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Behaviour/development

At what point does speech delay show up?

8 replies

Linguaphile · 18/04/2015 21:49

Just curious as my 19-month-old twin girls seem to be lagging a little behind their peers. They're quite bright and can understand me without a problem, but they only have maybe 20 or 25 words and two or three phrases (all done, I pooped) that they use regularly. No real verbs to speak of. They both babble profusely and talk to me and each other as though they're saying something perfectly intelligible, but I struggle to make out if anything they're saying is actually words. I'm not massively concerned, but they do seem to be behind many of the other children their age in terms of vocabulary. When should I start to worry about this? I suppose I'm on slightly heightened alert because of all the press on twins and language delay, so am paying closer attention. They were born at 38 weeks, so not particularly early, and no hearing problems.

I realise that there is a massive spectrum of 'normal' for learning these things and that every child learns at their own pace, but I also want to be proactive if there are any problems that I might be able to head off at the pass. I read to them quite a lot, try to narrate the day, play with them, etc., but I do worry that as twins they may be suffering from not getting the same amount of individual attention/conversation/one-to-one play that their peers are getting.

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OutragedFromLeeds · 18/04/2015 22:18

Signs of speech delay can show up anytime really. Definitely from a year+. Your DD's don't sound delayed at all. It is unusual to put words together when they have so few though. Normally, they amass a large number of words (usually nouns or instructions) and then start putting them together. I think it's a sign of advanced language that they're putting them together already (particularly if they're doing independently and not just parroting things you've said). If all the 19 month olds you know are talking in sentences you must be part of a very advanced toddler group. The vast majority are not talking fluently at 19 months.

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Nancyclancy · 18/04/2015 23:43

My twins were very late talking and when they started school I couldn't really hold a conversation with them. They were behind their peers for a long long time. Now aged 11, they are 2 of the noisiest, chatty boys I know. They had speech therapy but the appts were so sporadic that it was a complete waste of time.
Fortunately my ds's were very sociable and had no trouble making friends. Their poor language skills didn't seem to hinder them. So we mixed them with other children as much as possible, going to pre school, lots of reading etc and they slowly got there. My dd is the same. Yet my first ds was extremely early with his speech.

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LIG1979 · 19/04/2015 07:43

My dd was like that at their age (made a lot of chatter but didn't say much in terms if words or phrases) and I would compare her to her peers and worry. Now at 2.8 she has caught up and whilst some do speak better than she does it is not a noticeable difference anymore. (Similarly my dd walked very early and now at 2.8 you cannot see that she has had extra months of walking compared to her peers.)

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Linguaphile · 19/04/2015 09:27

That's interesting, LIG1979, ours were also very early walkers at 9 months, so I wonder if there's a connection...

Thanks for the responses everyone, very helpful.

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