Topics of Discussion
When to start worrying about a speech delay?

Preemie-l discussion forum       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/preemie-list

Tracey answers, "My daughter is a former 25 weeker, now 19 months old. She says a few words, but not consistently. She has said ma ma since 9 months, but stopped saying it for a long time, and recently started up again. I’ve been told by the developmental specialist that I take Elaine too (on her last visit) that it was too early to tell. The dr. also said any baby born this early should be checked at least once a year until they start school. We also work with ECI (early childhood intervention). Your child may be fine, just usual preemie delays, but it does not hurt to have follow up checks. I would ask your developmental specialist why would they not want to see her more than just once?"

Tammy remarks, "My son Christopher was born at 30 weeks and is now 33 months old. He was a very slow talker also. He was in EI until he was about 15 months with the advice that if I got concerned about his speech by age 3 to contact them. He really did not have much of a vocab until just a few months ago. He was never much of a babbler and didn’t say mama or dada until he was 2 or so and then added new words very slowly at first. I almost did contact EI again just after his 2nd b-day but I didn’t want to jump the gun, and now I realize he was just a late talker who now is doing fine. I fact he sometimes just goes on and on. If you are truly concerned contact your Dr. or EI in your area."

Suzanne remarks, "My 2.5Y girl talks a lot, long sentences but it’s not as clear as my FT daughter (now 4.5) at the same age. I understand my preemie but others don’t always. It’s like if she sings instead of talks. Somewhat a lack in clear pronunciation but put lot of accent! In deed it’s cute. Is it usual in preemie?"

Sheila advises, "If I read your post right Rebecca is only 14 months actual ? She is much too young to be worrying about speech delays. Probably half of full term children are not speaking at 14 months (especially if they are not firstborn or male). My preemies were older than Rebecca at 33 and 35 weeks, my older daughter(33wks) Was not speaking at all at her 2 year check. Her doctor had not been concerned up to that point. He did express mild concern and asked to see her again in three months instead of going to yearly checks as you would expect by 2. In our case Katie had a language explosion in her 2yo year which is one of the many common "normal" variations on language acquisition. My the time she turned three she was speaking in simple sentences with adequate clarity.
Although speech delays and problems are very common in preemies, you have every reason not to worry too much at 14 months. One of the things which I feel contributed to my older daughter not speaking sooner was that she is the *most* expressive child in terms of facial expressions, body language, personality etc and it was very easy for me to figure out what she wanted/needed and so she didn’t have a pressing need to "learn how to talk to those adults". My younger daughter, who is very, very reserved and and very, very intense and impatient seemed to learn much quicker. An interesting side note to her language acquisition, at her daycare she was mainly cared for by a women who spoke only Spanish. When she started to talk her language was clearly divided into two groups, all words for love, food, affection were Spanish words, and all words for action (up, get, out, help, open, more) were English words, at first I admit it made me feel a little bad, sort of like, hey, I’m a loving, cuddly Mommy... but then I realized how lucky I was to have someone that my child adored loving on her everyday. Ali is 4 1/2 now, and still when she is very hungry, she tells me in Spanish. Good thing I’ve picked up enough Spanish living in Southern California for 24 years that I "get it"."

Lakshmi adds, "Rebecca may be too young to say anything yet. My ped and the EI people in Maryland told me to get speech evaluations done at 18 months and then at two years. My ped was still not worried when at two (actual ) Ram just had five words. I contacted the EI people and we have been in ST for the last eight months. You can wait till Rebecca is almost two and see how she is-many children have a language burst in their third year. I am hoping Ram will have one soon!"