Just a speech question from a mildly worried mum (PFB alert!)

[minouminou]

Just briefly, DS is 19 months old today, and while i'm not worried worried (IYSWIM), i'm wondering if he's acquiring language well enough.
He has a vocab of maybe 7 or so words - the usual, mama, dada, his fave toy's name, the dog's name, bye, yeah and some animal sounds
he's asking what lots of things are - for example pointing at a plane and saying "dah!", which seems to mean "What's that?" and then watching your mouth when you answer, but otherwise seems to have plateaued off with his acquisition - i know boys are always a bit later than girls
he also follows orders - "go and get your shoes" to the letter (as it were, given that he can't read).
background...i have diagnosed (so pretty bad) and (not at mo) medicated ADD, and his dad is very dyslexic (so you can imagine how organised OUR household is!).
Just wondering, really....does this sound alright?
Many thanks.

[lljkk]

He sounds pretty average to me.
FWIW, he sounds a much better talker than any of my three were at that age (their dad was also a very late talker, but no ADD or other stuff -- are you sure your family conditions are relevant?).
DC all had decent-good speech skills by the time they started school, in spite of missing many early language milestones.

[minouminou]

thanks - that's good to know
the conditions are relevant, as both are related to speech delay - especially dyslexia, so i factored them in as i don't want to be worrying unnecessarily - someone may come along and say that in their experience this background always means a bit of a lag

[DumbledoresGirl]

He sounds fine to me. If it helps you to know this, my very intelligent nearly 12 yo son did not say his first intelligible word until he was 26 months old and continued to be slow picking up new words until he started school. Despite that, within 2 years, his teacher described him as articulate and the possessor of a wide vocabulary, which was stunning but very pleasing news.

I took him to some initial speech therapy sessions and one of the things the ST pointed out as a positive sign was the fact that he could follow complex instructions eg, the one I remember was "Go and get your shoes and bring them to me". So the fact that your son can do the same sounds pretty good to me.

[EffiePerine]

DS is 19 mo and that sounds about right . Does he copy you when you say words? I think if he's vocalising (which he is) and understanding speech (ditto) then you're OK. It isn;t a steady growth curve for us, more like LOTS of new things all at once then little change for ages.

[minouminou]

thanks guys, this is all reassuring.
Effie - yes he does copy....i was saying "avocado" to him yesterday (he was eating some) and he was watching and trying to say it, but had some of the sounds back to front (which i know is ok at this age)
i was a late talker as well, apparently, but went on to be a gobsh**e have a good vocab

[fiodyl]

I think that fact he is understanding is far more important tbh. Some chidren seem to take everything in and store it without the need to keep repeating it out loud IYKWIM.
DD shocked me yesterday by saying 'Yuck! Mummy dirty toes' to me after I had been outside with no shoes on! Shes never said any of them (except Mummy) before and definatly not in a sentence.

[fortyplus]

My ds1 was speaking in grown-up sounding sentences before he was 2.

My friend's ds the same age hardly said a word till he was three.

Guess which one is the genius?

Not mine!

As others have said - if he can follow simple instructions like 'Put the ball on the chair' then he's doing just fine.

[TotalChaos]

sounds OK to me. It's a very good sign that he sounds to be understanding you. You might want to doublecheck his understanding by asking him to get something he wouldn't expect you to ask him for - e.g. ask him to get a cup before he goes out. I would keep an eye on his speech, and if there's no improvement in 3 months, talk to HV and GP about referral for speech therapy (you can always cancel the appointment if he then makes big improvements while you are waiting).

btw my DS has delayed speech and understanding - his "lag" was that he barely improved between 2 and 3. i.e. over the course of an entire year.

[fridayschild]

At DS1's 2 year check I was asked if he ever put two words together ("get down" or some such), and at that stage he didn't. The HV offered speech therapy and when I dithered said it was probably ok as long as I felt his language was improving as he got older. We didn't bother with the speech therapy, and within a year he was fine.

Your boy dosen't seem to be deaf, from what you say. I think some children are just more chatty than others.

[minouminou]

Total - is he alright now?

[TotalChaos]

afraid not, but he has come on at least a whole years worth of speech and understanding between age of 36 months and 49 months, with input from private speech therapist, having stagnated between and 2+3, so I feel hopeful about him catching up eventually. Don't let my boy's story worry you though - what I (and to be fair HV and GP!) hadn't tumbled to was that his understanding was very behind too, which doesn't seem to be the case with your little boy.

[minouminou]

oh no - i was asking solely out of interest in your story, rather than thinking it had any bearing on mine