#336 Why Can't My Child Use Phrases? Answering This Common Question

Join pediatric speech-language pathologist Laura Mize, M.S, CCC-SLP from teachmetotalk.com as she answers this question from an SLP:I feel like I often go through the steps of working on the 11 prelinguistic skills that you talk about in "let's talk about talking."  The kiddos build up a lot of their play skills and start to use signs and eventually get to single words.  Then, I feel like we plateau.  I have one little girl, specifically, who I'm feeling this way with.  She will be 2 in March.  She was a preemie and was getting OT services before she was transferred to my caseload.  She was a late walker and had some low muscle tone, which the OT addressed and continues to work on.  I was offering consultation services and the OT (who is fabulous) and the Mom (who is very good with follow through) worked on her play skills, imitation, social routines, songs, etc.  She has started using signs and single words.  Mom reports that she uses at least 100 single words spontaneously, but she's not yet combining words into two word phrases.  I've heard her use different nouns, verbs and some adjectives so I know she has a varied vocabulary.  But she won't attempt to imitate a two word phrase, yet she readily imitates single words.  Am I expecting too much too fast?  I feel like she has enough of the necessary skills to combine words, but she just isn't doing it yet.  Listen for my explanation and tips! Read the written summary here at my website.