My two were late-talkers.
DD9 had a few words at two. She made a lot of noise, but did not say much even at three. We had her assessed by an SLP who found her receptive language was 'fabulous'... which we already knew, and were advised to give her lots of opportunities to talk. Ridiculous advice aside, she began to speak in long paragraphs at 3.5 years. It was like she was just waiting until she knew she could do it perfectly.
DS3 was referred to a program for late-talkers at 28 months. He probably had 15 words at that point, but he rarely used some of them. I was not even remotely concerned about him, given his sister's history, but we registered for the program. The week of the first class, he started to talk. They regaled him as a 'success' and took all the credit. Really, he was just ready. On his assessment last month he is on par with a five year old for speech and receptive language (sadly his verbal IQ was rated at 34%-ile because the tester pushed his hands out of the way when he tried to point at a picture on the first question too quickly. This simple act had him under the table and refusing to participate).
DD9 has ADHD, dyslexic dysgraphia and likely stealth dyslexia. I wonder about DS... he has learned everything so very quickly: numbers, shapes, colours... all of them in a five minute sitting. With letters, he has a mental block. He can find the letters in his name but that is it. When he plays preschool computer games, he starts to cry as soon as the letters flash on the screen and asks me to 'put them away'. He certainly has other red flags for dyslexia.
