My 15 month old still hasn't said his first word

[Stillmonday]

He can only say 'ah' which he says A LOT! But it's starting to worry me a bit now, there's not even been any attempt at any other sounds.

I talk to him all the time, not sure what to think?

My 15 month old is very 'chatty' but says zero words. Is you LO trying to communicate through pointing, showing you things, looking at you and interacting while you play? Do they understand a few basic commands (like 'sit down' or 'where's your silly cup?'). If those things are all apparent then they're doing really well and the speech with come 🙂

My 3 year old can barely talk and it’s hardly understandable when he does. My nephew who is 2 can’t say not one word

It varies so massively! I nannied for one little munchkin who was chatting away by his first birthday, in sentences by 18 months. He had no dexterity at all though, really struggled with puzzles etc. His sister wasn't even saying 'Mama' at 18 months but she could do a shape sorter in the blink of an eye. They're all different.

If your little one isn't saying the basics 6 months from now I would speak to your doctor, but please don't worry yet. A family friend didn't say a word til 3 but by the end of that year was having proper conversations!

There are some things you can do to help OP. If he still has a dummy, get rid of it now. Even using it at night will be affecting how his tongue sits in his mouth. Tongue position is really important for speech development. A doidy cup or similar is better than a spouted beaker. Ensuring that he's eating proper food helps too, rather than purees. Talking of which, any feeding problems as a baby? It's possible there's an diagnosed tongue-tie going on. Anyway, other things you can do - keep background noise like TV of radio turned off, spend lots of time speaking clearly to him with good eye contact, sing lots of nursery rhymes with actions, when you read books ask him to make the noises of the animals in the pictures etc. Keep him facing you in his pushchair if you can, and talk about everything you're seeing as you walk along, pausing for him to respond even if he chooses not to.

There's a lady on youtube who has good ideas for encouraging speech in toddlers, so check out her vids:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXmXkWrGqio-SujBcmRIlmYKgY2vmuyJ8

I remember when moving into a new home a neighbour smugly told me that my two year old should be talking much more as her children were chatting away at that age. Thanks for that was my thought at that time.
Well she did learn to speak without any bother and became a highly skilled nurse and lecturer.

There's an old but excellent book called "Baby Talk" by Sally Ward that you might like to look at, you can get it second hand for a couple of pounds. Lots of ideas in that to help develop language.
However I wouldn't necessarily worry yet. Is his understanding good? Does he have good eye contact? Can he focus his attention? Can he share attention/focus on an object with you? These are all good signs.
My DD1 didn't say a word until she was two, and then went almost at once into short sentences. I remember her reception class teacher saying "She's very articulate isn't she." in a slightly weary way. As an early years trained teacher myself I know that's short hand for is never blooming well quiet 😉

And is his hearing ok? Has he been prone to ear infections? A fluctuating hearing loss caused by "glue ear" can affect speech development. If you can't hear clearly you are less likely to be able to speak clearly.

I was worried at that stage and DS didn’t say much at all until about 3 months after his second birthday when he started talking in full fluent sentences. It was almost spooky.

I swear, he had about 10 words (almost all food themed!) for about six months then could just talk. I remember him shouting “I need a tissue Mummy, I have a runny nose” from his cot when he just did pointing and grunting about 6 weeks earlier.

We had his hearing tested at about your stage so if you can that might be worth doing. Also as per a pp he was always clearly understanding lots of things much earlier. He could point to his nose or whatever and had favourite books and some signs. If you’ve got some of that I’d try not to worry.

I wouldn't worry yet OP, 15 months is still very young. You could talk to your health visitor about getting a hearing test done although I don't know how easy that will be given the current lockdown situation. DS was diagnosed with glue ear just before turning 2 - it did make him slower to talk. He's never had an ear infection and wasn't obviously 'not hearing' things, so it's not always straightforward to spot.

My 21mo only says a few words - Mama, Dada, Nana and "more", along with some animal noises (doesn't always sound right but we get the idea). I'm not too worried yet, as he understands most of what we say and can follow instructions.

His sister was the same, with maybe a few other words (her first real word was also "more"). Then one morning just before she turned 2, she suddenly started talking. In full sentences. Nonstop! She's 6 now and has a huge vocabulary. I'm imagining DS will go roughly the same way.

I'm sure your DS is fine, OP [smile ]You'll probably have a 2 year check, so if you do and he's not talking then, you can chat about it. If he understands you, I think that's the most important thing.

Never met any adults who cant speak so dont worry.

He understands lots of words, fetches his shoes when I ask him etc. Points at things and communicates very well other than actually speaking.

He's never had a dummy.

I'm feeling a bit more reassured now thanks to your replies :)

Nothing to worry about at all at 15 months. Children vary enormously.,

MiL once told me that a BiL barely uttered until he was 3 - she’d been getting very worried, but once he started it came out in whole sentences. He’d just been taking it all in and biding his time.
Might add that he later won a scholarship to Cambridge.

It depends on if there's any other signs youre worried about OP. I had one child not talk until 16 months, another 19. They were watched by the public health nurse but she said everything else seemed fine. The other two were chattering at 11 and 12 months. All are the same now, years later

We are our children's first educators. You say you are talking to him...are you getting really close face on face and making shapes with your mouth? Let him explore your face. Make different silly sounds. Blow on him. Do this ALOT. Multiple times a day. Do that blowing sound through your lips - difficult to describe - to make them vibrate. Its a fun sound. Keep doing this - see if you notice a change. He is v little still. x

My eldest was almost 2 before he started saying anything, and even then he'd often choose just to point and babble at stuff he wanted even if he could actually say the word for it. I was really worried about him. But by the time he was 2.5 he was like a non stop jabbering machine and now at 3.5 he's actually ahead of a lot of his peers in his vocab. So unless you have other developmental concerns I expect he's just taking his time. The spectrum of normal is absolutely enormous at 15 months.

OP

It’s horrible worrying about this. I too was concerned about one of our twins at this age as he wasn’t making any efforts to make any sounds. The other was but then suddenly stopped (and stopped a lot of other things too) at 18 months. They are 3.5 now and both have autism, neither of them can talk.

I am most definitely not saying there’s anything wrong with your little one - the variation in speech at 15 months is absolutely enormous and boys typically are later talkers than girls. Having said that, you will have lots of people tell you that it’s nothing and recount stories of their late talkers but I know that’s not very reassuring.

I’ve learnt a lot about this over the last couple of years so will share some of that in case it’s helpful:

• The most important thing to work on is communication and receptive language. Eg. Your little one needs to learn the basics of communication and conversation - essentially, they do something and that causes you to react. They learn their actions influence you and vice versa. Next up is receptive language - they learn some basic words and relate them to their meaning. If a child doesn’t understand words they won’t start to use them so I would start there (my boys still don’t seem understand any words so we have a long way to go before they talk).

• Objects of reference can be really useful to help them start to understand words - so holding up a nappy and saying “time for a nappy change”, holding up a cup and saying “cup”, car keys and saying “car” before going out, etc. Hold the item near your face so they look at your face and watch you speak.

• Offering choices is also a big one. Eg. Hold up two things, start with one thing they’ll want and one they won’t and say “ would you like a biscuit or broccoli (or whatever)? Choose”. Encourage them to point at or touch the one they want, then give it to them while saying the word “you want a biscuit? Good choosing! Here’s your biscuit”

• Commentate everything as much as you can using simple words - takes a bit of practice but you get used to it

Assuming your child is NT and there are no other issues, once they understand words and understand communication gets them things, they’ll start doing it.

I also have to recommend them book More Than Words by Fern Sussman. It’s not a cheap book (usually £40-£50 but shop around online). It’s the single best thing I’ve found to help my twins, and would be great at this age - I wish id had it at 15 months. It helps you establish the level of communication they’re at now and gives exercises to help work towards the next step. You might find that you get it, try out a few things, their communication flies and you can sell it second hand for almost as much as you paid for it. But if things take longer it’s an invaluable resource, especially given the scarcity of SALT appointments on the NHS (my twins have had 8 and 6 therapy appointments respectively in 18 months).

So don’t panic yet basically - but there’s so much you can do at this stage. Also look up the Two To Talk programme - children’s centres often run these for two year olds with speech delay but I think you can find stuff online.

I’m a SaLT 15 months is very very young. My own children only started to talk about that age and I was doing a lot to encourage their language.
What’s his understanding like?
What’s his no verbal communication like? - doe he point, wave etc
Does he play peek a boo? Or similar?
What’s is his play like?

Does he have big tantrums or is he overly passive?

DD1 - first word at 10 months
DD2 first word at about 15 months
DS1 - first word at 2 years 2 months

All normal.

15 months is very young. Does he babble/make sounds a bit? One of my children (can't even remember which one now!) didn't talk till past 2, then went in for the full sentences. He was the same about walking - left it late then did it properly! At 15 months I wouldn't be too concerned.