About my 16 months old speech? DH thinks I am....

[QueenofmyPrinces]

I’m worried about my son’s speech as he seems to be behind when compared to other infants his age...

He can say:

(the words in brackets are how he pronounces them if he says them different to how the word correctly sounds)

Mama
Dada
Quack quack
Bath (bah)
Cat (cah)
Ball
Book
Teeth
Shoes
Bye
Bear (beh)
Bird (burr)
Car (darr)

And that’s about it.

He hums/sounds along to songs that he recognises and to theme tunes to recognises of cartoon programmes my 4 year old watches.

His understanding is good, I have no concerns with that.

He babbles all the time, he is never quiet but I’m worried that he should be saying more? Shouldn’t he be saying basic words like hello or milk etc? He doesn’t even attempt to say his brother’s name.

He is also a picky eater and someone told me that fussy eating and poor speech can be signs of lip ties but also signs of autism?!

I’m now worrying about it even more than I was and thinking about contacting HV/GP/Dentist etc whereas my husband thinks I’m completely overreacting.

Would you be worried?

DS is nearly 20 months and doesn’t really say anything - we’ve had “buh-buh” for bye-bye a few times, and what sounded like “oh dear” when he was poorly. But my eldest son had a speech delay, so I’m not stressing this time around. It will come. Your child sounds fine OP.

My 15mo is still only really babbling mama, dada, baba, gaga etc your babies speech sounds great to me!

At my son's 15 month check the HV said they expect 3 words at that age

He speaks more than my 20m old girl. She won't say a thing!!

I'd be delighted with this! My 14mo says dada, has just started saying mama, points at things he wants and says 'dat... and dat' and babbles a lot of the time

Ds said much less than at 16 months. He said duck mainly, also book and star. That was about it other than babbling. By age 2 he was speaking in sentences, counting, knew some colours! And he certainly couldn't wave at 9 months, was well past a year. I only have the one dc but the fact your ds likes his brother's toys sounds normal to me too, ds's friends with smaller siblings are always trying to shoo them off their toys! To me he sounds fine!

That sounds perfectly fine for 16 months old.

I’m a childminder. Please don’t worry about your child not being bothered by the mountains of plastic toys they are surrounded by. Your youngest dc will be learning far more playing with their older sibling than by playing with their toys.

My 15 month DS can only say Dada and cya later. The other day he randomly said cuppa tea but not said it since

At my little boys two year review (he was two years two months) he only just scraped through on speech, only just hit the number of words he was supposed to know. My family were expressing concerns that he didnt speak to them and just pointed. I was massively panicking whether he was behind and would need help. A month later he exploded with talking and now nine months later he has full sentences 'please can i have a drink mummy' and can have full conversations. Still garbled in places but understandable. Don't stress, every child picks it up at a different rate.

I would take any future advice from your friend with a pinch of salt. I’m sure she meant well, but there’s an awful lot more than just picky eating and poor speech (which your child does not have :) ) to signal concerns regarding ASD. The fact they have good comprehension is brilliant, and something which our two did not have at that age, and still struggle with now at age 8 and 10 (both have ASD).
Hope this helps allay your fears a little x

And of course he has no interest in baby toys. Neither does DS2. But he ‘got’ Lego a lot earlier than DS1 (who was talking in full sentences at 18mo, could read at 3) because his big brother could do it. There is no one way to reach these milestones. Why don’t you keep asking him to wave and he might well pick it up?

Sounds Neurotypical to me. Is there a reason you’re overly concerned about this? Do you know a child who was recently diagnosed or seen a lot of online posts lately?
Your friend is wrong btw. Poor speech and fussy eating are both apparent in neurotypical and asd individuals.

My 15month old, doesn't say anything! 😔

My 16 month old says:

In English:
Mummy
Daddy
No
Up
Chick-chicks (we have chickens)
Bear
Nana (banana)

In Hungarian:
Papa
Nem
Vow-vow
Háp háp

And that's it! I thought that was a perfectly good number of words - at this age 'normal' is anything from no words at all to a couple of dozen.

Mine probably knew less than that at 16 months, she's now just turned two and chatting away in full sentences with what feels like a huge vocab.

You're seriously over thinking this one! He sounds great. Very normal to want to play what his brother plays x

Urrrggghhh ignore the 'x' it was a reflex!!!

Younger siblings are often "older" than their siblings at the same age and that's fine.

Ds2 only used stacking cups to play with in the bath. His first cars were Hot Wheels rather than the plastic/wooden cars that his brother had when young and skipped he skipped Duplo and went straight to Lego/Brio as he didn't mouth toys.

Although I’ve always been a bit unsure about him being behind it was because my mom said to me yesterday quite snidely “why isn’t he talking properly yet?” She and I are having a few issues at the moment so I don’t know if she said it just to annoy/upset me but it still stuck with me.

I can’t remember what my 4yr old was like at this age in terms of his speech so all I have to compare him with really is with toddlers of similar ages.

He can also say “fish” I forgot that one.

It looks like I’m worrying completely unnecessarily though so I will have to admit to my husband that he’s right

Just to also try and put your mind at ease about infant toys. My DD is 2 and has never stacked a set of cups. She couldn’t give a shit about cups. She’d rather pretend to be a horse. It’s just their own little personalities, likes and dislikes. I really wouldn’t worry about what he’s into. Encourage what he loves

A lot of people of our parents generation have rose tinted glasses total memory fail when it comes to what we were like as kids. So many claim no tantrums, no toileting accidents, no food fussiness... when things were not quite so easy.

Very normal IMHO.

We start getting concerned if a child is not speaking in 2-word sentences by age 2. Your LO is nowhere close to that point.

On average, boys tend to develop verbal skills later than girls. This is very normal.

Wanted to add: being a picky eater is VERY common at this age. VERY common. Appetite goes down at age 1. Toddlers are often very focused on "routine". Everything has to be the same. There are often rituals surrounding food (foods can't touch each other, you can only have gravy on turkey but not potatoes, you have to put the ketchup on the SIDE of the plate and dip your chips INTO it, etc.). All of what you're describing sounds very normal to me.

According to my mother, I didn't say a word until I was almost three, then one day, suddenly started speaking in complete sentences (she is a bit prone to exaggeration though, bless her).

He sounds at ARE to me. I wouldn't worry.

My son has ASD is is the best eater ever - he grew up with salad as his favourite meal!