Are boys really late talkers on average?

I have three DC, my DS1 was the earliest talker, then DD, then DS2. So in my personal experience it's nothing to do with gender.

I have one of each, both said their first words at 12 months, had about 50 words by 18 months, and full age appropriate sentences by 2.

My eldest boy was a v early talker and boy, could he use his words, he was incessant 😂

My boy suddenly seemed like he woke up overnight talking im full sentences around 2 and a half! Before that, it was words and pointing etc - he understood everything but it’s only now that he uses
sentences

Interesting question.
I have 3 boys, one of them was speaking at about 13 months, one by about 2 years, and one not till almost 3. They are all very clever lads, I wouldn't say any of them was noticeably brighter the the others as adults.
However when they were babies, I did notice that generally girls were ahead developmentally, and in primary school, girls seem better at tasks requiring dexterity, on the whole. For example, cutting and sticking, it's always boys that need extra help ( but not all boys).

The complete opposite for me. DD was nearly 3 before she was properly talking in sentences. DS was 18montjs…!

In my experience there's no difference
Both my boys were talking in full sentences before 2. Youngest explained gravity to me at about 2. He was the size of a 9 month old so amazed everyone in the shop! My friends DDs all talked around the same age as other DC.

But as with anything, the nature vs nurture debate comes in. People deny it, but there is a difference in how adults react to girl babies vs boy babies. Which plays a huge part in the "Girls sit nicely and colour and boys run around" narrative.

My ds had very few words until he was 2 1/2. My nephew was speaking very clearly by 22 months. My other nephew was bilingual by 2 1/2.
It totally varies.

Both my boys talked early on and were chatterboxes ,still are.. ltake after their mum! But maybe that’s why they talked early because I talked to them alot

They learn different skills at different times i don’t think it’s a case of girl or boy

No correlation between gender and speech development per multiple studies.

People are trying to be kind and make you not worry by saying it's a boy thing.

That also doesn't mean you should have anything to worry about. My eldest was full sentences at 18 months and turns out he's autistic enough to need to be in special school and my late talker is totally normal so honestly... don't stress about the milestones.

Statistically, boys are slower to talk than girls. But anecdotally, that’s not always the case. My three dds were all delayed (dd 2 and 3 had severe speech delays, and were barely grunting at 4). Ds, in contrast was an excellent talker - which somehow I missed until nursery said he was one of their best talkers! Probably because I was expecting him to be delayed.

Is this really true? I’m not arguing - just interested, as SALT always told me that boys were normally slower than girls.

If it is true, my previous post is rubbish.

To be honest OP, I think you should trust the professionals who have seen hundreds of children, rather than random people's anecdotes on here.
There is literally no reason a SALT or HV would tell you something untrue or propagate a myth. If they are saying there's nothing to worry about at this stage then I would believe them.

Both of my sons were very early talkers. We’ve now got a DGS, who will be 3 on Boxing Day, and he is too. He’s been speaking in sentences for as long as I can remember.

I've just googled. It looks like there is a difference but a small one. So boys reach the speech milestones later than girls on average, but only by a few weeks.

It’s personality rather than sex IME. We are a very ‘talky’ family and DS was certainly speaking in whole sentences well before he was 18 months old and hasn’t stopped since.

My DS was a very early coherent talker, but he was a late walker (over 18 months) and if he wanted something he needed to say so!

Children usually just do things in their own time.
Incidentally, no one tried to make me feel better about DS being a late walker. Random people were keen to tell me how unusual it was to see a child not walking at his age...

Often they are a "Walker or a talker" - the brain can't fully focus on both at once!

My kids (boy and girls) have all been talkers from an early age but none of them were particularly early "movers" - my last one didn't walk til nearly 16m! Her brain was too busy doing language cos she was never quiet! 🤣

I had no idea when boys were supposed to speak and how much they were supposed to say with my first DS. People have always thought they were both older because of how fluent their speech was.
I did fill in a hospital survey after DS 2 had surgery. One of the questions was about vocabulary between the ages of 2 and 4. I ran out of words for 4 years olds that DS 2 already used in full sentences.

I don't have one of each to compare to but think it is just very child dependent. Maybe also first child to second child as first one got a lot more attention and me speaking directly to them and was very fluent and talkative early. Second much slower to the point that I worried about them being delayed but couple of years later you wouldn't know any different (and both chatterboxes)

Whether or not boys on average talk slightly later, the key thing is that it varies quite a lot, and you shouldn't read too much into it. I think sometimes it's just a matter of what they're interested in when, or how much they feel the need to talk, or whether they prefer to wait until they can put a sentence together before trying it out much. Bilingual children are also often later to speak - perhaps because they've got more words to try and make sense of.

I was very late talking and very early reading; late talking does not mean language development isn't happening.

The story (not verified) goes that Einstein didn't speak until he was about 4, when he said (presumably in German) "the soup is too hot". They asked him why he hadn't spoken earlier, and he said "until now, everything was in order".

I’ve been a nanny for about 16 years. All my boys bar one, have been average to late talkers, with some needing SALT intervention. All my girls have been prolific talkers, even those with neurodivergence. Ironically, my own child (a girl) was a bit on the slow side in comparison.

My sons both spoke early, my second son especially early and hasn’t shut up since!