My daughter will not talk outside of maybe 5-8 words. She just turned 2 December 1 so I am not as concerned about it yet. My son was talking, knew how to count, and knew his abc's by 1. Me and my wife are debating giving her till she turns three before we consult for speech therapy. Anyone have any experience with this?
A few questions first:
Are you in NC? If so, what county?
What does your pediatrician say?
Have you had her hearing checked since her newborn screening?
How are her other oral motor things? Does she use a sippy cup and/or can she sip through a straw?
The link that ipity posted is a good "guideline" for development but obviously every child is different. Does your son talk a lot? Sometimes the 2nd child will talk a little bit later because the older child is kind of doing the talking for them. If they play together a lot then your son may direct a lot of the play or understand what your daughter is doing and take away some of the "need" for your daughter to communicate on her own.
Some things that you can do with her are to narrate everything you do. You may already do this but keep it up. Especially use a word or 2 to describe what you're doing and name everything. This can help her to understand that every object has a name.
When you are saying words, hold the object next to your mouth or somehow direct her attention towards your face. Sometimes it is an issue of not understanding how to form the sounds/words so watching your lips move can be helpful. So hold her favorite toy or her cup up next to your lips and name it for her. This also sometimes occurs for a 2nd+ child because your son may not enunciate or form his words very clearly (especially if he is still younger).
How does she communicate what she wants? Does she point, bring it to you, bring you to it? When you are getting her breakfast or a snack or she is indicating that she wants something, hold 2 things in front of her and say "Do you want
milk (hold it out) or do you want
apple juice (hold that one out)?" Try to get her to say the word before you will give it to her. That doesn't mean don't give it to her if she doesn't say it, or to force the issue. Just don't do it immediately. Sometimes this is difficult to find the time to do and it is easier to just give the child what they want if you can figure it out with nonverbal cues but sometimes children don't talk because they just kind of don't need to; they're getting what they want without it so they don't put forth the effort.
