How many words can your 12-18 month old say? And what are they?

[RitaMorgan]

I have read that children should have 20-50 words by 18 months, though I guess there is a big variation in this. 15 month old DS seems pretty average compared to other young toddlers we know, though there is no sign of Mama/Mummy yet

At the moment he says about 11 recognisable words:

Dada
Ta
Yeah
No
Hiya
Bye-bye (buh-buh)
Boo (buh)
More (muh)
Again (geh)
Woof (wuh)
Quack (gak)

He is yet to have a developmental check with the HV so I'm assuming he's developing fine

That sounds similar to DD at 15mo.

At 19mo she barely stops talking - the increase in words suddenly explodes!

DD is 17 months and doesn't have 50 words or anywhere close to it!

She can say:
Bye
No
Hiya (grrrr - I hate this)
Fish
Cat
Burp
Shark (too much reading 'Shark in the Park'!)
Num-num (food)
Shoes
Dad
Mama
Nana (not sure if this is Nanna or banana...)
Car
Key
Billy wind (so my mother tells me - never heard her say it though... )

...she can also say 'shhh' if you ask her what we do when it's time to be quiet, and she can blow when you tell her something is hot... And she can say 'moo moo' if you show her a cow, but can't say cow. And make a clicky hooves noise if you show her a horse, but can't say horse.

17 month DS and not that many words. Only:
Mama
Dada
Keys
Shoes
Nana (dummy)
Crisps

He understands loads of words and can follow most instructions (put the cup on the table,etc.) but doesn't actually say many words.

I thought the 50 words was understanding, not saying. Is that wrong?

You've just reminded me that DS also says (ba)nana, shoes and cheese. So 14 words

Oh, I forgot:
Bye
Dog (which means horse, dog and cat)
Shreddies

At 18months my DS has one word 'up', no mama, dada, cat...nothing!
at 22 months he suddenly started talking, at 23 months he was talking in sentences.

guidelines of how many words they should have at any particular age are really not all that useful. Each child gets there in the end :)

I am not sure but before I left she was pointing at our youngest new baby and saying Baaa! That then became Baabee and then Babeee. It was funny as when I took her out in the pushchair she would not only wave at the other young kids in prams and say Hiya but also she would point and say' Babee Babee' which was funny! Oh an her blanket was called 'ging-ging' for some reason. Drink was 'dink' and for a short while I was called 'did' and not dad! I used to love when she would put her blanket against her ear or hold her head against the soft fluffy rug and in a very exaggerated way would go 'aaaaaah'

My dd 16m, only has a few words

Hiya
Ba Ba (baby)
bi bi (bye bye)
Dee (Indie our dog)
Scone (gone)
Dad

SShhh and puts her finger to lips
Some animal sounds when prompted
Copies sounds

I thought it was fifty words by two????????

DS2 18 months can say

up
dat (used for cat and that)
dada
mama
nana (banana not nana no matter how much nana protests!)
hot
hat
shoes
poo
aww gone (all gone)
juice (sound a lot like shoes)
bear
bawbaws (bubbles)
maw (more)
no
yeah
bye-bye
Nah-nah (night night)

but its a bit hit and miss when he uses them and he absolutely refuses to say anything when prompted, its his way or no way at the moment!

My 17 month old has the following words but most are not that clear, only to us who hear him say them regularly.

Quack-quack
Book
spoon
Goal (a new one this weekend)
Mummum
Dada
keys
drink (dink)
hello
hiya
Boo
Makka-Pakka (???)

LOL

My eldest was speaking very clearly 14 word complex sentences at 18 months, 2 of my younger ones had speech delay and probably didn't have much beyond a handful or words at the same age!!! Huge variance IME.

DS manages to make "shoes" and "cheese" rhyme - shuz and chuz

DS1 had about 20 words at 2 years old. Was referred for speech therapy (which never came) but by 3 was using complex words in context and speaking in paragraphs! It's like he was storing it all up for proper use. Don't worry too much, I'm sure your little one will be fine and remember the old phrase, "you spend the 1st 18 months desperate for them to walk and talk and the next 18 years telling them to sit down and shut up." [hgrin] I tell this to DS2 when he "hiya" and "Dada" and "ado" at's us, Daddy and the dogs. Although his awwws when he cuddles are just fab! He's just coming up 11 months, god help me. (I've asked for industrial ear defenders for christmas).

Oh was that my first MN stealth boast?

I remember my super talker finally said

Mummy
Daddy

(didn't call us anthing else before that) and they didn't come until she'd been talking at least 5 months and was way down the list! She clearly had other priorities if she wailed we responded.

dd2 is exactly 12mo
she has one word
"(ba)nana". she points insistently quite a lot, but TBH doesn't seem to understand much either.

her sister was talking in sentences at 18mo - i am assuming they are at different ends of the normal spectrum.

My 14 month old doesnt' say much,

Mama
Hiya
Bye bye

err that's it!

She does babble a lot though, never stops.

Her brother, my 3yr old was an early talker. He could recognise lot of animals and make their noices by this stage. I think a big factor is that he loves/loved reading books and was read to for literally about 2hours everyday.
My DD does not seem to have any interest in books.

Bollocks.
No - DS didn't say that.
Bollocks to the helpful guidelines. Mine said nothing til way gone 2. Then developed vocab & sentence structures reeeeeaaaaalllly quickly.

DS2 is 20 months and has suddenly started to talk loads. Anything you say to him he copies, so from just saying mama, dada, shoes, coco (CM's dog) and no, he can speak almost fluently. Stringing words together i.e. 'Milk, all gone' and 'whats that? tractor?' and most importantly understanding everything we say to him. Quite a revalation!

DD2 is 17mo. her words are

Mama
Papa
Pippa (DD1)
Cat
Dog og og og
Mine
Car
Tree
push
highchair
cupcake
fizzy
juice
milk
water
booblies (blueberries)
stjobbies (strawberries)
shoes
slippers
up
down
jump
eat
bektif (breakfast)
iPad
pooter
nose
eyes
ears
tummy
feet
toes
mouth
kiss
skin (she stroke my skin when she is sucking her thumb and tired)
Gandma
Gumpy
Ouma (my mum)
Dess (Jess)
4 or 5 other names
stairs
bowl
plate
cup
bed
bath
loo
tinkle
poo

and a few more I can't remmeber

DD1 spoke a whole lot more than DD2 and was talking in full sentances by this age.

my DD is 23 months at 21 months had about 15 words can now manage 3 -4 word sentences " i can see you" "go car mummy" and of course "no no no no no.

but I do not worry about these charts, as when my DD saw a HV and she knew they wanted answers when she asked where is your nose she pointed to shoes and when asked about hands pointed to ears then HV did face DD burst out laughing thought it was hilarious she does it wrong for fun

all children vary a lot if your DC is advanced with walking etc maybe in other areas they are a bit slower and vice versa, I think they normally give at least 6 months longer for most things the average age for walking is about 13 months but no-one really investigates 14-15 months old that don't walk but they would a 21 month old that did not. Same with talking I tihnk they would have to be well over 2 before it would be considered a problem with words and probably 3 before they worried re talking in sentences