Oh, not for lack of trying. He had an older sister and brother who never let him get a word in edgewise.
My son had this problem, too. And so did my youngest of my brothers. He didn't speak until he was 4. And yes, both my son and my brother were/are good listeners.
I've learned a lot about slow-speakers, through vast amounts of research. And during the "rough" years, quite a number of parents brought their "late speakers" to me. I worked with them using a variety of techniques I found successful with my son.
Late speakers, and for a range of causes/reasons tend to be more visually oriented. What this means, effectively, the real world is like one big TV screen to them. They are in the world, but not necessarily "interactive" with that world.
One very effective interactive use is when speaking to your "late-speaking" child, go ahead and put your finger to your mouth as you begin speaking, visually drawing a line with your finger from your mouth to their mouth, face, person. Ask them to respond, using your finger point to their mouth, and bring their line of focus, with your fingerpointing to youself. As though your finger were the bouncing ball on their words. This application was used for all verbal communications until it became clear that the finger was no longer necessary to focus the child's attention. (And yes, in public and at home. For as long as it takes. And yes, other kids and adults did ask if my son was "deaf".)
In the first place, this focuses the child. It also gives them a visual cue. And, it breaks that TV screen "barrier" erected by their "self-sense". I've had some kids begin yakking up a storm within two weeks of this treatment. Some have taken longer, and require more visual cue treatments.
And I'll share here the more remarkable I've learned in working with late-talkers. Foreign films. Excellent children's film with English in subtitles. This has proven successful in two areas: One, the child to cognize the sounds he is hearing are not like the ones he's used to. It shakes them up a bit. And you get to see if your child even notices the difference. When they do, you explain that the words on the screen represent the language he is accustomed to. What I'm saying is, I've found many "late speakers" latch onto the written word like it was the 2nd coming! Somehow, the pattern of the written word clicks with them. And applied after the finger-mouth focusing techniques have been established.
And my success rate with "late talkers" was unanimously successful. I'm no therapist, etc. I had to learn on my own how to keep my son from the "state gauntlet" and I did tremendous research. People who'd heard my story either in print, radio, elsewhere; kept showing up asking me to just "try" with their late talkers; as they too were being targeted by the State.
My thought was: I have no idea!!! Well, all I can do is share what worked for us. So, try, we did. Just basic, down-home techniques. In some families, there were issues in the home which exacerbated the late-talking, and yes, I was blunt enough to reveal these to the parent: Stop answering for the child. Stop making this child a "dependent". "stop the verbal coddling. shut down the interference, when your child directs a verbal communication to you or others; become the best listener. (And you might be listening to nonsense, in the beginning, but it will and does sort out.)
Just my experience, here, and these were kids going to be running the ADD/ADH gauntlet, and yes, we, in California, knew full well, the extent to which our freedoms could be abrupted and abrogated by the State.
I'm sharing what I did, and what worked. I'm in no way saying this will incite all late-talkers to speech, nor that all are merely late-talkers.
But I've always wondered, through these years, if the child just simply began "clicking" into the speech issue, and would have done so simply at that time regardless of whether or not we'd done these techniques.
Perhaps, it was purely the special attention given to the matter.
I'd trust Dr. Camarata and Dr. Sowell's counsel, first and foremost! :)
What I'm sharing here will cost you nothing; and cause no harm to your child, should any reading this, have a late-talker in the home.
Thanks for sharing your story.
As i say, my boy is 21 now and he really “never shuts up” and we love that.
It’s been a long time ago and i don’t remember what we did at home to try and help him but i don’t remember being very concerned about it because i could see he was trying to talk. We did try to get the other two kids to let him talk once in awhile (which they ignored most times). He just must’ve thought at the time that when someone else was talking it wasn’t his turn to talk. So he would patiently close his mouth again until it was he got another chance which was really cute. He was otherwise sociable and affectionate. Would sit on peoples laps and make sounds or laugh or screech! I knew all along he wanted to talk.
My youngest daughter (4th child) was funny with talking. One day she didn’t talk. The next day she was speaking in complete sentences and without any speech impediments. No trouble with “R” sounds. No baby talk. So she was listening all that time too. She was about 3 years old.
I like your suggestions tho and hope people with late talkers will read your post and try your methods. For me, i don’t have grandchildren yet, and hopefully when i do there will be no issue with this, but if so, i’ll have an idea of how to begin. But as i told my brother and my friend, sometimes boys just don’t develop speaking skills as quickly as girls.