Almost 17 month old not talking yet

[CathyandHeathcliff]

I’m a bit concerned as my 17 month old is still not saying words.
He says “Daddy” and “No” when shaking his head. He’s started doing the “ssss” sound for snake as we do it when reading the gruffalo and pointing out the snake.
He understands mostly everything we say to him, he points to his body parts when asked and can follow instructions without a problem.
His spoken vocab is severely lacking and I have to admit it’s starting to worry me.
He does babble an awful lot though and I think he believes he’s talking properly.
Apparently by the time they’re 18 months they should be able to speak more than 10 words.

I think you should bring it up at his 2yr check but he sounds within normal limits to me. Dd was an incessant babbler and even now at 4 tends to supplement her speech with babble in the right tone if she’s not sure of what word she wants. She’s just in too much of a rush to speak without thinking about what she wants to say.

I think you’ll find he’ll have a leap when he’s in a different setting (probably preschool or other childcare) when he’s surrounded by people who don’t understand his cues or anticipate his needs so closely and he has to communicate.

My now 9 year old didn't say anything until he was nearly 3 (and then suddenly started with full sentences!) at the 2 year check they weren't particularly worried about it.

He’s still a baby, I really wouldn’t worry. If in a years time he’s still only saying three words, then they might start giving it some thought.

Lots of kids barely speak until 3, others are taking in sentences at your ds’ age. My friends ds didn’t speak at all until 3, where as my dd2 who is the same age was speaking in sentences at around 15 months. She worried there was a problem, but she read to him loads and by the time he could speak, she realised that he could also read. They are now both almost 12, dd2 and her ds are in the same set for English and her ds is a set higher for maths and science. So being a late talker made no impact on his future potential.

Please don’t stress about it.

It's reassuring to hear all the comments on this, the guidelines are just that, a guide. My 2yo understands lots of instructions/words but only babbles, ma, da, ga etc. We have a speech therapy appointment booked but even they don't sound too concerned. If there are no issues then excellent but if there is then we can catch it early. I was interested to read a pp that said their child was largely lip reading. If in doubt doesn't hurt to ask health visitor/GP.

Ears testing? DS had severe glue ears and enlarged adenoids, yet never had an ear infection. Still has problems with glue despite being 6.

His fine, on track perfectly. Don’t worry. I had the same fears because my friends DS was 2 months younger than my DD & saying loads!

I don’t think they would even look into it until he turned 2 anyway. Once DD hit her 2nd birthday it all cane spewing out & much like everyone else has said here - she now does not shut up!

My little girl was like this (despite her brother speaking by 12m. So we’re clearly a discrepancy haha) she was 2.5 and nursery referred her for speech therapy. By the time the appointment came round she was speaking fully and clearly, just basically overnight! The speech therapist was very confused by the referral.

She 5 now and never shuts the fuck up 😂😂

My dgs is 19 months, He can say bye bye, uh ho, ta, football, car. He can make a noise like a dinosaur 🤷🏼‍♀️ And lion, car and dog. He follows our instructions very well. We're not at all worried.

How is your little one doing now? My daughter is 2 in February and is barely saying any words. She prettt much just babbles “mama” “dada” “baba”. She has started saying “ta” when passing something to me. I don’t feel like she understands simple instructions like “get me your shoes”. Although she will do simple actions like blowing a kiss, clapping etc x