My 35 month old (almost 3 years) isn't forming sentences. any advice on how to teach her?

January 8th, 2009 smith

She can say one two words at a time in a small very small sentences, but she isn't forming at least 10-20 words in a sentences. I try teaching her but she just doesn't want to learn yet. I try numbers, letter, words, animals, flash cards, learning (teaching) books, and she doesn't want to say any of it. She calls everything Care bears or Nemo. Any advice on teach a 2 year old to say new things?? Please don't say doctor. I know if I can't I will have to speak with a doctor. I want other peoples opinion.

it sounds like she does have a speech delay. My 35 month old son has apraxia and just started speaking in big sentences a few months ago. He has been in speech therapy for almost 10 months now.

I would contact the local school system and ask for a verbal assesment. By law (IDEA) they have to screen any child whose parents believe them to have a developmental delay to rule out that delay. If the child DOES have a delay that is bad enough to qualify as a disability the school is obligated to provide free or low cost therapy for the child.

In most cases a speech delay, although classified as a developmental disability, does NOT mean that a child is mentally deficent what so ever. My son was a full 12-15 months behind in expressive speech just 10 months ago. He is now AHEAD in expressive speech with an articulation problem. Not only can he count most of the way to 20, he can name like 6-10 colors ( in english and ASL), say most of his ABCs, and is starting to count IN SPANISH. He also has a vocabulary of 50+ words in ASL.

please e-mail me if you have any further questions. I do have an article on apraxia that I can e-mail you if you are interested. I found it by accident, and it was like they were describing MY child.

Sorry but your child needs to be evaluated by a speech therapist. My 4 year old went through many of the same things at 2 and turns out he has Apraxia of speech which is when the childs tongue can't work right to form words. You are doing your child an injustice not having her evaluated because it might just be something you can't fix because your not trained to. The fact that she understand and hears all you say is even more of an indication that she needs evaluation.
There is no advice besides what you have tried, do your kiddo a favor and have her evaluated.

Just read to her and make sure you speak in full sentences.

Speech is learned by imitation - if you want her to speak more clearly, or in better sentences, then talk to her more.

Talk about the weather, about what you will be doing today, talk to her as you make her breakfast, sing to her, tell her stories, talk to her about what you are going to make for dinner, tell her what you bought at the store, talk, talk, talk......

There is a difference between Language Acquisition and Speech.

There may be lots of language acquisition going on, even though she is not yet speaking a lot.

EDIT: I actually would not try to make her talk, concentrate on talking to her, and unless there is a problem with her hearing or understanding, she will speak when she is ready, the important thing at this age is that you talk to her and speak in full sentences, don't use baby talk, in fact, use enriched language when you talk to her - for example instead of saying "You want juice?" say, "I have two different kinds of delicious juice here that you can try - Apple Juice and Orange juice, I wonder which you would like this morning?" When you make a sandwich for her, say "I'm making this sandwich for us today, and I'm using lovely whole wheat bread because it's so good for us, and we are going to have cheese on it too"
Talk, talk, talk......

In addition to some of the things others mentioned... have you taught her any songs yet? It's a rhythmic way to put together sentences. My son who is almost 2 has been singing songs that also have hand motions and easy melodies.

Some of his favorites are:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Itsy Bitsy Spider
The Alphabet Song
Clean Up (Barney)
No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (He says "NoNo Monkeys Jump Bed" - but it's close and the newest one that he learned).
Elmo's World Theme Song
Dora's Theme Song.
Ring around the Rosy

He doesn't get all of them perfect yet, but he gets close and they also work well as a distraction when he starts misbehaving.

my daughter was the same way before she turned 3 she would talk but not complete sentences she is now 39 months and she talks sentences some words are still jumbled but she can make understandable sentences. she is in day care which helps her out a lot but at home I read to her and learning games that to her are just fun leap frog is the best. the singing songs thing is a good idea too kids love music. I don't think she needs a speech doctor because she can talk. all kids go at their own pace you have to be patient if she see's you getting frustrated then she will shut down and not want to try learning any more.

Make sure you read to her a lot and do not finish her sentences. Allow her to speak and not point or grunt at things like most children do. Also, get her check for dyslexia.

Speech therapist normally doesn't want to get involved with children under the age of 4 becasue the speech continues to develop at different rate. Soooooooo....

You simply tell her and get her to repeat what you have said, make sure she sees your mouth and your tongue as you are speaking to her so that she can see how you are doing it.

Just keep repeating words, read to her, make up word games and she will catch on. This world isn't easy on them, having to learn everything in such short time. I'm sure that she has developped other abilities that other children have not yet mastered.
Be patient and keep it up, Mom!!

Watch a video or read a book about care bears or Nemo. Use what interests her to teach her. Talk to her about those things and encourage her to ask questions and talk about what you just read or watched. Good luck!

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My 35 month old (almost 3 years) isn't forming sentences. any advice on how to teach her?

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