20 month old speech

aristotle25

Hi,

I know you cant compare babies because they all develop at different times but I am wondering about my 20 month olds speech development.

He doesn't really say a lot of words. He says "bath", da da, ma ma, "out there" and few other things but generally says "dat" to find out what things are and resorts to grunts etc.

He knows a lot, like he can point to his fingers, arm, head, teeth, nose etc when you ask them where they are. He can point out objects in a book when you ask him to. He knows a lot of commands like "go up the stairs", "go outside" etc etc. I really have no concerns for his comprehension.

Its just I thought he would be coming out with more words by now?

I guess we can wait and see how it goes or bring him to a specialist?

The public health nurse has no concerns and said wait until he is 2 years old.

Vel

Our 18 month old had her developmental a couple of weeks ago and the nurse said at that ages they expect a minimum of 20 words. Our eldest two, especially our middle girl had really great speech and were quite a bit above what was average for their age. Our 18 month old, the youngest seemed to be a bit slower than them and I was beginning to worry and then suddenly the flood gates opened and she never stops!

If your public health nurse isn't too worried than I wouldn't worry yourself unnecessarily. One thing which we have always done from as soon as they were born was to talk and chat with them all the time, nearly narrating everything we were doing as we went along. We also limited 'baby' words such as 'day day' for bye etc. and we read a lot to them, sitting and looking through books from a young age. You may be doing all this already. I am convinced it has helped develop our kid's great speech.

IvyTheTerrible

Mine (26 months) goes through phases (several weeks) of not saying any new words or phrases, and then all of a sudden, he'll come out with a rake of new ones in one day! At 20 months, he would have been a lot like your little one, I wouldn't worry too much.

Suucee

My daughter had about 5 words at 18 months. I was concerned and contacted my phn. Like yours she understood commands .

Phn asked about her ears. If she had many ear infections which she did so she told me to see gp.

Gp done another developmental type check and reffered her to ent.

She had grommets inserted in jan and the speech has come on in leaps and bounds.

Im not saying your son needs grommets. When i contacted phn she wasnt overly concerned and said alot of kids dont start until they are closer to 2 but when she seen us and had a chat she had a feeling it was the ears.

As another poster said books and talking are great. We read to her every night from when she came home from hospital. But what has really helped is picture books. We point to the picture and say ball and get her to repeat. Then giraffe etc etc. She absolutely loves doing this. And when my hands are full with newborn i ask her to show me where the ball or car etc is.

lazygal

I've noticed a huge leap in a matter of weeks with my almost two year old. We talk all the time and she's picking up new words every day. It's a real leap.forward compared to a couple of.months ago.

wmpdd3

I have a boy and a girl, boy has communication issues but girl doesn't.

My little girl had about 10 words at 2 and a few 2 word phrases. The morning of her 2nd birthday we were outside her room blowing up balloons for her when she just started talking like a 6 year old. Full sentences about what she could see in her room etc. It was amazing.

My son is now 27 months and doesn't understand commands. He had about 2 words at 24 months. He has about 6 good words now.

Rose35

My 20 month old boy has lots of words and can string sentences together, we chat alot and use books where i point
out objects and he names them, every day im fascinated by how many words he has, I put it down to being full
time in a creche and mixing with children of different ages, haven't had a developmental check since he was 6 months!! see here that some of you were called at around 18 months. Must chase it up.

galah

Our little boy didn't have many words at that stage either - he's now 2.5 and in the past month we've noticed a huge leap. That said, comprehension was always good, just not talking. He's brought up with 3 languages though so i do expect a bit of a delay...(German n English full time and a bit of Irish on the side.)

I'd say if the phn isn't worried for now you'll be ok!

If there's no improvement by 24 months get things moving yourself.
My son had about 200 words at 18 months (seriously, he hasn't stopped talking since) but that's not particularly common.

I wouldn't leave it though, it's better to get any SLT process in motion sooner rather than later.

Mink

OP, I could have written your post. My guy is same age, has a handful of words (bus, car, mama, bye bye etc) but understands very well, can identify a lot of objects & images, can follow instructions and sometimes two part commands as well.

But then some of my friends' babies same age are running rings around him with full sentences, counting to 12, big vocabulary etc.

I'm going to leave his developmental check til he's 2 and then just get it evaluated then if no improvement.

In the meantime, lots of reading and chatting and talking about the things around us etc.

ariana`

OP, as it happens i spoke to my PHN this morning about this. She said she no longer checks toddlers at 18mths as she found she had to bring them back again 3-4 mths later to re-check because of speach and that generally at the re-check they were flying it, it was doubling her work-load and causing parents undue worry. She now does the 18mth check-up closer to their 2nd birthday and finds at that age they have great vocab.

I'm not going to worry until my LO is 2. He understands everything i say to him and he can make himself understood too, i read and talk plenty to him and so i believe the rest will follow when he's good & ready.

aristotle25

thanks for all the replies.

Mink

ariana` wrote: »

OP, as it happens i spoke to my PHN this morning about this. She said she no longer checks toddlers at 18mths as she found she had to bring them back again 3-4 mths later to re-check because of speach and that generally at the re-check they were flying it, it was doubling her work-load and causing parents undue worry. She now does the 18mth check-up closer to their 2nd birthday and finds at that age they have great vocab.

Good to know this

Rose35

As already stated above, after speaking with PHN today, no 18 month developmental check, it's closer to
24 months now (for checking speech development it's delayed till later), and again at 3.5 years (pre-school age).
Due to staff cut backs it's not unusual that my child has not been checked since he was 6 months old!!! have an appt made now for June.

aristotle25

Ok just a small update.

We arranged a developmental check with the PHN this morning. It was all fine and they said they only expect 6-20 words at this stage (our son is 21 months old and has 7-8 words really).

They had 20-30 questions e.g. does he respond to command etc and that all went fine.

They said the speech really comes on from 2 years on so thankfully this all looks ok so far.

Moonbeam

That is brilliant.
They all develop at different speeds and I do think girls are alot faster to talk then boys.

wmpdd3

aristotle25 wrote: »

Ok just a small update.

We arranged a developmental check with the PHN this morning. It was all fine and they said they only expect 6-20 words at this stage (our son is 21 months old and has 7-8 words really).

They had 20-30 questions e.g. does he respond to command etc and that all went fine.

They said the speech really comes on from 2 years on so thankfully this all looks ok so far.

Thats great news, there is a test like that for every 6 months. As long as your little guy understands what's going on and responds to your commands, hopefully his speech will catch up.

aristotle25

Another update:

Like many other people say toddlers can just start off talking and quickly build up vocabulary.

Our guy (just turned 2 years old) decided to start practicing his talking more over the last month or two and is now mimicking us a lot and coming out with single words, two word sentences and even the odd 3 word sentence. Yesterday he picked up his water beaker and said "That put orange".

So for others in similar boat don't panic too early but it is good to be aware of speech and its progression.

yellow hen

Our son is 18 months and can only say mama. He never stops jibber jabbering to himself and I've been told that once he's vocal not to be too concerned about the actual words. Is that true?

peteb2

galah wrote: »

Our little boy didn't have many words at that stage either - he's now 2.5 and in the past month we've noticed a huge leap. That said, comprehension was always good, just not talking. He's brought up with 3 languages though so i do expect a bit of a delay...(German n English full time and a bit of Irish on the side.)

I'd say if the phn isn't worried for now you'll be ok!

Galah, I'm curious and want to ask how you are handling the German? My wife speaks fluent french and I'm trying to figure the best way/time to handle two languages. he's only 18 months and doesnt say much yet.

Sorry for hijacking everyone else.

IvyTheTerrible

peteb2 wrote: »

Galah, I'm curious and want to ask how you are handling the German? My wife speaks fluent french and I'm trying to figure the best way/time to handle two languages. he's only 18 months and doesnt say much yet.

Sorry for hijacking everyone else.

I'm in the same situation, and from what I've read, each parent should only speak their native language to the child. I'm the only person my son (2 and a half) hears speaking English on a regular basis, so he has been a lot slower to speak English than French. HOWEVER he does understand everything I say in English, only he responds in French! He has started speak more English now.
Also, apparently bilingual kids start speaking later than children surrounded by a single language, so I wouldn't worry so much if he's a bit slower to get going.

aristotle25

yellow hen wrote: »

Our son is 18 months and can only say mama. He never stops jibber jabbering to himself and I've been told that once he's vocal not to be too concerned about the actual words. Is that true?

Our Public Health Nurse said they should be able to say 1 word by age 1, 2 word sentences by age 2 and 3 word sentences by age 3.

If your son is able to follow some simple commands and understands what you are saying I wouldn't have any concerns at this stage.

One of the skills babies practice is mimicking the sounds and tones adults make and that is what they are doing when babbling gibberish. Its a good sign.