To think this isn’t normal for a fifteen month old?

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My baby can only say ‘cat.’ That’s it. He does make other noises like dada but no other words. My niece could say around ten words by 14 months! I have been to the gp and they just dismissed it as him being too young still. I don’t think it’s right?

My baby is 18mon and doesn’t say anything. She babbles a lot, but no real words. Only says mama when she really really wants something.

she can however understand a lot, and convey what she wants by pointing… so unless your child is lacking in this department I would try not to worry.

Is your baby ahead in any other department? For example, my girl is an excellent climber, can turn pages in a book (not just board books, runs, scribbles, and eats with spoons and forks. They can’t be ahead in all things, so if he’s good at other stuff, I wouldn’t worry just yet.

😂it has nothing to do with being bright, OP… they all develop at their own pace.

My DD didn't walk until she was 16 months. I was worried she would always be behind physically. lol. She is in her 20s now and was a Nike sports ambassador when she was at uni. She has a day job to pay her bills but teaches aerobics and spin on the side and is training as a yoga instructor.

By these standards your son will probably be an eminent actor or great public speaker one day.

My DD1 was a late talker, we got referred to speech and language for it in fact when she had just turned 2. She was an early walker, crawler, has excellent fine and gross motor skills (she did a couple of games etc usually reserved for older kids that the HV gave her) and clearly just prioritised movement skills over communication skills. All parents are biased towards their kids, but now at 2.5 she can count to 15, knows when her birthday is and when other family members birthdays are etc so and nursery/family/friends who now hear her talk say she is fairly bright, regardless of the fact that she talked later than my friends kids (she’s more than made up for it now, mind 😅😅)

my 16 month old can say mama, dada, “beez” for please, “tata” for thank you and make animal noises. His understanding is pretty good but no other words. Hasn’t even crossed my mind he was behind tbh! He’s also still not walking but he looks like he’s about to

OP, my ds did not really speak until about 18 months, then almost immediately began talking in short sentences. His first intelligible word was bizarrely 'miaow' ( we did go to a singing class where there was a cute cat song) followed by 'car' and 'cat'. He has a First from Oxford now.

Nothing to do with intelligence, we all just have different rates of development and different strengths. Some kids can kick a football and climb anything but don't speak early, some have conversations but can't run.

Einstein was a late talker op!

My sister who is super bright lawyer was very late talker

DS first word was tractor at just over 2 years. By the time he started school he was remarkably articulate for his age, great vocabulary. Now he's 15, bright, confident, funny, wouldn't change a thing.

I don't think my 18 month old had any words at 14 months. She has loads now.

I don't think it's necessarily to do with intelligence. DD1 talked much earlier than DD2, but I've noticed DD2 has much better problem solving skills (sadly, the problem she chooses to solve is generally, "How can I reach that interesting object Mummy and Daddy have put in what they think is a place out of my reach?") compared to DD1 at the same age.

Sounds normal to me! My DS didn’t say that much until he was nearly 2, now he is 10 and doesn’t shut up 😂 and has a great vocabulary/use of language. My DD spoke way earlier than he did but is no more advanced now! It’ll come…

By 2 and a half DS2 could hold a conversation but failed to grasp potty training for a long time. He was a really late walker too. They develop in different areas in their own time.

Strange you say that because I used to hear DS practicing words in a whisper at bedtime 🤣 this was before he said many words to us

My cousin didn't speak at all until three, he is now a linguistics specialist for the Beeb. It's not about being bright/ not its about everyone developing differently. My son was chatting at about 18 months age best friends son didn't say a word till nearly 2 years she constantly compared him to my son. Aged 7 her son is far further ahead than mine.... it doesn't matter they are just the way they are they change and grow differently.

My 19 month old still has hardly any words. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to worry at 14 months and I’m still not that worried although I’ve started to notice she is a bit behind other kids in our NCT group.

I was a late talker (didn’t talk until after 2.5 years) and had some speech therapy but I was consistently top of the class at school and uni and have a PhD (whether these things equate with intelligence or not is another matter).

Not necessarily. My son barely said anything before 2. At 3 he called me ridiculous!
He's now in reception, doing brilliantly despite being a summer born boy (which I had always worried about a bit!)

Mine only says ‘HI!’ and ‘TAR’. Seems to get by with those two and I’m not too worried

My middle child would only make a sound with different variants depending on what he wanted until he was 3.

He was being referred for speech therapy when he's spoke properly,a full sentence.

My ds didn't start talking until he was 3, he's now a very articulate 6 year old. He was referred for speech therapy however I'm not sure how much it helped. My dd started talking at 12 months and was using full sentences at 18 months. I think they all just do things in their own time. At 15 months I wouldn't be concerned, chances are he'll get there when he's ready.

I don't think there's any correlation between talking early and being bright. Honestly, try not to worry. My little girl was like that until she was nearly too. She's very articulate now!

My ds took ages to talk and when he did, he always spoke correctly. Almost 2. I think he was just waiting until he could be confident in how he said things. I was much disappointed to not have any anecdotes of funny pronunciations and phrases. He's a bright teen now and has a habit of being precise and organised in many aspects of his life.

It isnt to do with intelligence. My youngest has needed on going speech therapy, talked a lot from about 2.5, but 90% incomprehensible. He actually has a very high IQ.

Every kid is different. My DD was very vocal early on, but slower getting going physically. Her brother didn't talk for ages, but he ran and climbed and threw himself off things. It was like he was focused wholy on the physical. My friend's daughter didn't speak a word untill she was 3 than started talking in whole sentences. It really doesn't mean anything. For my boys I found they made a lot of progress with speech between 20-24 months. If he's still not saying many words at 2 years I'd get it checked out, but its really not uncommon at this again and its nothing to do with intelligence.

It doesnt work like that

I listened to all these sorts of reassuring things when my son was a late talker and really regret it now. Has somebody mentioned Einstein yet - he probably wasn't actually a late talker at all according to biographers.

As a weary ENT specialist told me, the very first thing to suspect with a speaking problem is a hearing problem. My son fooled doctors - the GP being particularly clueless - nursery teachers, a speech therapist and us. The consensus seems to be that he taught himself to lipread and was very good at picking up on non-verbal cues. It turned out he had glue ear and was largely deaf as a result. The ENT specialist said that GPs did all right identifying a raging infection but were very poor at spotting the much more subtle signs of glue ear - a slightly pink, slight convex ear drum. I suppose I thought, wrongly, that it was a disease of over-crowding and poor conditions. He had a hearing test and failed completely. We were lucky enough to have private healthcare and a cancellation on a surgical list and within a little over a week of the test he was in hospital for grommets.

The ENT said while we waited for grommets to get down to him, face him, and speak really clearly. My son loved chocolate and didn't get it often. Standing behind him, I asked whether he wanted a chocolate bar. There was absolutely no response because he simply couldn't hear it and with me out of his vision he couldn't lipread. I was stunned. Hearing may wax and wane with glue ear - sometimes they will hear better than others. They may hear well enough to respond but not well enough to imitate the proper sound of words. No obviously I don't know whether your son has a hearing problem but people said exactly the same sorts of things to me that they are saying here. My son was older - about 3 - and it meant that certain sounds he should have learnt to say at a certain age were never learnt. He had to have speech therapy. I think it also affected his education as well because he just had gaps in his knowledge.

In retrospect, my husband realised his younger brother probably had glue ear. He too had a lot of speech therapy.

By the way, my sons could sprint at 10-11 months but neither of them turned out to be great athletes. I don't think speed of acquisition of skills affects how good you are at them as adult.