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.

tell her that you seen an add for the Guinness book of records, they were looking for people who thought they had a special talent and of course you thought of her little brain box and put his name forward! you'll know by her reaction if he really has 106 words or not.!

@TinyChatterbox

I keep repeating this, because it is true, and no matter how many posters claim otherwise, being able to speak 106 words at 13 months is not common or usual.

Indeed. This thread is literally mind blowing. You would think that if it was as common as it appears on this thread the bar would be significantly higher for the 2 year check? I honestly had no idea so many incredibly verbally intelligent children existed.

Such a thread title is going to attract us outliers who did have one of those dc. No-one has claimed early taking correlates to later intelligence, so I don't know why people are so put out by the idea of such babies existing.

Many of us have also said our early talking toddlers were very late walkers - hence showing that in some babies their development might be very heightened in one area as it is slower in another area. I've personally not met more than one or two in life whose dc didn't crawl and didn't walk until 19 months. I'm sure if I started a post on it, I'd get a biased sample of people replying and telling me about their late walking child.

Such a thread title is going to attract us outliers who did have one of those dc

I was expecting that but I honesty has no idea there were so many children who were this clever linguistically at 13 months or younger. I thought there might be the odd post from people who had such a child or knew one but this thread shows that there are clearly absolutely loads of them which is mind blowing.

She might be able to turn babble into words but I bet anybody else wouldn't understand what the child was saying. For a while I used to translate wheat my kids were saying to people

My 13 month old doesn’t have any words yet, well mainly noises with a few gestures and a LOT of babbling so I’m surprised at the 106 😂 it’s also a very specific number.

Maybe I need to get DS in training, he clearly won’t make MENSA at this rate.

Jokes aside, all babies develop at different stages. I’ve been worried before because DS isn’t walking yet and wasn’t gesturing (this has started recently, turns out he didn’t want anything desperately enough until we switched to a sippy cup and now he gestures for that whenever he wants it).

Point is, I’m learning not to stress about these things. You should show your friend this thread.

So many gifted children in the world of mn and parenting group chats, either that or so many parents talking bullshit. I wonder what is more likely !

When my DD was that age she could say No....106 times a day.
And dumdum (no explanation needed 😊).

@Willyoujustbequiet

Highly unusual/rare according to professionals so whilst it may happen once in a blue moon its more likely to be wishful thinking on behalf of the parent/bullshit. I'd also be concerned with the link with learning difficulties.

Certainly not bullshit here. Also confirmed by real life experts and certainly not wishful thinking on my part.

And as for your 'learning difficulties' dig - well I'll leave my response to your ignorant comment to your imagination.

There are literally millions of views of MN in an average day and this thread has been in Active for hours. Once you multiply up all those people by the number of babies each of them know (because a lot of posters aren’t talking about their own child) and then filter down to the relatively small number of posters who’ve seen the title and posted anecdotes on this thread I think that it all stacks up.

@maddiemookins16mum

When my DD was that age she could say No....106 times a day. And dumdum (no explanation needed 😊).

Only 106 times a day or is that a good day? Im sure if your DD was anything like my Ds there's day's she exceeded using no 106 times by breakfast .

Ask the boastful mother to show all the words being spoken on a video. I bet she'll shut up.

DC1 probably could, and put together the odd phrase but she didn't begin to crawl until 51 weeks so it was definitely at the expense of her motor skills. DD2 was the opposite although by 13 months she had no problem with making her needs known - a very penetrative scream....

I have one child who was stringing sentences before 12 months and two who started talking at 2 years old +. I didn't count her words at the time but I had a doctor's appointment and they said it was unusual to be able to speak so clearly and in sentences at her age.

Presumably you know the child so you know how clear her speech may be? I'm inclined to say that 106 sounds unlikely (the names of her family, toys, animals, food and characters etc probably wouldn't add up to 106)

I'm guessing that this mum might be the super competitive type who pretends that their child eats everything and meets milestones earlier than every other child?

Ask her for a video demonstrating darling babe

@samanthawashington

Ask her for a video demonstrating darling babe

^^ love this

Also, people seem to forget that repeating words isn't the same as using them independently.

As others have said I bet that there's a lot of copying. "No more" is 2 words but it doesn't mean she understands "no" and "more"- she might be copying the funny sounds that mummy makes as a game

Presumably you know the child so you know how clear her speech may be?

I know her but have no idea how good her speech actually is as I've not seen her since she was a tiny baby due to covid.

I'm guessing that this mum might be the super competitive type who pretends that their child eats everything and meets milestones earlier than every other child?

I'm hoping not but her messages in response to the worried friend do suggest she is heading this way.

She often told us stuff nad posted pictures of things she had been doing and places she had taken her DD and she was quite boastful that her daughter walked early which we were all very positive about when commenting. However it wasn't until the only 8 comment that I got the impression she's now trying to make it a competition which is sad as the group until now has been so helpful and considerate.

My neighbours kids didn't really speak until 3/4 years of age
I used to think there was something wrong with them
As son as they got their free nursery places they started talking
Now they don't stop and scream (badly behaved kids with crap parents, crap parents for waiting for the school to teach them too)!

It would be unusual but not impossible. I never counted words, but my dd spoke in sentences at 13 months and honestly it was a little freaky. However she never crawled and didn't walk until almost 18 months. Every child is different.

We became friendly with a family when my first child was at daycare. Their daughter was a couple of months older than my son. Her language was phenonenal - actually her everything was phenomenal, probably the brightest child I've met. I can remember when my son was 12 months and saying "ba" for ball being out with them and I said "we are going to Boca Pointe (also the name of a restaurant in our town" for our holidays and she said "oh we have quesadillas at Boca Pointe". She remained a really nice, highly intelligent child (her bat mitzvah speech was extraordinary for a 13 year old) and adult but never went to university - joined a commune instead for a while. Her younger siblings who were no where near her in terms of talking early etc. both went to Harvard.

Another boy in his daycare of the same age was writing and reading at 2 - it was jawdropping to see. For my son's 3rd birthday party he wrote him a story in an intricate spiral as a card. He was later diagnosed as having autism.

This is why I hated 'new mums' groups so much! None of the mothers give a shit about the development of other children in the group; they are consumed by the need for their child to be developing normally, or in the case of this mum, ahead of the others.

My first child had global developmental delay and was always behind the others in the group (he was also the youngest, which added to it and made me super sensitive to it all). Ironically, his speech was actually good, but he didn't necessarily understand everything he said.

My second child had no developmental issues, but I only went to the initial meeting for her - I couldn't give a shit about what other children were doing and I'd learned so much from having my first that I was just able to enjoy her for what she was. I had no need to 'compete' with other mums over who was the best, ahead, etc.

None of the children in the group are likely to go to school without talking fluently, walking fine, understanding or interacting. Whether they turn out to be pleasant children will be down to the parents and whether they will be socially at ARE is another matter - especially if their mother always wants them to be 'winning'.

My ds had around 90 words at 13 months. I know this because we were participating in a study, not because I'm a weirdo who would have bothered to count otherwise.

He also spoke on 2-4 word phrases at 13 months. Words were distinct and understandable, though obviously not perfectly enunciated (eg, "nana" for banana, "bwush" for brush.)

Ds is also autistic and was diagnosed very early as he was very obviously autistic. Early speech is not always something to envy.

Nor necessarily.

My ds had a speech delay (autism) and hardly spoke any words by 2. I was worried.

My sourcing DD was holding fluent conversations by 15 months.

I was really proud of her but my cousin wasn't so keen on a kid who didn't shut up from just last the age of 1

Speaking is a really broad milestone and both babies sound normal. However very precocious development can be a sign of neuro divergency so i’d be more concerned about about a child who is way ahead than one who is average.
Saying that you’d be surprised how quickly some children pick up words. Going from 8 to a 100 might only take a few weeks.