My two year old has always been intelligent for his age. He started walking at 8 months, he understands what I say to him. The only problem is that he will not talk. He will repeat whatever word I tell him to say, but He will not do it on his own. Say for instance that he would like to have some water. He would just point to whatever it is that he wants instead of saying whatever it may be. He does not spend a lot of time with kids his age, because all of my friends and family kids are so much older then him. And I do not know if that is the problem or is it just that he is lazy.
Pease help.

Simple fix. Don't give him water until he says "water"... don't give him juice until he says "juice"

You have to teach him these words, get down eye-to-eye with him and have him say those words. Eventually he will catch on.

I had the same problem with my boy who is now 6. I would love to go back and change it, LOL... he NEVER stops talking now.

Kids often just do not feel like talking until they are ready. I have been noticing that many kids, especially boys, are not starting to talk until they are four years old. You can get his hearing checked if you think that may be a problem.
One thing that is good to do is when they want something do not just hand it to them, try and make them ask for it first. Read to him a lot and talk to him a lot to. Ask him why he doesn't want to talk and tell him some reasons it is something that is good to do.

He does not have a speech problem, you said he repeats what you say. What it he has is the perfect ability to train you. Why she he work at spech if you give in and give him the words. Next time he points at water tell he he can have the water when he says water. If you see him getting extreamly fustrated give him water and walk away. Start again another day

I have 4 kids, and they all started talking at different ages and at different levels. One of my children was tongue tied which is when the skin under the tongue is too tight. You might have that checked along with hearing. I seriously wouldn't worry though. All kids develop at there own speed. I hate it when doctors act like there are milestones that should be reached by a certain point or else something is wrong. It's ridiculous. My daughter who was tongue tied wouldn't talk at all at age 2. She was tested and tested by doctors and speech specialists, and every score was low. They told me she just wasn't very intelligent. I was heart broken, as she was my first child and I was only 22. She is now 12 years old and is in all advanced placement classes at school and is an A student. She has absolutely zero problems. Long story short... don't be too hard on your child. He or she will talk when they are ready.

Just piling onto the great advice you've been given. I wouldn't fret. My daughter and my son were COMPLETELY different in development. She was an "early" developer, thoughtful in body placement and vocal skills. He was chaos in a diaper, learned to run before he walked well (which was "late"), became potty trained much later than her, etc...

My son, at age 3, could talk, but he mumbled everything and jammed words together so much most people couldn't understand him. In preK they did a speech assessment... and another one at age 4 when he still showed many of the traits... the speech evaluator came away saying his brain was firing much faster than he could talk it out. She actually though his cognitive skills were advanced, correcting her that one picture was a goose, not a duck, and to not worry. Hed take the next leap when he was ready. It was frustrating because his cousin, 7 mo older, was always a clear talker, thinker, very deliberate in his speaking. Our kid was like he was on pop rocks and red bull.

Now... almost 5, he has much clearer speaking abilities... though some of it comes from his understanding our request from time to time to "speak clearly and in a strong voice"... its taken time and he still has a tendency to mumble some, but he understands our requests now.


I completely agree with the idea to make him try to use some words for things he likes or loves.

And the notion that kids often take the next step in development when they need it (as in "im tired of crawling and now I'm going to walk) is what I've experienced.

Just caught my four year old stealing my tools to try to take off his training wheels from his bike. So we did it, and in 30 fretful minutes he learned to ride pretty darn well. He was ready for the leap, even if I wasn't.