when do toddlers start to talk?

[bumbly]

my little one is 15 months old and says nothing..only very very rarely "ma"

was at playground and was surprised to hear a 14 month old girl next to me clearly saying a few words and gesturing to mum

just curious what average is?

[notnowbernard]

I think it really, really does vary

DD1 started saying words at about 14m (she was an early talker though)

DD2 was a lot older than this. I suppose she started about 20-21m?

I find it hard to remember, tbh!

[snickersnack]

dd was speaking fairly fluently at 16 months. ds is 16 months now and says nothing but "da". And variants of - so we kid ourselves he says "door", "dog", and "there" but really it's just "da". He says it a lot, and in a very expressive way so I think he thinks he's talking to us.

I think "normal" is between 12-20 or so months. More important than words coming out of their mouths is that they are hearing ok and can understand you. Which ds definitely can. He just chooses not to respond.

[bumbly]

thanks for that ..needed a rough range so knew when alarm bells should be rung...time yet!!! ta!!!

[kettlechip]

my two were complete opposites, one was 11 months, the other more like 24 months. You have lots of time yet. Get advice if there's still no words as your l.o approaches 2. Sure there will be though!

[FeelingLucky]

Don't think there's an average age.
What's important is that you keep repeating words to them and then it all comes out of their mouths one day when you least expect it ... so no rude words from now on

[Habbibu]

Very wide range, bumbly, and iirc boys tend to be later that girls (could be wrong - moondog may be along to set me straight). Ages yet before you need to even think about being concerned.

[lljkk]

I think what matters most at this kind of age (14-16 months) is how well they understand you -- not whether they can produce much speech themselves.

All of mine were late talkers, hardly anything before 18-19 months. 1 of the 3 was referred for speech therapy, although he is improving fast now (age 4) without it.

[Sparkletastic]

DD1 - 1st word 9 mths, fluent short sentences by 11 mths. DD2 - very few intelligible words at 2 1/2 yrs. There's no telling really...

[flimflammum]

I have a hand-out called 'steps to talking' that says:
12 months - uses lots of tuneful babble. may be saying 1-3 words.
18 months - Talks nonsense to him/herself; tries to copy some words; can use about 10 recognisable words.
2 years - Can use at least 20 words, beginning to join 2 words together, e.g. 'want drink'. Speech may be difficult to understand.

But as everyone says, IME there is a huge variation.

[bumbly]

wow what a range!!!!!!!!!!!

[redclover79]

ds2 is 18 months and says 1 word (bus) and does a clip-clop noise for a horse. I may be going mad but I'm certain dd(6 months) said hello today (although I do have a head cold so maybe not ).
My mother reckons I started about 8 months and was stringing words together by a year but my brother didn't say anything til 20 months.
I've also noticed with the ds's that they both would say a word once and wouldn't say it again, ie ds2 said his brother's name when he was 12 months but has not said it since!

[ChasingSquirrels]

ds1 - about 2
ds2 - 2y plus for first words, 2y6m for putting the odd 2-words together, 2y8m complete language explosion.

[hellymelly]

Huge variety,my 17m old said first word (her sister's name)at five months and can talk about everything now in short three or four word sentences.A friends dd said her first word at 7m and then didn't say anything else at all really until 18m.Girls often talk earlier than boys and I did read somewhere that it is a hereditary trait to talk early/late. lots of toddlers don't say much before two.My baby freaks us out actually,she uses words like "ridiculous"(!)

[bambi06]

my ds started at about 8 months but so did the other two...hes now 13 months and the other night saidno more water!!!when he got out of the bath.!!!.he chats away constantly and speaks two languages..he never ceases to amaze me with his vocabulary..forget first word being mommy it was his sisters name first!!! i think its down to his father and grandad being linguists!!