Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Fewer than about 50 words and no two-word phrases at 24 months: that is the moment to look — waiting is not a neutral option.
Also known as: developmental language disorder · DLD · late talker · late language emergence · speech delay · language delay · child not talking yet
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Children learn to talk at very different speeds, and the range is wider than many guidebooks suggest. Still, there is one rule every parent should know: a child who at 24 months uses fewer than about 50 words and does not yet put two words together (“mummy car”) counts as a late talker — and that is the moment to look closely rather than wait. About half of these children catch up on their own. The other half do not. Nobody knows in advance which group a child belongs to, and that is exactly why waiting is not a neutral option: it costs time that cannot be recovered later. Before any language assessment, hearing must be checked by paediatric audiology or ENT — especially after middle ear infections, because fluid behind the eardrum dampens hearing for months without causing any pain. One point needs naming plainly: growing up with several languages does not cause a language disorder and does not delay overall language. A child with a language disorder has it in all their languages — and a child without one benefits from multilingualism. The gap between understanding and speaking matters too: a child who understands well but speaks little starts from a far better position than one whose comprehension lags as well. Assessment runs through the paediatrician and speech therapy — in Switzerland via the school or the school psychology service depending on canton, or on medical prescription. How this is worked on in speech therapy — amount, duration, limits and the signs that are urgent — is ordered by age at logopaedie.borters.ch.
Paediatric audiology or ENT, also after ear infections: fluid behind the eardrum quietly dampens and slows language.
Since nobody knows in advance who catches up, waiting is not neutral. Paediatrician, speech therapy, school service.
Speak to the child in the language you master best. Dropping a language demonstrably does not help.
“Nana!” — “Yes, a banana, would you like the banana?” The child hears the right form without being shown up.
After a question, count silently and wait. Many children need several seconds before an answer comes.
Narrate daily life out loud, share a picture book every day, repeat rhymes and songs — repetition is the engine.
Language grows in back-and-forth with a person, not from watching. Learning videos do not replace dialogue.
Gestures, pointing and picture cards do not hold speech back — they take pressure off and open the way.
There is no drug. What works is the amount and the kind of language around the child: naming what it is looking at, taking up and extending what it says rather than correcting, leaving pauses. This way of supporting is effective in studies and can be shown to parents in a few sessions. In a late talker with fewer than fifty words at two, about half catch up by their third birthday; waiting without checking is nonetheless not the route — hearing is tested.
At twelve months first words are usual, at two years about fifty words and first two-word sentences, at three years a stranger understands about three quarters of what is said. A late talker is a child with fewer than fifty words and no two-word sentences at twenty-four months — about thirteen to twenty in a hundred children. About half catch up by their third birthday. Hearing is tested in every case.
Between two and five almost every child stumbles over words at times. What is notable and what is not stands side by side in the Body language tool.
Count everything the child uses intelligibly and spontaneously — including “woof-woof” or their own invented words.
“Mummy car”, “daddy gone”: linking two words is the real leap — and it is missing in late talkers.
Simple requests without gestures are not followed. This weighs more than silence alone — act promptly here.
Even before first words, syllable chains, pointing and shared gaze show that communication is getting going.
If grandparents, playgroup or nursery keep asking for repeats, that is a useful outside signal.
A child who loses skills already gained or falls silent should see the paediatrician soon — at any age.
Not for speech itself: if development is delayed overall, the thyroid belongs to the basic workup.
A lack causes exhaustion, problems concentrating, low mood and forgetfulness — and it is one of the few causes that can be found and put right with a single blood draw.
Low values are common with low mood. Whether correcting it lifts the mood is not settled; that it makes sense in winter at our latitudes is.
An empty store causes tiredness, lack of drive and problems concentrating long before any anaemia becomes visible. In women of childbearing age the most common single reason.
A building block of the cell coverings in the brain. The studies on mood are inconsistent; as part of a good diet it belongs there anyway.
Needed for making the messengers in the brain. It runs short with alcohol and under certain medicines — and it is always judged together with B12.
Iron deficiency in the first years of life is one of the few nutritional questions where a link with language development has repeatedly been found. That holds for the deficiency, not for iron as an addition at a normal value — there too much is harmful and the value decides.
A clear iodine deficiency in pregnancy affects brain development, and language is part of that. In Switzerland iodised salt largely covers this — it becomes a topic where cooking is done consistently without salt or with non-iodised speciality salt.
The strongest known quantity in this field is not an ingredient: it is the amount of speech a child hears directed at it, and the number of turns in the conversation. That is inconvenient because it cannot be bought — but it is the honest account.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
Clearly worthwhile and well studied when deficient; fewer data for the wider uses. Fat-soluble — check blood levels at high doses.
Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.
In pregnancy clearly established against neural-tube defects, otherwise mainly with deficiency. Can mask a B12 deficiency — watch both.
A congenital underactive thyroid severely and lastingly slows speech and thinking if it is not treated in the first weeks of life. That is exactly what newborn screening is for — one of the most effective measures in children’s medicine there is.
If a child is also falling behind in growth, that is a different route from a pure speech delay. The growth curve therefore always belongs looked at too, not only the word count.
Iron deficiency in the first and second year is linked with slower development. Cow’s milk as the main drink before the first birthday is a common cause — it holds little iron and hinders its uptake.
Iron deficiency in the first and second year is linked with slower development. In late talkers measuring is worthwhile — simple, and the deficiency is correctable.