How to broach subject/support daughter

mysticalunicorn
Thanks but he has had a hearing test and he heard stuff DD didn’t! There were no concerns at all and he cooperated beautifully.

blondenana Thanks, I’ll look out for things like that.
He is and has always been very affectionate. He loves cuddles and is pretty laid back.

Funnily enough, since starting this thread, he does seem to have understood and tried to communicate more. DD2 said she asked him where his head and eyes were when she was looking after him at the weekend and he pointed to both.
Hopefully he will eventually catch up.

grandmainoz Are you actually living in Oz?
Sadly I think there are long waiting lists here should help be required. Does your GC live there too? It sounds like you are all getting great support there.

Lily65 I have stepped away from Google. I must learn to stay away

Grandmajan It’s the understanding that worries me more than the speech although hopefully that’s improving gradually. Glad to hear your GD is doing well. Such stories are reassuring

4allweknow Thanks! Fingers crossed

Flaxseed
Retired Speech and Language Therapist here: my last 6 years as a pre-school language specialist. Of course it's up to the parents, and it sounds as though Health Visitor is onto it, but if parents are feeling they are waiting too long, I can recommend contacting the children's communication charity ICAN.
I CAN Help Enquiry Service
Got a question or concern about a child’s speech and language development? You can speak to one of our speech and language specialists for advice and guidance by calling 020 7843 2544.
Talking Point
The Talking Point website has loads of great free resources to help parents and carers of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), including a Progress Checker.
Incidentally, for the benefit of Lily65, please don't pour scorn on people's worries about their children. According to the latest research, autism can be reliably diagnosed from 14 months if the right assessments are used. Not that I think this is necessarily the case with this little one.

Nemosmum

Thank you

I have had a few messages and PM’s from former SaLT’s which are all very informative.

My MiL once told me that eldest BiL barely uttered a word until he was 3. She'd been getting very worried, but once he started, it came out in whole sentences.
Presumably he'd just been taking it all in and biding his time.
He later won a scholarship to Cambridge.

My twin daughters were very delayed in speech, mainly due to the fact they had three older siblings who always knew what they wanted, etc.
When I attended their 2-year old check up, the 'Well Baby' Doctor was most concerned that I replied 'None' when asked how many words they used. Started to tell me about story reading to them etc. The HV - who knew the family well, rolled her eyes at his comments!!!
They started to talk three months later and, within a fortnight, had gone from single words to nearly full sentences. Both ended up with excellent degrees and Master Degrees. So, late talking has nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence.
One of G.sons had what is known as 'backtalk'. His language could not be understood. He, obviously knew what he was saying and became increasingly frustrated with our total inability to understand him. He seemed to have an extensive vocabulary, none of which could be understood. His Mum became reasonably adept at interpretation, but for the rest of us, including his friends at nursery, he was speaking a foreign language.
With a lot of effort they managed to get him referred to S&LT. Everyone was concerned that he would really suffer when starting full-time school, and his frustration at us all was resulting in some mild violent behavior.
S&LT gave him two lots of six sessions, diagnosed the problem and worked with him and also gave his parents exercises to do with him to get his speech back on track. Worked brilliantly and a year later, it was impossible to remember the problems. They said it would probably have started to sort itself out around the age of 6 or 7 years old, but everyone, particularly the child himself, is so glad they did not leave it that long.
He is now 9 years old and speaks beautifully. I actually remarked that he has no regional dialect, and his Mum (my daughter) explained to me that is due to the fact that he still has the original problem, but it is sorted out now as when he comes across any new word, he needs to see it written down then he can say it properly. Due to this, he speaks as he reads words, thus really good English!!!!

I suspected my GS was autistic, no speech, late walking repetitive games, favourite toys were numbers and letters. Although he was very loving, he wouldn’t make eye contact. My DD and SIL wouldn’t hear of autism, they were in total denial. Almost broke our relationship.
He was picked up through speech therapist and got an ASD diagnosis at 3.5 years. A tough learning curve for us all over the past couple of years. At a special school now, 5.5 year old, talking non-stop but very difficult to understand due to him transposing letter sounds. Good luck. x