Is this normal speech for a 20 month old?

[BoosMaw]

My DS has been saying single words for a several months now, but his pronunciation is way off, e.g. milk is 'muh', birds are 'buh', aeroplane comes out like 'yeeubuh', thank-you is 'agoo', horse is just 'hhh'. For most things he just points and squawks. He's not making any progress with pronunciation, as some of these words he has been saying in the same way now for months.

I'm happy that he's understanding things, have no concerns about his general development, he is happy and warm. My older DD was talking much more clearly at the same age, but she's 4 years older so I no longer remember in detail exactly what she was doing at the same age, though I've noticed one of his little pals who's just 2 months older is a real chatterbox.

I'm thinking about trying to get his hearing checked. He had really waxy gungy ears as a small baby but I haven't noticed them being like that more recently.

Am I being overanxious, or expecting too much from him?
Thanks

My DS has just turned 2 and has very little speech but over the last couple of weeks he has been saying similar things as your DS but does the pointing/squawking thing most of the time. I have just had the 2 year assessment with the HV and she doesn't believe there are any issues as he hears me when he is facing away from me and clearly understands what i say. She is coming back in 2 months to discuss again but i know quite a few people whos boys were the same and all of a sudden started talking in sentences when they approached 3 years old.

Does he respond/turn around when you speak to him when he isn't looking at you? Does he do what you ask when you give him a simple command?

If not then maybe i'd get some advice from your HV/doctor.

I would chill out for a while at least, unless you really think there might be an issue with his hearing. I think he's very much on the "normal" range- at this age it's only a real concern if they're not pointing or doing any words, (however badly prounounced!) and even then some are a lot slower and only pick up at nearer 2. They tend to have language explosions, go for a few months seemingly not that much progress, then one month loads of progress, start talking in sentences- or at least putting words together For my daughter this came at about 2 and 3 months. My son was earlier, maybe 20 months- certainly before 2- he was early! Some of his peers hadn't really started talking when he was doing sentences (mind you they could climb, run jump etc before him!).

Really don't worry about pronounciation, it's better he's trying, don't correct him, other than mirroring back the correct version and you don't even need to do that all the time.

He sounds 'normal' to me, I don't think you have much to worry about. I agree with tgger, I think they go through phases. My DS is 2.7 and he went months just talking gibberish then all of a sudden he said things that made sense! Even now we don't always know what he is saying and his pronounciation isn't perfect but we aren't really worried. Some of his words are similar to your DSs, thank you is 'angoo'.