20 month old still not talking

[Maneks]

Hello beautiful mums, need your help/ advice/ support with something. Baby is 20 month old and still doesn't have any words. He does babble a fair bit da-da, ma-ma, na-na and has random baby words like niyat-niyat, lak-lak and few others, but doesn't have words, and refuses to even say mum or dad. I was adviced to take him for a hearing test, and I have booked for one on Friday. However, I am nearly confident that it isn't a hearing issue, he rushes to wherever we will have sesame street playing even if it is in another room. He takes the phone in his hand and will do some baby talking on the phone in his own language! I should also mention here that we speak multiple languages at home. Will be grateful if other mums can share their experience and insights on this one.
Thanks so much in advance.
x

[m0therofdragons]

He's 20 months? Then that's normal. As long as he's babbling that's heading in the right direction. Hv advice I received was not to be concerned until about 26 months. I have dd1 who was speaking in short sentences by 18mo and dtds - one who started around her second birthday and the other who said nothing other than mama. At 25.5 mo I was worried as I had the comparison of identical twins but at the meeting with the Hv to discuss my concerns dtd2 began talking. She didn't bloody shut up the whole hour. I looked like a crazy woman , but was also very relieved. They all do things at different rates. Dd1 never burbbled just sat looking very serious taking it all in then went straight for words (bit odd really but perfectly normal now at 6).
My advice is relax. 4 months is a lot of time to develop. See how he is after his 2nd birthday and just talk to him lots.

[ROARmeow]

My advice is the same. Wait till around 2nd birthday then seek help from GP if still concerned.
Is good idea to make notes of what words are present/absent.

[lovesmycake]

Multiple languages take longer as well. We are a bilingual family DS will be 2 in a week and in the last 3 weeks his language has just taken off in both languages. Before that it was just babbling nothing at all really. I think he was just taking it all in. It was a bit odd though I had thought it would be more of a gradual process.

[choc0clock]

as long as he understand what you are saying and can follow simple instructions and is communication fine in other ways (e.g. pointing, bringing you things to show you etc) I would not worry at that stage.

as for the bilingual upbringing - there is a lot of research and it has been well proven that this does not delay speech and language development. Some bilingual children talk early, some later (just as children growing up with only one language).

[lovesmycake]

Yeah choc0clock I read that too, but everyone I spoke to said there would be delays. I guess maybe it's a case of there not being one rule for all? So I should have said 'multiple languages may take longer'
In my experience I do think DS was later to talk because he is bilingual.

[choc0clock]

I think as soon as a bi/multilingual child starts talking a bit late everybody blames the multilingual environment even though in most cases it has nothing
to do with it.
DC3 (3) is trilingual and speech & language wise very advanced; started talking before the 1st birthday. DC1 is very delayed and everybody blamed the multilingual upbringing. turns our DC1 has a chromosome disorder, Asd (and a few other things).

[Maneks]

DS has his hearing test tomorrow just to rule out that aspect completely. Fingers crosses if the results are fine on that one, the doctor's might suggest additional tests if they consider the situation is abnormal. Will keep you posted anyway! Thanks so much for your responses and support - help me sleep better:) x

[MomOfABeast]

I live in an Expat community where most kids have more than one language. They're first words seem to often come later. Sometimes not till 2 or slightly later but then they suddenly just start talking and catch up quickly. You're right to get a hearing test to be safe but I wouldn't be too worried abiut no words for another 6 months or so. Even for monolingual kids receptive language is much more important at that age.