When did your child start talking clearly?

[SandyClaw]

DD is 20 months old and not talking clearly.
She was a pretty early talker (I think), said her first word at 9mo and was saying quite a few words by a year old.
She was joining 2-3 words a few months ago but has stopped doing this.
She could say several words pretty clearly such as 'bird' and 'toast' but now refers to them as 'ba' and 'do'. In fact, most things are referred to as 'ba' even if she knows the right name.
Nobody other than myself and DH had a clue what she is saying and she gets very cross.
She does learn the odd new word or phrase ('all gone' for eg) but will then revert back to 'ba' or 'do'.

I'm not worried about her hearing as she knows everything that is said to her, can pick out colours, shapes etc.

I just wondered what the average age for being able to talk 'properly' and make themselves understood is?
Does it just happen all of a sudden?

My DS is 2.7 and his speech isn't perfectly clear. He says a lot of words and talks in sentences, most people know what he is saying but I wouldn't say his speech is clear. I am not too worried though, his nursery don't think he has a problem and they can communicate quite well with him. If he isn't speaking 'properly' when he starts school, then I'll panic! Do you read to her? My ds loves books and it definitely helps with their speech. I think at 20 months I wouldn't worry, from what I can remember your dd is better than what my ds was at that age. In fact he is only just learning his colours now...hmm maybe I should be worried!

Don't worry. I think the general rule is that by 3 they should be able to be able to be understood by adults outside the family, ie all adults, but in reality I think for lots of children speech keeps getting clearer between 2 and 5.

DD is about to turn 3 and still needs a fair amount of "tuning into"- but the adults who care for her from day to day- ie family and nursery have no trouble understanding her. She is sloppy with some of her sounds and we are now encouraging her with these as she can say some of them but doesn't (eg 's'). She does talk in lovely long structured sentences sometimes which sounds a little odd from someone her size, and particularly with not all the sounds in place .

ds1, umm about 2.5y? At his 2yo check up his vocab was extensive, but no one other than my mum and I could understand more than 1/10th of what he said.

ds2, probably around 4y He had speech therapy at 4.7y in the summer just before he started school, and continued into the 1st term of reception.

ds2 should have said around 5y

DS1 was clear as a bell from about 18 months - it was commented on as unusual though and speech/language has continued to be his main strength.

DDs speech is a different story and she is now 4.5 yrs and still not 100% clear. She has a pronounced lisp which doesn't help!

If there is nothing unusual about your dd's speech I'm sure it will get clearer in time. Agree with Tgger about children usually becoming clearer between 3-5 yrs.

ds was clear around 3y. was a late talker (1st words at 18m).
dd is nearly 2 and her only clear words are mine and no

ok as a general rule i would say that at 20 months i would not be at all concerned by the way your child is talking

BUT.... I would worry a little bit if she used to say things and now she doesn't.

I would see the Health Visitor and ask to be referred for hearing tests and to the speech therapist.

DS2 was a very late talker. Like you I had no concerns about his hearing as he seemed to understand what we were saying and could follow instructions (when he wanted to)
But I was wrong! the hearing tests showed that he had moderate-severe glue ear in both ears and his hearing WAS affected by it. He obviously could understand what we were sying despite not hearing us clearly and so we had no sign that his hearing wasn't as good as it should be. the only "symptom" was his unclear speech, and in particular missing the beginnings/ends off words

IMO it's far better to get a referral and go along and be told "nah, nothing wrong" than to not get one and keep hoping and then find out later down the line that there is something that could have been done earlier.
appointments for these things often take a long time to come through, so the sooner you get a referral the better in my eyes.

as i say, if you were talking about a 20 month old who was just learning to talk then i wouldn't be suggesting this at all.
but given that your child was talking early and was talking clearly and was starting to string things together and she is now regressing then I would be a little concerned.

Yes, if she really has regressed noticeably get her checked out, but it could just be that as she is fairly young her brain could be caught up with other stuff and then will come back to language in a couple of months.

I remember DS calling a pen "ba" for ages!!! A classic in our family was DD calling older brother "Aga" for months- proper name "Thomas". This was certainly the case when she started nursery age 2 and I had to explain to them who "Aga" was . She did get "Thomas" in the end but it took several months!

Thanks for all your replies.
Interestingly enough since I posted here DD has started attempting to say a few new words (not clearly but she is trying!).
I am due to see HV in a couple of weeks so I will mention it then.