When should I start to worry about my ds's speech?

[APixieInMyTea]

He's 20months and say's nothing.

Ok I'm lying slightly, he will say mama and dada but only if you ask him to and even then only when he feels like it. Think he's said each one twice, maybe 3 times.

He said NO to me Quite clearly a few months ago, nothing since.

If he see's something new or something he likes he will say "Oh wow". This has been the only consistent thing in his vocab and he's been saying it for months.

And that's it. He is great at instruction, go get your pj's/a nappy/your milk, close/open the door, brush your teeth, put your dirty socks in your wash basket etc so he obviously understands a lot.

I wasn't too worried before, but just read another thread on MN with a couple of people saying 18months is very late for talking.

So when do I start worrying?

Not at the moment!! Lots of people on MN speak a lot of crap about milestones I'm afraid - please don't worry at the moment.

DC2 is 2 1/2 and has gone from not saying much to trying to form sentances in the last couple of weeks. All children develop differently! I think it may be a bit of a boy thing. I know he can hear and understand instructions so didn't worry and hey presto this week I camehome from work and he told me "my miss ou" (I think that means you!) and gave me a big hug - it was worth the wait!

I have a 20 month old who says nothing. He has just been refered to the SALT after passing a hearing test this week. He is delayed in everything so he is already in the system. My ds doesn't have much understanding either.

knitting it wasn't' anyone bragging, it was a couple of people saying that their child didn't talk till very late, 18months, and I was thinking if they think 18months is late, when do I start worrying.

Thank-you all, I don't think I'll worry too much yet then but maybe I will mention it to the HV if and when I can be bothered to get ds2 weighed

madamedeathstare your dd sounds like she is doing very well, so thank-you for sharing that.

cat64 thanks for the link, very interesting.

I can't understand why anyone would think 18 mths was late .

DS1 didn't start talking much until he was two, now he's 2 1/2 and you can't shut him up!!

It's not so much people bragging as maybe exaggerating a little bit (trying to be charitable!) and the problem is that then everyone who's child has not reached that milestone starts to worry.

lol at 'i ignore their taunts'.

dd1 could say loads of words by 12 mos, i doubt dd2 could say the same number by 24... they really are all different.

I was just about to write a similar post to you op, although mine wouldn't have been as positive. My 20 month old says nothing other than 'mama', and he calls dh that as well as me.
I know he doesn't have any hearing problems as he follows instructions very well.
I'm encouraged to hear that other people have children who are late talkers and turn out fine.
I think I might give it until he is 2 and if he still isn't talking then I might consider seeing the hv about it.

My boy has just turned 2 and the past couple of weeks has started repeating lots of words we say. However he still has never strung 2 words together.
I'm not concerned (....yet)

Speech is the icing on the cake - you need to be sure the cake is there first - if the child can communicate - both initiate and respond, and can understand verbal and non verbal nstructions at age appropriate level then expressive speech should follow. Distinguishing 'late end of normal' from a problem at 20 months is very hard and would need detailed assessment and information.

Don't worry about his speech per se, but be very careful that all his hearing checks have been carefully done, just in case that that's why his speech is on the late side.

Hi both of my children have had hearing issues. My first is 5 and if you did not know that she has 35% loss of hearing in one ear and 25% loss in the other, you really would not know. She talks well, and teachers etc are always very surprised that she has a loss. On the other hand my 17 month old, is not the same. I have no idea if she has a loss, but she has similar issues to my older child. What I am trying to say is even if your child is following instructions and not speaking, this may not indicate no hearing issues. Insist on getting tested.

The other thing I meant to say is that my 17 month old just does not speak in the same way as my older child. The question is does she have a similar level of hearing issue or worse? We are referred to ENT, I recomment that if ear infections are a feature make sure that every one is logged at the GP. This way there is a clear picture of what is going on, and all available information is available to health professionals to allow them to make informed referrals.

And I'd second the advice to talk to the HV. DS was late in talking and is still a little delayed in sounds/pronunciation at 4.

We had a specialist speech and lanuguage therapy HV come round every 6 months to assess him from 2 onwards. He was late but developed along the same path so he has only just been referred to SALT but it was comforting to know we were 'in' the system and he was being monitored to make sure he was developing.

If he can follow instructions, eats well (muscle development in the face is vv important) and can make sounds/words I don't think there would be any concerns but at least he would be monitored going forward.

Thank-you all for the additional comments.

Will definitely be mentioning it to hv next week and getting him a hearing test sorted to be on the safe side.

mercedes519. Sorry, can you clarify more on the "eating well" aspect of it? I've always thought he ate extremely well, however thinking about it, he does have a problem with meat. He'll chew a bit in his mouth for a while before eventually spitting it out. It's like he can't chew it down enough for him to be confident enough to swallow it. Does that make sense?

Don't worry! They make huge strides speech wise close to 2 years. I've two kids and they were both very different vocally aged 20 months. One was quiet/shy and the other was very talkative. Both are very well spoken now they are older and both are bright.

pixie this was from the criteria the health visitor has to base a referral on. They look at how the child eats as to whether they can chew and move food around as it indicates how well their facial muscles are developed.

If your DS is chewing and biting food I shouldn't worry, I think it's quite an extreme thing, i.e. If they would only eat mushed up food or yoghurt. HTH

My dd has just been referred to SALT at almost 2.5, she has just started saying more in last 2 weeks! Glad went down referral route but will prob not go ahead now, good to get in system as whole process from talking to hv to appointment has taken 4 months....

I asked HV for referal when DS was 20 months. She said that it was best to do it early as some of the waiting lists for hearing tests and speech therapy are very long. She was right. It took 3 months before we had first hearing test, and found that DS had glue ear and affecting his speech dev and behaviour.

It took another 16 weeks to see speech therapist.

So I would say don't worry about it, it's absolutely within the 'normal' range, especially if his other skills are developing fine. But if I were you I would talk about it to GP or HV. Ideally GP as she/he can actually look in the ear with that little cone light (don't know what it's called) and see if the ear drum is clear. I didn't know that and it took 3 months to be told that DS had glue ear, by an audiologist, but a GP could have told me that!