My 17th month old is barely talking. Do I expect too much?

[bosscatsroastingonanopenfire]

He says daddy, I see, and yum yum and the rest of time time speaks in a completely unintelligable language. I have another son who at the same age was definitely talking more although its difficult to remember exactly how much more. Should I be worried?

I hope not as my 22mth old has only just started expanding her vocab to more than a few words. I'd relax about it if I was you

yes you are probably right. I only get stressed about it when other people comment (my mother). he has dummy still and until now I haven't restricted it but I think now is the time to start limiting its use and see if he tried a bit more. I do say words to him and he just looks at me like I'm an alien.

Jess is also almost 17 months and says

Daddy
Mumma
Ta
Doodles(her cuddly)

Occasionly get Juice but thats it!

dd1 was jabbering away at a ridiculously early age. dd2 15mths still complete gibberish, and makes her demands by pointing and screaming her head off till I give her what she wants by a process of elimination. So nope don't think you have anything to worry about.

my nineteenth month old won't talk at all

just about manages ba-ba for bye-bye

I'm not worried .. she's just lazy and will talk when ready as she definitely understands

DS said his first word on his first birthday and was talking in sentences by eighteen months

different kids, different abilities

My dd1 was talking in long, grammatically complete sentences well before her 2nd birthday. My dd2 was two last week and has a vocabulary of no more than 30 single syllables.

They're all different. Keep an eye on the important things (pointing, imitating, nonverbal communication) and don't worry too much.

Dd spoke really well quite early but friend with same age dd didn't say a word, literally, til she was well over 2. Now they're both 3.5 and speak just as well as each other. Don't worry. So long as he's communicating words don't matter.

I don't think you should worry for a second. Although my son was early to talk (and hasn't stopped for one second since) My best friend's little girl is 27 months and has only just started talking.
It wasn't a gradual thing, it was as if she was saving it all up until she could make complete sense, this time two months ago I couldn't understand a word and now you can have full conversations with her!

yes he's pointing and talks to you but in his own language. Its mainly just sounds in his mouth like a really drunk person. If I say "cup"50 times he makes no effort to copy though. Hope that's nothing to worry about.

Nothing to worry about bosscat.
Am a salt and the mother of a 17 mth old who sounds just like yours.
If he is pointing,smiling,appearing to understand simple things,making noises and starting to play imaginatively (eg pretending to drink from a cup or spoon,combing his hair,maybe putting a doll to bed) then all shoud be well.

Good rule of thumb....

expect a single word or so at 1 year (eg dada,bye,more,mama,yes,no)
expect two words together at 2 years (eg more drink,bye bye daddy,ball gone)
expect three words together (ie simple sentences) at 3 years (eg where daddy gone,ball in box,my shoes there)

bosscats, at 17 months, dd1 said dada and mama and NOTHING else!

She writes poetry in English and French now [proud mummy emoticon]

21 ds is still only saying dada and hiya and has just started saying 'ello' - bizarrely in a cockney accent

Hi, my dd nearly 17 months can say woof woof, mamma, dadda, nanna & ta. She also talks alot in her 'own' language alot of which i dont understand lol!! I know how ya feel, im worrid too but they all catch up in the end!!

and how could o forget she can also say her name leah

Just talk normally to him. I wouldn't respond if you said "cup" 50 times to me either. He probably wants to choose the words he says.

Reading between the lines completely - are you upset at a lack of the word "mummy"?

bosscat - my mum is similarly driving me crazy with concerns about S's language development! S only had hiya/bye bye and dede (duck) at 15/16 months, then around the time of the 18 month check, he developed some words like head/shoulder/cat/dog (say about six words), but they were more in line with what he was interested in than with repeating. I'ld say he now has about 20 words. He wasn't interested in repeating words I was saying until very recently.

I'd say don't worry if he seems to understand you and that you are satisfied he can hear properly. My DS who was three last week has /seven months. I don't think he really had any speech at 17 months beyond unintelligable babble.

meant to say he's only really started talking in the last seven months but deleted some of the message somewhere. Duh!

At 17 months ds1 didn't even say "Mummy" - and he had 2 of them!! He had one word - "fish", which wasn't very useful and was pretty much all we got until he was 2. He remained a v. quiet boy until past 3, and then the sentences started tumbling out! Don't worry at all (easy for me to say now I've got a 4 year old who doesn't stop talking!)