Just 18mo and speech

[Figgygal]

Cm had a chat with us last night about 18 mo DS speech I knew it was coming as he Is behind I'm not worried as I know it'll come but she has to talk to us about it. She says he's so advanced in relation to everything else his understanding is brilliant, he follows instructions, he knows his body parts he can point to things in his books he knows his animal noises he knows cars go vroom, trains go choo choo etc and he gibbers and shouts at us all the time but we still only get mummy daddy juice ball and bubble. The hv will just tell us to talk to him more wont they? He doesn't need a dr yet does he?

[Xmasbaby11]

I don't think he sounds particularly behind. Is your CM seriously worried? I would just keep talking to him and model words he might want to say. He already has a few words so it's likely they will keep coming. Don't worry!

[Figgygal]

Thanks Xmas

she just said that is so ahead with everything else that it is marked that he is a bit slower on the speech development in comparison.

He did say dinosaur once as clear as a bell completely out of nowhere so he is quite capable.

Will just chat inanely to him, wrench the tv remote out of his hand when he wants it on in the mornings and try to encourage him more.

[MortifiedAdams]

But he isnt behind in comparison to another 18mo, just behind in comparison to his other atributes.

So really, he is Mr Average for speech and remarkably advanced in other areas

I dont think you or she need to be concerned until at least two.

[BrownBearBrownBear]

The norm for 18 months is 10-50 words approx. Sounds like he's got 10, as animal and vehicle noises all count. So I don't think he's behind at all. It's normal for comprehension of language to be more developed than use at this age. So nothing to be worried about at all.

[PrincessScrumpy]

Sounds like he's doing fine to me... maybe I should be worried about dtds speech at 21mo as they don't say much more than you dc does at 18mo

[TheTripletDiaries]

Sounds like he's doing pretty well to me! My 18 month old triplet boys only have 5 words each. Animal noises and train sounds etc count as words too. My boys, like yours are advanced in other areas and boys do tend to be later with speech as they are much more physical. Sounds like you know what action to take to encourage words so don't worry, it will come :) good luck! X

[Fantail]

DD said Mama, Dada, ear, eye and I think bye at 18 months, plus some animal sounds.

Two months later she was starting to string words together.

Your DS sounds normal.

[MigGril]

Sounds fine to me, they don't self refear to speech therapy hear until 3 now as most apparently catch up on their own.

Ds hardly spocke until 2 1/2 then out it came all of a sudden. He surprised me as he could count before he could talk.

[JollyShortGiant]

Sounds totally normal to me. One little girl I know had about the same at that stage and pretty much overnight started talking in sentences.

[kelda]

Agree with the others, he sounds within the normal range.

[whyno]

This whole thing really annoys me. Why do they give 18 months as the marker when most of the babies I know have started closer to 2? Don't worry, your DS is totally normal. 18 months is quite early to have more than a couple of words in my experience.

[CreatureRetorts]

Yes I would cut down the tv if he watches it every morning
My second is 18 months and sounds similar. My first was the same. We read to them both a lot from birth - once ds turned 2, his speech came on leaps and bounds. I'm expecting the same with dd.

[CoolaSchmoola]

My DD sounds exactly the same, advanced in most areas but not in speech. The way I looked at it is she was developing her other skills first, so at 18 months she was following two and three part instructions, had very good fine motor skills etc but had only ten or so words.

Fast forward almost three months (she's 5 days off 21 months) and within the last week it's all changed. She's saying five or six new words a day.

I really wouldn't worry, children have so much to learn and they haven't read the books, I figure that my DDs learning energy (can't think of another way to put it lol) was directed at developing her other skills first, and now it's time to develop speech rapidly.

[Amiee]

Kids are all different and at 18months the differences between typically developing kids can be huge so dont compare him to the kid next door who already reads Shakespeare (according to her mum). At his age he is unlikely to be offered 1-1 therapy but i always say if your worried get him assessed. I work as a SALT, and these are the kind of tips we give parents to encourage language in little ones.
-Offer choices. Milk or juice for example. Even if he just points you can use the opportunity to label the options. 'You want the milk' .
-use short simple sentences to provide a clear language model. (Think one word more than your child uses in a sentence) so if he is still at the one word level use 1 or 2.

• sabotage. It may seem cruel but some kids wont speak if they dont feel the need so don't automatically open the toy box for him or you could leave a piece out if his puzzle on purpose. if he wants juice give him a tiny bit so he has to ask for more. Same thing works with biscuits, playdoh, bubbles etc. (if he doesn't actually say it but points or something say more or open or whatever yourself before giving it to him)
  
• repeat yourself a million times. 'You want juice, here's the juice, pouring juice, mmm yummy juice'
  
• don't ask many questions. It doesn't provide a good language model and it can be a bit testy for some kids. Comment instead 'Look a car' 'wow big tower'
  
• speak for him when you know what he wants. eg when he is struggling to be put down say 'get down'.
  
• pauses, young children can sometimes take a long time to process. Count to 5 in your head when your expecting him to say something to give him lots of time to give it a go. Look at him expectantly while you wait. For example after offering him a choice or at a key point in a book or song 'silly old fox doesn't he know there's no such thing as a ............. Wait..... look expectantly......(if he doesn't say it say it for him ...Gruffalo)' this also helps to build anticipation and auditory intrest.
  

You probably do most of this anyway but actively thinking about these things and doing them more can encourage 'reluctant talkers' to get to the next stage.

Hope it helps.