To worry my one year old is behind?

[glueandstick]

I'm probably being neurotic, but I'm concerned my 14 month old is developmentally behind. According to the HV at this age kids have 6 words. We get 'mama' and babbling. I'm convinced that I should be expecting more. At the same time I don't want to be a pushy mum.

What should a 14 month old be doing in speech, actions and in general? (This probably isn't even the right section, apologies)

This thread has made me feel so much better. Thank you to the OP for starting it. My DS1 had a speech delay due to autism, and my DS2 is 19 months and doesn't have any words. I've been worried, but now I'm not because he has literally everything else mentioned on the checklists.

I am sure your HV is well meaning but there is a huge range of development. When my older child was about 17 months a particularly nasty HV tried to refer us to a paediatrician saying she had 'severe developmental delays and you have to face us to them'. She couldn't walk them, not many words and refused to eat much.

She is now nearly 21, can speak, walk, mountaineer, got the full set of A/A* at GCSE/A level, good friends and is at uni studying Vetmed.

I really regret all the time I spent worrying about my childrens' development. Mostly it was unnecessary. Just enjoy your child while they are young. Time flies!!

I didn't think DS1 was saying any words at that age, but gradually we came to recognise that he was using certain sounds consistently for certain things and he'd been doing it for a while, we just hadn't cottoned on to it. For example he was saying "da-DA!" for duck, and for his little yellow watering can that maybe looked a tiny bit like the yellow plastic duck in the bath, but it was only when he met a real duck and said it that we understood what he meant. You may well find the same thing happens and remember they don't have to be perfectly pronounced English words to be "words" to him. Two more from DS1 - his word for "banana" was "ya" for a long time and "elephant" was "ump". They might not sound much like the official words, but as long as he's using them consistently he is developing a vocabulary!

My 13 month old has 4 clear words, and a couple more that might be words (but can't walk yet and is still regularly confused by sippy cups)

There's such a huge range of normal, and he does seem to be one of the chattier ones of his baby friends.

My DBro still couldn't really say anything at 2, and was speaking in sentences bilingually by 2.5

Neither of mine were saying anything at that age but by the time they were two were talking in sentences and considered to be exceeding language milestones considerably.