18 month old not speaking

[littleselda]

My 18 month old has no words at all - he can't speak at all. Should I be worried?
He definitely understands and will follow simple instructions.. older DS was speaking much earlier than him so I'm just wondering.

Speak to your Health Visitor, they are the ones who refer to SALT

My DS1 was very slow to speak. At 24+ months just a handful of words in his own language. All fine now aged almost 17 years. No intervention needed from SALT.

If it's any consolation I often tell my grown up ds about how I used to worry about him not speaking - because now he's a complete chatterbox! But the amount of time I spent worrying. You can speak to health visitor as pp said. FWIW I think second children have less incentive to speak early than older ones as well.

+1 Speak to your health visitor

Thanks all, I tried to give the Hv a ring but didn't get through. Will try again!

My son said absolutely nothing, not so much as a babble until he was 2years and 4months old. He had suffered badly with ear infections as a baby and unbeknown to us couldn't hear a word anyone was saying (despite various professionals telling us he was fine)
He also followed instructions, probably by looking at body language and working out what we were asking from the bits he could hear, it might not apply to you but it's definitely worth checking your child can hear properly.

My DD is 19 months and all she says is hello. That's it. No progress at all.
We had a HV visit a couple of months ago due to a house move out of the area and she wasn't worried at all.
She said Covid has had a noticeable impact on baby speech (my DD has very rarely seen any family members since she was born and doesn't go to nursery).

I think it's only worrying if your DC doesn't seem to understand what you are saying or can't follow simple instructions because of lack of understanding.