[scalasso]

My son is over 2 years old and just seems like he does not want to talk. I am desperate, may daughter is 3 and she starting to talking before she was 1 year old. Any sugegstions?

[N0help4u]

Boys usually start talking later than girls. I have been hearing more and more about boys not talking until they are three or four.
Try and make him ask for things rather than just handing them to him when he wants something.

[Wondergirl]

Be patient. Boys often do things much slower than girls do. They finally catch up with each other in their late teens to early twenties.

I have two sons. Neither walked until they were about 18 months old; I thought I was fated to carry them for the rest of their lives. Neither got any teeth until they were about a year old; in desperation, I started pricing dentures for them. Now they walk just fine and have lovely teeth.

Babble and talk and read and tell stories to him. Do NOT be a worry wart and bear down on him for not talking. I'm guessing within a year you will wonder why you were worried.

[nikosmom]

He will talk when he is ready; seemingly overnight. My son is 2 and he's just gotten "interested" in talking (aside from babbling). He says things now that I didn't even know he could say.

Just keep encouraging him by coaxing him to tell you what he wants. Toddlers are lazy so you have to push him out of his comfort zone by getting him to tell you when he wants something. Narrate things that you do; even if he seems like he's not listening, he is.

Can he follow simple directions like "Sit down" or "Get your coat"? If so, then you know that his hearing and cognitive skills are OK. He will talk (and do everything else) at his own pace.

[mane2006]

Hi flower,
I've got a little girl who is also two and a few weeks back, she had her two year assessment with the health visitor,
She also wasn't able to talk at this time. What me and my partner decided to do was every time we give her something to eat, we'd say what it was. Although she didn't repeat it straight away, a couple of weeks down the line, she started to say it back as she associated the food with the word and once she said it, praise as well.
I hope this is of some help to you
Mane

[Mistique]

Spend a lot of time reading with both your children (letting your son hold the book (direct interaction)), singing Mother Goose Rhymes and songs (1, 2, 3's and A, B, C's). Ask them questions and interact with them as much as you can (What your doing, 5 W's) for example "I am vacuuming the house so the house is clean and you can play better". When your shopping... what your buying, color and that it's yummy. People always give me funny looks but I don't care because I like talking to my kids and that's why mine talk so much and know quite a bit for their age.

Also find programs that are good for them to watch which you probably have. Choose some simple books and interact with them (like picture books of animals amongst all other categorizes like food, automobiles/planes, colors, numbers and clothing) and at night I read the Once Upon A Time Stories (old fashioned Rumpelstiltskin, Puss in Boots, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Ugly Duckling, The Three Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and new Disney ones too). There are some really neat flash cards out there too.

I don't really talk down to mine as if she was 2 1/2, I talk normal, I don't change my voice or change my vocabulary around her... she catches on and uses these words once she begins to understand what it means (she makes her own associations after a while) but of course we have to try to use simple words so they understand it more fully.

I have a son under a year and he babbles, babbles and babbles... more then your average baby and he says "Hey", "Hi", "Mama", "Dadda" and "Boda" (which is Bottle)! So keep up the good work!

Redundancy, redundancy and redundancy is what I found helped the best... so keep it up at least 15 minutes during the day and 15 minutes during the night - and talk, talk, talk and you will see you had nothing to worry about.