Concerned about speech - could the dummy be responsible?

[Butwhereareyou]

My son is 15 months and only says ma ma and da da. I keep reading he should have around 5 words by this age.

Since being about 10/11 months he’s been absolutely obsessed by a dummy and it’s been really difficult to prise it off him and I’m concerned this has had an adverse affect on his speech.

Has anyone got any tips for developing his speech? I do read with him and talk with him.

15 months is very young to be worrying about speech development and I say this as the parent of a severely autistic non verbal 12 year old ,dummies can hinder the formation of words as often children try and speak around the dummmy ,so try and limit the use ,but i really wouldn't worry about speech just yet .

It doesn't sound like his speech is delayed but I would be focusing on phasing out the dummy now so you aren't storing up future problems.

My DD LOVES a dummy and we finally took it off her at 16 months cold turkey over Xmas time (we chose that time as we were both off work and could cope with disturbed sleep).

I was absolutely dreading it but it honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. She cried a little bit on the first night but that was it. It's probably not going to be as bad as you think!

Make the dummy just for nap time, keep them in his cot and he will get used to it.

Dummies alone are not responsible for speech delay, my super advanced clear and early speaker was a dummy addict.

My other 2 that did have speech delay didn't have dummies 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’d get rid of the dummy completely tbh. If they’re still around for sleep, and he’s been getting more attached to them rather than less, then you need to just get rid.

The odd anecdotal experience of dummy’s not delaying speech does not counteract all the professionals who say otherwise.

Hhhmmm I’m pretty sure the latest research shows not much link between language development and dummy use (speech sounds quite possibly, also on teeth) but actual language development I’m not so sure. Language development is predicated on cognitive development and stimulation, the way a child sees and interact with the world. There is also a very wide variety of normal at this age. Some children are stringing words together into phrases by 18m, others are virtually silent even at 3. A specialist would look at the whole developmental picture and environment.

My kids both had dummies till 18m, then we went cold turkey, both great speakers (and general communicators) from young.

@Butwhereareyou

Thanks. I try really hard with the dummy but he’s also clever at finding them (even tried to mug another baby once ) and also DH is a bit of a pain and constantly gives it to him. I don’t mind for sleep but I like to hear his voice.

In my experience the only way to stop using dummies is to throw out every last one.