To be very concerned about my 18 month old son

[holsieboo]

My son has just turned 18 mo and is still not talking very much. He can only say a few words (I just counted seven words that he regularly says) but he misses the end consonants of words. I.e. Ball is bah, Dog is doh, Bath is ba, Bottle is booh etc. I am really worried about this and I don't know what to do to help him. My DP thinks he is fine and that IABU to worry and stress so much.

Bless you, I'm sure he's fine. Lots of kids do this, my dd did when she was tiny - she is always getting told now how articulate she is!

18 months is still tiny. There really isn't any reason to worry at the moment. He sounds like he is doing fine.

If you're concerned, check out your local sure start/children's centre. They often have drop in sessions with a speech and language therapist.

DS was 2 in April, he only really started talking in about June. He had 1 or 2 words prior to then - but that was it.

He now talks constantly. In sentences.

I wouldn't worry just yet.

Ds is 19 months and only says mama Dada baby and nana. I'm not too worried yet as he seems to understand what we say, like if we ask him to pass the phone he does so.
My friends ds was babbling til two and a half then all of a sudden started talking and now won't stop. Maybe it's a boy thing.

Dropping consonants and generally mangling pronunciation is very common at this age, so don't fret about that. Development chart thingy I was looking at last month when DD was 18m said most kids have 6-20 words at this age. So don't fret about that either!

YANBU to be concerned. It's every mothers right to fret about her kid and every mum does it even if they don't own up to it. Being rational however the most likely thing is that he is fine and tbh only time will tell anyhow at this stage. Is there anything else about his behaviour that concerns you? If not, try to relax

I think my sons speech is great (2) and he talks in sentences (however, I am aware that only his close family still understand him therefore if the HV checked up on him she may very well think he is still unintelligible in his speech, this is because he just like your son doesn't say the end of words and confuses letters eg "a fig" might be pronounced "a pig"...

Missing the end consonants of words is probably why we don't say dog to kids, we say doggy, horsey, kitty and so on.

I wouldn't worry. My little cousin made a lot of noise but very little sense until she was about 2. She's now 4 and you can't get a word in edgeways...

It's fine, and actually to me doesn't sound unusual for 18 months. My ds barely spoke until he was nearly 2, he was quite behind others of his age, but then caught up within a few months- once he started he progressed much quicker than those who were talking for longer. Now you can't shut him up! Many children don't pronounce things properly into toddlerhood and certainly at 18 months- he's still learning.

However, I do understand how it can feel worrying particularly if you know other children of similar age who you can't help comparing to- I'd pop to see the health visitor to chat it through, if only just to reassure you that this is common- I did this when my ds was about that age and it made me feel much better. She even said that they don't tend to refer for speech therapy or anything more formal until they have turned 2 as it is so common for those younger than that not to be speaking much yet. If they do have any concerns about his hearing or anything you can go the GP and get it sorted.

My son didn't really start saying anything until the February after his 2nd Birthday in November. The Health Visitor came round for the usual 2 year check and remember him only being able to say "Dad", "Mum", "Ta" and "Milk". She phoned up in the Feb just to see whether he was progressing and he was just starting to string words together.

Don't panic :)

I think he is probably totally normal. My DS did not have many words at 18 months but a year later his language has exploded although he still does not have all consonants right. Keep an eye on it till he turns two, by then he should be able to use two words together. My DS did not have a massive vocabulary by 24 months but he could put two words together.

My 19mo DS says only mama,dada,nana and other random sounds. I'm not worried- he'll get there

Mine was pretty monosyllabic at that age too. He mostly communicated by screaming in fact!

Now at 3 he talks very fluently, with a wide vocabulary and complex expressions. He never stops talking actually. So I wouldn't worry yet at 18 months. For my DS, he had a real language explosion at 2.5 so you have a whole year before you need to worry.

I think they usually miss the endings off. I remember bumping into someone who said it was very embarrassing when his son kept talking about the horse!

It's normal to worry. My eldest did everything on time, however my youngest didn't talk until she turned 3. We took her to a speech therapist and she started talking, literally a week before the appointment! She's 5 now and in her 2nd year of school. Her vocabulary is amazing now and although she's slightly slower at reading than others in her class, she's coming on brilliantly. All children develop at different speeds and all have their own 'specialities' :)

Wow thank you everyone, I never expected such quick and reassuring replies! I think I am concerned because a lot of our baby friends of similar ages seem to have much better pronunciation and a bigger vocabulary than my son. A friend recently told me that her 19 mo daughter used up to 50 different words!

No harm in getting it checked. You might find it reassuring and if there is an issue, then you are 'in the system' early. We have always found SALTs to be lovely and full of practical advice. DC1 was refered at about 18months and had various SALT input until circa age 7yrs. It was very helpful

X post. Have you spoken to HV at all?

DS is 2 tomorrow and he only started talking over the summer really, once he started though it came on very quickly and he is a complete chatterbox now! They take in so much, just keep talking to your DC, ask questions, give options, slowly you will start to hear words emerge. If there is still not much by 2, the check then will pick it up and make a referral if necessary - that's the time to start pushing if you need to. I know it's easy to say with six months' hindsight but right now I would keep going as you are.

That sounds good to me. We were worried about our toddler before she turned two- the questionnaire for the two year check asked if she said six words and i was relieved to be able to say yes! Six months later she must have hundreds if not thousands and never stops talking!

Holsieboo - ds1 was very similar. At 23 months old, he had maybe 40 words - but a lot of those were only comprehensible to his doting parents!

He is now in his final year of a law degree - a profession where you really need to be able to express yourself fluently - and he is doing well.

He caught up with his peers when he was good and ready - and buy the time he was at primary school, the problem was stopping him talking, so we could get a word in edgeways, and he had a really good vocabulary.

My theory is that even when he wasn't talking much, he was listening, and I did lots of talking to him (and his brothers, when they came along - ds2 was born when ds1 was 22 months old) - so if you are doing lots of talking, and he is hearing lots of communication around him, that will all be going into his brain, and being registered there, and when he is ready to start talking, he will have all those words ready to come out.

Just to amuse you... My just turned 2 year old says "fast as you can" a lot (I'm always hurrying him up) but it comes out sounding just like "fuckin" we only figured it out as he says it so much eg "running fuckin mummy"

No harm in going to local children's center for drop in.

Get his name down and screened with questions for other issues.

At this age, problems can rear their heads. So always best to start ball rolling.

However its so hard to say, because it can come and snow ball. But they are supposed to have 20 words as a guide by now. Mine had about 4.

My DD was the same and friends DC are talking in sentences, complicated ones (mummy shoe come off, mummy help me, stuck) at pre two with mine not even saying mummy, I was worried.

The ball has started to roll now and I am not worried but we are down for speech therapy which I don't think we will need but had to wait months for it.

Yes, health visitor wants to keep an eye on his progress. Which made me worry more, as if it wasn't normal. He also isn't walking yet, though is very close and can take a few independent steps.

Narrating everything you do, see, eat, buy is a very good idea as is asking questions that make it hard to give a non-verbal (pointing, or taking you there) answer.