15 month baby speech

[Baabaablacksheepe]

DD is 15 months, calls me and DH (both) da-da, not sure why she can’t differentiate the ma and da sound. She says loads of animal sounds (ba, moo, quack, etc) consistently and beep for a car, but not many other real words except “bye bye.” Our friends have a DC of exactly the same age who says mumma, daddy, water, open, more, etc. Is this something to bring up with a HV or request referral to SLT? Is it odd that her only words are the sounds other things make? We talk to her and I narrate our days together, we read every day and she’s in nursery two days each week.

My son called everyone Dada (me included) until he was close to 2. Didn't really start speaking until after 2.

He's now 2.5 and speaks perfectly normally - maybe even slightly ahead of average.

You can request a referral (waiting lists are long), but I wouldn't really worry at this age.

Ds1 could have a conversation at 18 months. Ds2 didn't really speak until 3. Both are well adjusted functioning adults.

Your ds sounds totally normal.

Lots of babies have very few words at this age. Mummy or mama had generally been around 18 months for my lot, apart from ds1 who had his own name for me until he was 3.

I find this site quite useful for speech info. You can see here that although many children will say up to 20 words by 18 months, it's 18 months which is the milestone and you should seek advice if your child has not said any words by 18 months. By 15 months, as long as they are babbling this is considered OK.

https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/help-for-families/ages-and-stages/12-18-months/

Do you have any drop-in clinics for a pre-assesment?

We have them here, I took my daughter and we saw a speech therapist as she wasn't talking at 16/17 months. Ask your health visitor if that is available to you.

They determined my daughter was a bit behind, but not worryingly so, gave me a list of the most stupid words to practice, and then without much intervention she just got on with it herself anyway and came on very quickly. This meant I was already "in the system" if things didn't progress.

Every child is different. My sons speech was brilliant but he walked later than all my friends babies.

I wouldn't be particularly worried until he is over 2.

My little boy is 15 months and only says mama everything else is just “ba” my eldest was a very early talker so this is a bit alien to me but trying not to worry and just see what happens over the next year I’m sure he will soon be chewing my ear off like his big sister 🤣🤣🤣

Speech therapist here - absolutely nothing to worry about here, she’s doing absolutely what she should be. Symbolic sounds count as words at this age. It sounds like she’s learning words that are fun in play based activities.

We think much more about understanding, interaction with others and early gesture at this age. You haven’t mentioned any of these being a worry.

The time to contact a speech therapist would be if she hits 2 and is using less than 50 words, not forming any two word phrases and not following simple one step instructions. Based on what you’ve said this is unlikely to be the case by 2.

We were told that they should have at least 6 "appropriate sounds" by 18 months. Animal noises definitely count in that, so sounds like she's doing great. I tended to find all of mine had a sudden language explosion and went from not saying much to getting several new words a day.

They're very varied at that age. I had one with hardly any words at that age and one who announced after falling off the sofa "I careful and I fall bump. Ouch!" By 2.5yo you couldn't have told the difference in speech.

Thank you all for the reassuring feedback. Yes, she has no trouble at all with receptive language (can follow two step commands, initiates peek a boo, “sings” and dances - loves Wind the Bobbin Up 🥰 and does all of the movements).she waves and babbles and blows kisses and does high fives, both initiates at appropriate times (when leaving for example) and does on command.

The animal sounds she makes are very distinctive and consistent but not necessarily enunciated clearly: unk unk for a goose (honk honk) for example. We visit the city farm a lot and she seems to love animals so I reckon that’s just where her interests lie 😂

I will keep an eye and keep encouraging her and I’m sure we’ll get there in time. thank you again for taking the time to reply xx