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.

50 words by 2 is the average, a lot of toddlers don't say much at all at 13 months, its definitely not something she needs to worry about yet

Expansive vocabulary at a very young age like this is possible. It's also a major indicator, generally the first one parents have, of NVLD/NLD, an underrecognized autism spectrum disorder.

I always thought my parents' tales of how much I talked around my first birthday were BS...until my second son. My first son had a few dozen words at his first birthday, but the second one...whew. He was speaking in sentences, sensible ones, from the moment he started to speak. He's turning 3 soon and will talk your ear off like a kid twice his age or more. People openly called BS when I posted about it on social media until I got some of his greatest hits on video. Time will tell if he, like me, also has NLD/NVLD.

@PenfoldPenny

My son (hes at uni now) could definitely say over 100 words at aged 13 months - Ive got a list written down somewhere - in context and with understanding. He was fluent by 18 months. Super bright, brain like an encyclopdia but it comes with major drawbacks eg autism (which can have its pluses too) mental health struggles, behavioural issues. He himself would admit that having an amazing ability to recall facts, such a high ability in an academic sense isnt always great as he struggles so much in other ways. Being a bit more average is appealing.

You could be writing about my son! He was exactly the same!

@sadpapercourtesan

I'd be interested to know how many of us with very early talkers ended up with a diagnosis of Aspergers/HFA later on. There are several of us on this thread.

I've just been reading through the thread and noticed the same. Definitely the case with my early talker, her diagnosis is ASD/HFA, but would have been Aspergers a few years ago when they were still diagnosing it as that.

Same @TinyPanther - and I just looked up NVLD as I'd not heard of that before and it's like they took a snapshot of my son and wrote him down!

I've just googled NVLD too @CandyLeBonBon I can't believe I've not heard of it before, it's my DD to a T!

Most mum groups will have that mum who claims their child is an utter genius. He will have taught himself to read before school and his preschool scribblings/artwork will rival Van Gogh, wait and see.

Not voting on this one. My elder sister crawled at 3 months, walked at 7 months (and ran and climbed shortly thereafter, there was a "lid" on her crib to keep her in at night), spoke in full sentences at 12 months, and read at 14 months. She was dead before her second birthday, sadly, but some small part of me was almost relieved. She'd have been a very hard act to follow!

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz - indeed. I'm amazed they have the time to keep track. Competitive parenting is such a pain.

I didn’t keep count on how many words, but at 1 my son could speak full sentences so it’s not impossible. He’s 3 now and I can’t get a word in edgewats 🥴🤣

This is defo possible. Whilst I personally couldn't say what age my ds did anything🤔 I do think it is quite normal to find yourself counting if your child is obviously advanced - other people notice and start asking you for instance. Why should she not be proud? Bit sad that people feel the need to bitch about her to be honest. Jealous mums are just as bad boasting mums. She might be devastated if she read this thread. It's sad if you can't share positives just incase someone is going to be hypersensitive. Can we not be pleased for others anymore?

@Looubylou

This is defo possible. Whilst I personally couldn't say what age my ds did anything🤔 I do think it is quite normal to find yourself counting if your child is obviously advanced - other people notice and start asking you for instance. Why should she not be proud? Bit sad that people feel the need to bitch about her to be honest. Jealous mums are just as bad boasting mums. She might be devastated if she read this thread. It's sad if you can't share positives just incase someone is going to be hypersensitive. Can we not be pleased for others anymore?

Oh, your DC only had eight words?

My oldest could say about that many words by 13 months but had only recently started crawling and didn’t walk till she was 19 months.
All her focus was on talking and words.
We stopped talking to others about it because no one understood our concern. (She could sing the ABC song correctly at that age)

Her sister was walking at 10 months and didn’t say anything other than mumma till she was well over 2.

Now at 7 and 4 neither of them stop talking ever.

All Children develop differently , some walk and talk much earlier than others and mums think they have a genius on their hands which then make other mums feel failures. By the time they go to nursery/ school they can all walk and talk so don’t worry about it just enjoy their childhood ! Einstein didn’t talk until he was 3
Kind regards nanny marianne

I think it’s a lie though could at a push be true. Baby/child bragging is boring and silly. Even clever kids will most likely grow up to be average.

@sadpapercourtesan

I'd be interested to know how many of us with very early talkers ended up with a diagnosis of Aspergers/HFA later on. There are several of us on this thread.

This definitely seems to have been a reoccurring theme on this thread and obviously whilst not all children will fit into this description reading so many different posters making this link has been very interesting.

Once again I want to thank all who have taken the time to post this thread truly has been a very insightful read.

My first reaction was WHO CARES???

We’re all different. We all learn at different speeds and Facebook is an idiotic place to brag about your child speaking 106 words where you don’t have to prove it.

Some children are very verbal, mine was an early talker & lots of words by then too (approximate to this, so possible, but I didn’t count them!). I don’t think it’s anything to boast or worry about. I found it horrible to focus on minutiae like this and happier to stay away from comparing, especially in the early years.

I know it comes across as putting the other mum down, but if her only experience of babies is this, her own PFB, sho could honestly believe "just 8" means something is wrong and yourt mutual friend should seek help.

Clumsy, but not meaning to be gloating?

I was one of those irritating early speakers (no, not got autism or ADHD and yes, an eldest child). My parents honestly thought there was something wrong with my younger brother because he didn't talk un til 14 months and I'd started at 11.

I made the same mistake with my first - thought his behaviour was What Happens. Nope. Child 2 and Child 3 disabused me pretty sharpish.

@Mamanyt - That's awful. That must have been devastating for your parents. I hope you don't mind me asking, but how did she die?

I mentioned this thread to my daughter today who has a 14 month old and she laughed and said’why would anyone count ‘ ? Just enjoy your baby and stop comparing !

Honestly there's always one of these mums in an antenatal group. Always have to be the 'first' with the milestones, you'll probably see it more and more with this woman. After a few of these posts I stopped sharing when my DD reached milestones as just didn't want to be part of the competition! Right now a couple of years on, said mother is claiming her child knows all alphabet and can read words, can count to 20, dry all night etc .... none of the rest of the kids can, but to be honest I don't care if hers can or not, although I'm pretty sceptical. It's certainly not going to make me worry. To me it feels because it's so important to her that her child is 'the best', it's obviously some psychological issue with her. If anyone posts how they're concerned re their child's development based on the annoying posts one of us will always reply about how normal it is not to be doing bla bla bla. I think I'm not alone in the annoyance but weve never said as much! Just see this comments/posts and breathe deeply, they'll keep on coming!

My GD was on a social media site and was counting to ten very clearly aged 14 months. A speech therapist contacted my daughter to ask how old she was because she was surprised at her age, now she never stops talking at 2.5 months, today she went into my sisters spare room, took a look around and said, “ well this is different”.

[quote Sunrainsnow]@Mamanyt - That's awful. That must have been devastating for your parents. I hope you don't mind me asking, but how did she die?[/quote]
She had menengococcemia, meningitis of the bloodstream. It's one of those diseases that acts very quickly, and within 24 hours, you're either well on the way to recovery, or you are no longer among the living. Eve spiked a temperature at 7 AM, and had died just before 7 PM. My mother was never quite the same after that. Made for a rocky childhood for me, but I understand it much better now...still dealing with the fallout, but I do understand it better!

@deste Sounds like my two year old 😂