Almost 2 1/2 and still not talking

Kids to begin to talk at their own pace. That is indeed right. However, is your child not even making sounds? That is the question you should ask. If your baby is not babbling, then maybe you can just get an opinion from a child specialist. If he is, then I really don't think there is much to worry about. You still can take a professional opinion. If nothing, it will at least put your mind at ease.

Is there a reason to talk? Why should he if you understand what he means anyway? My eldest daughter started talking perfectly as she was about 4 years old. No baby talk but perfectly, she is nearly 29 years old now (and can talk non stop). My son did exactly the same (he is 9 years old now). He even did not respond if you called his name so for a short time we did think he might be deaf. I never worried about the fact he did not speak, it was fine with me. He was way more observing and busy with his own inventions/things. He also started talking in perfectly dutch. No babytalk, no dialect. His language is on a very high level (so is his reading etc). Unless you think your son is handicapped and slow with other things as well I don't think therapy is necessary. I always talked to my son, he did hear a lot of classic music (still preferes that), I read him stories whole day on but he never started talking because of that. Just let your son be who he is! There is no need to be like the rest of the cattle.

Depending where you live, it could be reassuring to get early intervention out to do an assessment. It can't hurt and it could help. For most kids, it's just a matter of time because your son could be focusing on learning a different skill, like puzzles, balancing, hopping, that kind of thing and so his speech could be delayed. But for some kids it could be that they need a bit of help and the earlier they get the help, the easier it is. My friend's son was about a year behind in speech and caught right up with a few months of speech therapy, there wasn't anything wrong but he did have trouble forming certain sounds and the therapist helped with that.

It is rather unusual that at his age, he is not talking. You might need to have your son checked. God forbids, but sometimes, we are not aware that the child might be deaf and so he is not able to recognize sounds and unable to mimic them. I hope you let your son see a specialist soon. I am keeping my hope us for you.

My mother went through this with me...and the doctor told her stop getting her everything she wants when she points at it or makes a noise. He said eventually she will say what she wants if you stop doing this! Lol. I'm not saying this is what's happening with your son but my mother let me be lazy, Lol. I did not talk until after 2 years old and I did not walk until 20 months old because my mother did EVERYTHING for me! With my son, he was just lazy even though I did not allow him to be. He did not walk until he was 19 months old. But the doctors told me because I was lazy as a baby he was too! Just what I wanted to hear...NOT! Lol. I took him to a therapy place and they told me there's nothing wrong with him, he is lazy! I don't know if they have a place like that near you but I would tell his doctor whats going on and they will probably send you to the same kind of place my son went to be evaluated. If something is wrong, they will put him in therapy...

I heard this really crazy story from one show I watch and two men were talking about how they raised two sons. One of the men had a baby son who they didn't do that much for, I mean they fed him and did all the regular stuff but alot of things they let him try for on his own. I'm not talking abusive or anything, but they were even saying there was accidents and stuff cause of this, and still the boy grew up to be more efficient and all than the other one who was raised with everyone doing everything for him. I don't recommend this though, the boy might have killed himself (accidentally) with some of the stupid stuff that was described. Maybe it's right to not give him/her what she wants all the time unless it is crucial and see what happens, give it a trial run at least. Nothing dangerous though.