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Ask HN: 2.5 years old twin boys not showing enough progress in speech

1 points by mayankkaizen ↗ HN
I am father of 2.5 year old twin boys. There are many kids of same age around me and I noticed that all of them have reached to some level of speech progress but that is not the case with my kids. In fact, kids' speech level is not even comparable to a kid who is slightly less than 2 year old.

Except for this concern, they are perfectly healthy and mentally alert. They show no other sign of any kind of trouble. Their hearing capacity is pretty good and have no trouble in understanding what is being said to him. They also learn doing things without much trouble/effort.

One of the twins do blabber a lot but rarely something meaningful. Although he is showing some promises as he started to use words like 'bye' and 'i love you' (he blabbers when it comes to 'love'). He also tries to count from 1 to 10.

The other one doesn't blabber that much or occasionally use some fixed (and usually incomprehensible) lines. Though both of them try to talk with some gestureing.

In general, they are lagging far behind as compared to other kids in speech related matters. How do I deal with this issue?

Edit: Per doctors, this is not a serious issue. They say it is only a matter of time and some kids start speaking a bit late.

9 comments

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cwe
Not trying to troll you, but this isn’t exactly the best forum for this kind of question. Talk to your pediatrician about speech therapy or whatever, don’t ask a technology forum.
mayankkaizen
I have actually consulted to doc and she said there is nothing to worry right now and that I should wait.

I posted this question here because I was curious to know about other people's experience regarding this issue. That's it.

ninedays
I agree that it might not be the perfect place for you to find an answer to your question but will add my anecdote nonetheless.

I am 32 and lots of my friends around started to have kids ~ 5 years. I can see that one of my friend has 3 kids that appear to be normal in every way. I have another friend who daughter is exceptionnaly advanced for her age (she speaks two languages already and started to speak earlier than the others kids). I have another friend whose kid started to speak pretty late (~ 4 years). So if you try and compare your kids with what a "normal kid" should be like, I think you will develop gray hair fairly soon :)

The best thing to do is to talk to your pediatrician and see if there's an issue. Don't hesitate to talk to different doctors if you want different opinions but I know that most parents try and compare their kids with the other to see if theirs is "normal". I think your children will turn out to be just fine and I don't think they will have any sign of mental issue at all - you're just a scared parent and it's OK.

Take care,

Edit : corrected some spelling mistakes

foolzcrow
This is normal their motorskill development sometimes outpaces speech or vice versa. Just keep engaging them in convo and push them to use words. Example: when they want an object make them vocalize for it this teaches them to use their words to get what they want
foolzcrow
But from what you're saying your boys are normal everybody just learned that a different pace and those milestones are really to make sure that there's not something super cognitively wrong and delayed speech is definitely not a cognitive problem unless it's really late like when they're five or six years old
mayankkaizen
Thanks for the comment.

Yes, they are normal in every sense except for this delayed speech issue. Personally I am not too much worried about it. I just wanted to know HN users' experience/thoughts/suggestions. I have seen that on HN, guys sometimes post incredible and really useful insights/links.

Obviously if I feel like there is something seriously wrong, I would visit a doc.

duxup
Boys can be a bit slow in that regard then one day they explode with words.

Just keep taking and reading to them.

rmetzler
Look up Asperger Syndrome. Maybe this applies here.
lancewiggs
Dad of 2.5 year old

1: Do your research - there are some good books (based on science) out there. Current favorite is “raising a spirited child...”. 2: Read to them. A lot. Kids books can be awesome. Get off your phones. They learn nothing from screens themselves. Talk to them not at them. Get them to help you to do things. Let them guide the activities not you. 3: Don’t follow advice from others without considering that every child is different, and that’s ok. Parent the kids you have and make it up as you go.