To think a 13 month old cannot say 106 words?

[TinyChatterbox]

Just over a year ago I had my first child and like many did an antenatal group. As lockdown commenced several of us managed to track each other down on Facebook and we started a group chat. There are now 5 of us who were in the original antenatal group in this chat and its been lovely to catch up albeit virtually every now and again.

All 5 of us are first time parents and one of the group boastfully posted yesterday evening that her daughter (who is 13 and 1/2 months) can now say 106 words. Now I'm not disputing she may think her child says that many words but she's talking utter bullshit isn't she. There is absolutely no way her 14 month old actually says 106 words which could be understood by anyone.

It's really pissed me off and I'd love some clarification because one of the mums in the group, who is quite a young mother, has responded in a blind panic that her child who is also 13 months only says 8 words. She's understandably completely freaking out and has messaged the health visitor as there is clearly something wrong with her daughter.

YANBU - The mum is deluded to think her child says 106 words.

YABu - It's perfectly possible a 13 month old can say 106 words.

Hmm, well my thoughts are that a 13 month old can probably say no words. But ... I'm definitely no expert on the matter.

Possible but unusual my MIL says my husband could string a couple of words together at 14 months and was easy to understand but didn't walk until 19 months. Total opposite of SIL.
Can't remember how many words my daughter's had a that age.
My son I nearly 8 months old and only says 2 not very obvious words so doubt he'll be at 106 by 13 months.

It is possible. My dc started talking at 7 months. I just asked my dh to estimate how many words they had at 13 months, he said hundreds. Intelligent but not a genius, was later diagnosed asd, maybe the two things are connected.
Second child hardly spoke until 2.5 yrs.

The thing that always makes me laugh about these threads isn't people boasting about their DC, it's all the posters who boast about themselves as babies. Even remembering how many words you knew at one (which, obviously, you have only second hand knowledge of), yet alone still talking about it as an adult, gives me such second-hand embarrassment - by now you should have some actual achievements!

OP tell your friend not to worry that this other child can say 100+ recognisable words. My DD was two and only had 20+ recognisable words. They all hit their milestones at different times. Having said that if by two they don't have a handful of words ask for hearing to be checked.

My DD was not quick to speak, found writing tricky in reception but simply took off in year 2. She is on course for a A in an English based A level. They all get there at their own speed! Competitive mums are a nightmare. Honestly it will be talking, walking, potty training, reading level then 11+. Just smile and ignore it all is what I would advise.

My dd spoke really early (obviously I have no idea how many words she had at 13 months though ), however because she wasn't capable of making more difficult sounds a lot of words were mispronounced which became habit and difficult to change as she got older eg downstairs was downdairs and mushrooms mushmoons, I think some of these persisted until she was about 5! Also she walked really late.

On the other hand ds was walking at 10 months and had 3 words at 18months which were boots, ball, outside which he pronounced perfectly and had no interest in any other word

My kids are fabulous but dd is not a literary genius and ds won't be scoring the winning goal at Wembley so in my experience it really means nothing, every baby develops in their own way. Maybe your friends baby does have 106 words but I doubt she will be putting it on her CV.

I they look for 3 words at one year check isn't it ?

• think

I never learnt to check or to spell

My eldest was talking in full sentences that could easily be understood by strangers at 18 months and as he was my pfb at the time I did keep count of how many words he knew and at 13 months it was probably close to that number.

As it turns out he ended up being diagnosed with asd and adhd and Camhs etc reckon that's his verbal skills are off the charts to compensate for his non verbal skills which scored way below the norm.

After my experience with my eldest I’d say yes it’s possible and she did. She spoke fluently in Sentences by about 10/11 months but my son took quite a bit longer and even at three I struggle to make out what he says sometimes. Every kid is different.

There was a little girl at toddler group who could say loads of words at 1, by 18 months she was potty trained and could speak in sentences. She could even tell sort of jokes and pretended she needed to go to the toilet when she didn’t if her DM wanted her to do something she didn’t want to do. She walked at 8 months, I remember she was tiny and I couldn’t believe it when she walked across the room. She’s 18 now and completely ‘normal/average’.

I'd be very surprised that any parent would count 106 words.

I did it. Neither difficult or time consuming; you just write them down and count up at the end.

I'd ask for a video of the child speaking that much. Not disbelieving the mum, of course. wink Just to be able to see such phenomenon.

Yes I would love to see this as well as I have never seen such a young baby say so many words.

DS is 18 months, he's just had a check with the HV who asked if he could say 4 words (yes), and then 8 words (kind of). I took that to mean she expected him to say 4 by 18 months old.

Well this says for a gifted child then it would be 100 words at 18 months www.verywellfamily.com/gifted-children-and-language-development-1449117 so her kid is 5 months ahead! That's amazing and I recommend she finds a school for her extremely gifted child ASAP ;)

I hate when people say their kid is talking when in reality you can't understand a word they say!

It can be quite sweet though. My friend has 2 DDs about 10 years apart. The 10 year old would interpret the baby’s babble and regularly report to mum what the 3 month old was saying!

In normal non-covid times, when you're regularly meeting with other mum and babies, it can actually be quite awkward having a child that's precocious in those very obvious ways. My first was ridiculous. Walking at 8 months and talking in sentences before some of her peers had said two words (though some of those peers well overtook her when it came to university level).

But it was difficult. One of our post natal group children was clearly behind (and later found to have some SN) and I felt very very embarrassed and awkward when DD was romping around and talking to everyone and her LO was struggling to sit up. So I certainly didn't boast, and would have preferred her to calm it down a bit.

This woman's whatsapp boasting wouldn't be so annoying if you could see the child, of course. Well...maybe!

I never counted but my first was an early walker (10 months) and very verbal by 13 months. Clear words and simple sentence structure. She still loves to talk . Just in case anyone thinks I'm smugmum my second didn't walk until 18 months and had hearing assessment as wasn't talking at 2. He also loves to talk now.

It's best not to get drawn into competitive parenting, it adds worry and steals joy.

Hardbackwriter - surely its not boasting when it is anecdotal posts on a thread that is discussing development of babies. I am sure that all posters who walked or talked early have many achievements later in life also (same as those who didnt) but they are really not relevant to this thread

I also suspect that most of them are true though, I think keeping baby books was even more popular 40 years ago than it is now. My mum wrote everything down, way more that I bothered to do. She recorded every first birthday and Xmas present we received, who visited us when we left the hospital, words and dates we said them and loads more stuff. A bit OTT bless her.

My baby could hold conversations with strangers at thirteen months, OP. Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it can't happen.

Perfectly possible. My son could say at least 106 words at that age. He could also put all the letters of the alphabet into the right places in the alphabet board, upper and lower case, by 13 months. He could also write his name at age 2 1/2.

@GrumpyHoonMain I'm not saying you're lying, I'm sure children and babies pushed to do things will do them whether they understand it or not. A child is capable of mimicking sounds, some will know what they are saying while others might just make a sound they have been praised for. I am in awe of anyone bi or multi-lingual, it just blows my mind that someone of any age can speak multiple languages.

I don't understand how a child that young is potty trained but I would very much like to though! I'm constantly criticised that my 14mo isn't potty trained (he'll happily piss on anything given the chance).

I'm not familiar with specifics of UK based Indian families, my own experience of human babies however is that most aren't talking I'm full sentences at a year old regardless of ethnicity even those that go on to be bi or multi-lingual. I'm probably not going to research that in-depth, I honestly don't care that much but I do care that this minority of overly boastful parents seem to go out of their way to make others feel inadequate.

Child development is so varied, it doesn't matter which child spoke first or said more words as a toddler, or which walked first. What does matter is what we teach our children and teaching them to boast or belittle someone else is pretty poor.

Hahah sounds like my sister in law . I love my niece dearly but according to her mum she was conversing like an adult at 18 months, we couldn't understand her until she was 4!
It's in the eye ( or ear ) of the beholder. Its very sweet that her mum is so proud

An 'ante natal group' sounds dreadful. I'm glad no such things existed when I was pregnant. I just went to the ante natal clinic on my day, end of.

Not dreadful at all. Just a group that meets up regularly after the babies are born. We had one 35 years ago and it was great because we tended not to have local friends as we lived in a suburb but had previously worked in town.

My 14 month did a two word sentence. Then clammed up again until 23 and a half months.

Babies develop at different rates.

@Dontforgetyourbrolly

Hahah sounds like my sister in law . I love my niece dearly but according to her mum she was conversing like an adult at 18 months, we couldn't understand her until she was 4! It's in the eye ( or ear ) of the beholder. Its very sweet that her mum is so proud

Im genuinely wondering of this is the case as loads of posters have now said their child was this capable at 13 months or even younger.

Whilst I can concede that some might be this linguistically advanced some must just be words the adukts caring for them understands as surely if it was as common as it appears on this thread then the guidance for amount of words at specific ages some have kindly shared would be much higher?