We are just about to start speech therapy with our 2.5 year old for his stutter. The doctor told me it is better to do it early so any concerns can be addressed.

On advise of the Health nurse my eldest 2 had some speech therapy. Personally I didn’t see the need and just felt they were after the money.
However my youngest is 5yrs now and has speech therapy since she was 1yr old and she truly needs it as she has a severe speech delay.

DO IT- I didn’t because of the cost, and regret it now. My son is autistic, so it was more about body language, triggers and dialoguing – he is 24 now and quite ok, but the formative teen years were really hard for him. All the best x

We took out 2.5 year old and like you I had no concerns but it had been pointed out to hubby and I that he wasnt saying enough 4-5 word sentences so after the seed of doubt was planted we say speech pathologist who assessed him twice and assured us he did not need any therapy. She said he was saying age appropriate things and sounds abd the reason he wasn’t making too long sentences could be related to the fact he has 2 older siblings who are only 18,and 36mnths older who do alot of talking for him.
I think you should take for initial consult and go from there.

if you feel your child needs it, go for it….. better to do it than not do it…

I am confused about what sounds she is making that are so called not age appropriate? If you and the childcare don’t think she has a problem, ask a friend who would give you an honest answer. But is sounds like they are drumming up business. Yes if she has a problem, early intervention is helpful but I would leave it unless she has a big issue until she is a little older. Hard to tell if you ask me at 2 and a half.

My daughter was screened at preschool (she was 3.5) and I did have some concerns as she’d had an illness 18 months before & had taken over 6 months to start to talk again, the result being that she abbreviated her speech. She ended up having the therapy at preschool (a therapist visited) & it was great. The therapy was approached as a learning game, which my daughter loved, & as it was part & parcel with the pre-school there was no extra cost to me which was fantastic.

If you are really concern and worried, why not. But for me some kids are a bit slow and some are not but she’s only developing, really! You as a mother can tell if there’s something wrong with her speech. Ask your mother, perhaps your husband of how you were both like as a child. Wait for another year and if you think there’s a problem then go and have it look at. Good luck!

My son began speech therapy around that age but he had a condition called dyspraxia & barely spoke at all & when he did it was pretty incomprehensible.He was becoming very frustrated as well. It was well worth it in his case but your daughter\’s problems do not sound anywhere near as severs as my son\’s. Back when my son was diagnosed it was through a public hospital after checking his hearing was fine etc – not sure if this service still exists but that is probably preferable to a private therapist at least for initial diagnosis as at least they are not just in it for the money.

It can not do any harm at all for her to go to speech therapy and to be honest if you go now and they help you with any issues it is easier to retrain them now rather than when they are set in their ways at school

Yes…My middle daughter.
I wouldnt feel concerned at all and just look at it as something where they are trying to make sure that she doesnt have a problem later on. Its nothing to stress over at all and its a lot of fun for the kids as everything is made into games. We are really lucky that we have such things offered for free.

Sounds ridiculous to me. Children are only learning to talk at 2.5 years. Surely there is a more appropriate age to do the screening? Might be worth a second opinion if you are concerned.

the best person to speak to would be your local GP as they would recommend if they felt it was necessary and could provide you with a care plan to gain speech therapy for a few sessions covered by Medicare. Otherwise use your own judgement. If there are no other developmental delays it could be too young.

Our grandson is starting speech therapy soon at six months of age because of developmental delays