“How to help a child we recently adopted?”
My husband and I recently adopted a 2 year old boy. Our son is amazing but seems to have difficulty with speech. How do we know if he has a speech disorder?
9 Answers
I would recommend seeing a speech language pathologist who can screen him in his native language. They can then give you a idea as to if his speech/language concerns are related to a disorder or not.
Get an evaluation by a speech pathologist. At that age the focus will be on language rather than speech production
Have your son evaluated by a certified speech pathologist who specializes in early intervention. The school in your community should be able to give you a recommendation. Make sure that they give you a certified speech pathologist. Good luck!!
The best way to know if your son has a speech disorder is to have him evaluated by a speech-language pathologist. Also, if he is not meeting age-expected speech and language milestones it is likely that he has a speech and/or language delay.
I would definitely get him an intake with a speech pathologist. Many school districts offer an early childhood screening program to begin addressing issues before the child gets to school age. Also, it wouldn't hear to have his hearing checked, many speech issues can be directly related to hearing ones.
I strongly suggest you contact your son pediatrician and express your concerns. He might be able to qualify for a comprehensive speech and language evaluation. Ages ranging from 2-4 are crucial for language development and acquisition, so my best advice is to get her the help he needs during this age.
By 2 years old a child should be using at around 200 words, understanding simple questions and commands, identifying body parts, and starting to connect two words. If they are having difficulty with multiple of these skills you could contact your local school district or pediatrician for contact information or a referral source. That being said, some children who are newly adopted may regress slightly until they are familiar with there new "norm". Another question I would have is if there were concerns prior to the adoption?
Nicole Bigger
Broomfield, CO
A two year old should typically be able to put 2 words together to communicate and usually has the following speech sounds in their phonetic inventory: m, p, h, w, b, n. One thing to consider is that every child develops differently and there is a wide range of what is considered to be within normal limits. Also, if you’re child was adopted from another country and is learning English as a second language, that is also something to consider as well. If you have deeper concerns, I would talk to your pediatrician and see what they think, and/or have your child screened by a speech language pathologist.
At 2 years old, a child typically should be putting a variety of 2-words phrases together and have about 200 words. If you have concerns, find a local speech language clinic or you can research if your county has Early Intervention services that are cost free.
Ali Matisse, MS CCC-SLP
Ali Matisse, MS CCC-SLP
