Speech therapy for 18 month old?

Question

So my son had his 18 month checking up yesterday, and they said he was a little behind on his speech. She said at this age he should be putting 2 or 3 words together and be saying short sentences. He's not, he says a few words and that it. He understands what we say to him and he's very vocal. (mostly just random babbling and short easy words.) I didn't think that my son is behind with speaking but maybe he is. 
So to anyone who's had to take their kid to speech therapy. Can you tell me if it help your child and improve their vocabulary? How long it took for you to see the improvement and if it's something you would or wouldn't recommend to other parents. 
My husband and I are debating if speech therapy is really necessary for an 18 month old.🤷‍♀️

Answer

Babe should have at least 10 words down. 
Between 18-24m they should start to put two words together like “car bye-bye” or “cat meow” or “more milk”.

Remember that a word doesn’t have to be a clear word. It just has to be consistent and intentional. Example: if a child points at a ball and every single time says “bah” that counts as the word ball. 
It doesn’t hurt to get babe evaluated by an SLP. It doesn’t sound like your child is behind, though.

Answer

1000% yes

Answer

100% necessary! 
My son was the same way, our pediatrician told us to wait until he was 2 to see if it does improve on its own. Which it didn't, so we immediately got him into therapy and I am beyond happy we did. If we listened to our family who were just saying things like "oh he will talk when he wants" who knows if today, he'd be where he is at now. 
We saw improvements 3 months into it, which I was honestly unsure if we would see anything change because his therapist was coming to our house and he saw it as more like playtime lol. But for the first time he started saying momma, daddy, and baby (his brother). And since that day it just took off. He's now 5 in kindergarten and still receiving services in school, and privately and we will continue to do so until we all feel it's no longer needed. 
I don't know why anyone would say it's unnecessary, I see it as, get the help while you can before it's too late because yes, as they get older it can get harder to correct later on. And it doesn't do any harm to get them the help. There's also nothing to be ashamed of to do so. 
I'm going to help my child succeed in life, that's my role as a parent and getting them that help is exactly doing just that.

Answer

My sister and I had speech as kids. I'd recommend it. The earlier the better. 
I had my son evaluated at 4 years old by our public schools because my MIL was certain he was behind. They said he was fine, and didn't need therapy. Gave me some exercises to help him better pronounce g's and k's.
I'd get him checked by the local schools.  They'll give him an assessment, and let you know. Usually they offer it for free, and wouldn't hurt.

Answer

Totally worth it! We are currently in it since April. My son was saying a lot of words at 18M and suddenly just didn’t care anymore so I freaked out. The therapist actually says he’s too advanced in other areas and that’s why his speech has suffered a little. We have seen a lot of progress. He’s eye contact, tone engaging, ect has had a huge improvement. Boys do talk later than girls for the most part, also if your son skipped feeling believe it or not is something that will interfere with speech later on, I was told 70% of kids that don’t actually crawl or skip it all together end up in speech therapy. My son skipped it altogether. But as far as therapy totally worth it! Make an appt asap bc there’s usually a waiting list.

Speech therapy for 18 month old?

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