Daughter is having speech issues at 2y4m?

[faye83]

Hello to everyone! I have a 2y 4 month old daughter. I've been reading online in multiple websites that by her age she should be able to use whole sentences...but she only says single words, some times just a couple of them. It's not like she's quiet, she "talks" all the time is just that I don't understand what she is saying. This being said, I have to add that while I speak to her in english (and sometimes in spanish) , her father speaks to her in his language and we live in an asian country, so in total its 4 languages. I do know that supposedly this can make her speech development slower, but how much slower than it is right now? Should we somehow try to shorten the languages we speak to her to only 2? if we keep speaking to her in these 4 languages does it mean she won't be able to form complete sentences until she's much older?

[faye83]

That makes sense. Thank you both!

[skepticalpeach]

Hi, my daughter is almost 6 and still talks like that. BUT, she has been diagnosed with autism. She was also raised in a house with only 1 language. Generally I would say this is a sign of a delay, but since she has been regularly exposed to 4 languages I'd lean towards no. I bet that if you go down to 1, maybe 2, languages you will see a lot of improvement. Just to be safe I would also take her to see a speech therapist. I met many parents at the clinic who took their children to see an SLP (speech language pathologist) because the child was confused after being only exposed to 2 languages. It's certainly something to think about.

[adgal]

I'm not sure how much being immersed in multiple languages delays things, but I do know for certain that it does.  That being said, how wonderful that she will have 4 languages.  I would check in with an expert - perhaps a pediatrician or speech therapist?  Others will speak up I'm sure with more information, sorry all I can offer is that I know it is normal for a child to be behind in these types of situations.  All the best to you!