To think that an 11 month old does not have 50 words?

[spugzbunny]

I was casually googling 'how many words should my baby speak' yesterday and I came across a thread where numerous people swear blind that their baby can speak 20 odd words, some saying up to 50! Am I right in thinking that's madness? Any more tiny, chatty genius babies out there?

DD was a very early talker, full sentences by 18 months but barely took a step before she was 14 months.
DS on the other hand, walked at 9 months and didn't utter a word until he was nearly 2, after which he caught up pretty quickly but had us worried for a while. It seemed like he was never going to speak at all!

I remember posting on here (old name) worries that DS was never going to talk. He ended up doing that complete cliche of moving from nothing to full sentences in about 2 months. Was amazing. I remember one night him saying from his cot “I need a tissue my nose is all wet” and me just looking at DH and being like “oh the baby can talk”. He was about 2 years 3 months I think and had almost no speech at 2.

Friends dd spoke very early and without any input taught herself to read at aged 2.

Friend admitted that she looked on me as a bad parent as Ds and dd couldn’t read or write at 5/6 years old and both would charge about laughing and be uncontrollable.

Then friend had 2nd and realised that reading writing and the ability to sit still was not due to really great parenting

My dd1 did
She stared talking at 6 months and was singing nursery rhymes by 9 months and by 11 months having proper conversations and her level of understanding was immense she wasn’t just mimicking if that makes sense. She was recently diagnosed with ASD and they have told me this is probably why her speech language and understanding was so advanced

DD1 said her first word at 7 months and hasn’t stopped since. She definitely had that amount at 11 months. She also walked at 11 months. Subsequent DDs have followed a similar pattern but none started speaking quite as early. Youngest remains to be seen as she’s still tiny.

I think you're misremembering dates slightly @MyBreadIsEggy, babies under 12 months aren't supposed to drink juice at all, they're allowed a sip if they're constipated but they are only supposed to have milk or water. So it would be weird for your baby to know the word for something they don't even consume!

Ugh, these threads always end up with snotty comments, whilst the actual parents of early-speakers get talked down as imagining things, boasting. Especially irritating as most are perfectly clear and rational about the fact that early speaking doesn't necessarily indicate a child genius!

Development is a range.

No, most babies won't say much at 11 months.

Yes, early speaking isn't indicative of genius.

Competitive motherhood is twatty on both sides - the side that sneers at what people 'claim', and the kind that brags about child babbling non-words.

DS13's speech was quite early; he is on the Autism spectrum, though, so it can happen that way. His vocabulary was enormous by 2 years old. It didn't seem exceptional at all because he was the first until he went to nursery and it hit me how much he understood.

DS8's speech wasn't as fast but he's similar in that he was speaking in 2-3 word sentences by 14 months. I think it helps that we're all a very talkative family and DS13 would chat to DS8 endlessly when he was small, so he was exposed to a huge amount of words (and I suspect he started talking just to shut DS13 up!)

I can remember DD1 saying “XXX (her name) look at daddy book” - we were on holiday at the time in Malta and were getting the ferry to Gozo -she wanted to see the guidebook. She was 18months old at the time. She is 17 now and doing English A level.

I can't work out if this one is a joke?! It's quite good, if so!

Also, neither are gifted or spectacularly advanced, they're just chatty children who spoke at an early age. Both are entirely idiotic at times, too.

One of my nephews' could have full conversations at 16 months. His cousin, who was 11 months older, could barely talk. I only remember because the older nephew's parents thought their son was backwards. It didn't help from around 7 months I started mentioning all the words the early talker was coming out with.

The nephew who could talk early could hold his own bottle from 2 months (he was mixed fed), walked at 11 months and was potty trained at 2 years, while his cousin took his time.

However the late talker has always had better manual dexterity and spatial awareness. From 4 he could built complex toys for 8 year olds by just looking briefly at the picture on the box and chucking it to one side. He also was more engaged at primary school and had better concentration skills from a younger age.

In the long term talking as well as walking early means SFA. Both nephews have parents interested in ensuring the best education wise for them and now both have first class degrees.

I had one who said ‘please have a pink cupcake mummy’ on her first birthday.

How many cupcakes were you giving a less than one year old?!

My 1 year old says mumma, dadda, iggle, nanny and og if he sees a dog. Tbh I don't think I'd want him saying 50 words now, it's bad enough listening to his sister nattering on all day 😅

@londonloves

My 16 month old ha about 15 words maybe. I think people over state their children's ability generally...
This
I assess children’s development and most parents (particularly middle class) think their offspring are amazingly advanced.

the range of normal in speech is huge. From 10 months to 2 years. Once the words start coming the door is open and they will come very fast. Some children have a barely intelligible speech at three, but yes sometimes 50 words and 10 months. I had one. None of my other 3 were early speakers. The very early and the very late are less usual but both normal. It isn't a competition

@LisaSimpsonsbff - actually not a joke! Not sure why she wanted to see the guidebook though - certainly not to read it!!

My ds definitely had that many. He didn't walk until 19 months though.

He never. Fucking. Shuts. Up. Now.

Ever.

Literally talks from the minute he wakes up until he passes out.

It isn't a competition

This exactly. It just serves to make people worry unnecessarily. My DS 15mo has a few words, all the ones you'd expect...(apart from map, why map!!?) but I know that he knows what's going on. His understanding is great (not unnaturally so, just as it should be!) just because he's not saying words doesn't mean he doesn't understand words and I think people forget that. I mean, some people are quieter as adults too...it's no signifier of intelligence!

Well this thread has made me feel positively shit. My DD is 16 months and says absolutely nothing

Neither of mine were early talkers. Youngest is 2 this month and has had a sudden big increase in the number of words he says. Same happened with the eldest just after he turned 2.

I think because Ds had such difficulties in reading writing and speaking he developed an incredible memory of someone said something.

After watching a film a couple of times he can recite the script back word for word including mimicking voices.

As a test in school when he was in yr 6 the teacher read a Shakespeare monologue out twice and told the class to write it down as far as they could remember.

Ds won the prize as he was able to remember every word.

If he reads anything he can’t remember anything it has to be heard .

Well this thread has made me feel positively shit. My DD is 16 months and says absolutely nothing

Don’t feel shit, all children develop at different rates. Some will hit milestones much earlier or later than the norm. And people are more likely to post about their child if they’re ‘exceptional’ - either particularly late or early at something rather than average. Some children talk later. My son did. At his second birthday he could speak in short sentences and was on the slower side with his speech development. He was perfectly normal though! As I’m certain your child is too. Honestly, don’t worry or feel bad, it is out of your control.

There are always outliers though.

What I find interesting is when people's first reaction is a rather disgruntled disbelief .

It happened when I reported to a friend that i knew of a baby in my family who had started walking at just under ten months. Now I knew this was odd. It was not a boast more a "would you believe it, we have never come across a kid doing this."

Anyway ages later my friend commented how some crazy, lying boaster had told her of a child walking by 10 months, AS IF!

I had to laugh!

Ds2 was an early talker. In hospital at eight months old the nurse laughed and said if I didn't know better I could have sworn he just said "Adam gone?" I said "well of course he did that is his brother" . He had had single words from six months, up, go bye, juice, more etc and by eight months was putting two words together. When he saw the GP at fifteen months I was told he had never seen a child with vocabulary and comprehension like it as he could hold a conversation like a five year old.
So for me I'd say yes it is possible as at eleven months ds2 had hundreds of words and was using sentences but it isn't typical. Ds was later assessed as profoundly gifted.

All children are so different. My eldest was talking in full sentences by one so she probably would have had 50 words.

Her sister didn't really talk much at all. I even took her to the doctors. She was around 2 when she started to have a few sentences. She doesn't stop talking now aged 12.