby turns 18 months this week, and this month's notice dealt with speech. By 18 months, the notice suggested that "She is using one or more words and knows what they mean. She'll even practise inflection, raising her tone when asking a question, saying "Up-py?" when she wants to be carried, for example. She's realizing the importance of talking and how powerful it is to be able to communicate her needs. Between 18 and 24 months, her vocabulary may include as many as 200 words, many of which are nouns. Between 18 and 20 months, children learn words at a rate of 10 or more a day. Some learn new words every 90 minutes, so watch your language. She'll even string two words together, making basic sentences such as "Carry me."  "


While our baby appears to understand several hundred words, and follows complex commands, she does not say much. "Papa" and "mama" have been the only words in her repertoire for the last 6 months. I am not too worried, as it is a well known fact that infants that are exposed to more than one language tend to speak later than the average toddler (and our baby has been regularly exposed to both english and french). Additionally, her father began speaking at 2 years of age; and so far she has taken after him in every respect.

What I find curious is that she has begun to make animal sounds before human ones. Each time we come across a dog, she makes a very good dog-panting imitation. The other animal sound that she has mastered is that of the monkey. While we do not run into too many of those, anytime I read her a book involving a monkey, she makes a very funny "eah eah eah" sound.

One of my friends suggested teaching my baby baby sign language. Is that similar to american sign language?, I asked. Apparently not; it is a sign language of its own. Rather than learn a new language, I have decided to stick with french and english. I am sure that within 6 months, I will be complaining on my blog about how she won't stop talking...