I know on MN the consensus is usually gender doesn’t matter when it comes to development.
But is this true?
In real life I am constantly hearing “oh that’s normal for girls” or “oh because he is a boy”.
I have one of each. Yes, my DD was a chatterbox (to the point she nick named herself one) and started speaking short sentences just after 1. And hasn’t stopped since.
My 2 year old son says words to label things (it’s not “can I have milk” it’s pointing and saying “milk”) no sentences. He understands. His health visitor, speak and language and nursery are not worried because “they’ve seen this behaviour in boys, he will speak when he is ready. At least he understands”. He is very smart, we can tell he knows things. As he would randomly say a word like caterpillar- and we are wondering “well why won’t you speak to us?”.
I hear and see the same from my mum friends. OK, I have a group of about 12 mums I see regularly with children of similar ages. All the girl have been chatting since the age of 1 (bar 1 mum girl I met who also didn’t speak at 2). The girls are saying full sentences, responding to names, asking for things. The boys I know that are my son’s age seem to say a few words. Again I have 1 mum friend that says her son spoke very early, at around 18 months. But everyone else says “mine spoke at 3/5”.
So asking AIBU for going along with “boys speak later” or is it really dependent on the child, regardless of being a boy or girl.