Does my son have enough words for his age?

[gobblygook]

My son is about to turn 16 months. He's not yet walking independently (suspected hypermobility), but has made leaps and bounds in this respect, and is probably on the verge of it.

But his language hasn't really got any better for a while. His words are:

teddy
Doggie
Thank you (sometimes)
Baa baa (for sheep)
Night-night (sometimes)
Bye bye (sometimes)
mama and dada (but not always in context)
And he'll also join in with e-i-e-i-o chorus of Old Macdonald and know when to say baa-here, baa-there etc

But this hasn't changed in a while. And as you can see, not always consistent.

I suspect his energies have gone on walking. But is this a small amount of words for his age?

He seems to copy a lot of sounds and be interested in them, and jargons often, but that's it...

DD1 is 18 months. She can say:

Bye bye
mama
dada
Thank you
The name of her sister
Hello

She can sing the tune to Twinkle Twinkle and can also do e-i-e-i-o.

I'm think dd1 could do more at her age but that might be just be my memory playing tricks.

By the time they are 2 they are meant to have 50 words - I do wonder how on earth she is going to do that! But if she doesn't that's when I'll start talking to the HV about her speech.

Atm, I'm quite relaxed about it.

The 50 words thing is ridiculous and according to my HV, not really true. My son had maybe 20 words at 2 years.

He's now 2.9, nearly .10, and never shuts up!

It's more important that it's obvious they understand you and can at least point and be, more or less, understood with gestures, going to get things, etc.

He definitely can make himself understood - gestures/points towards water, food, etc etc. Doesn't always do what I ask; but then that would mean having a totally complaint baby/child! He's quite stubborn

Gobbly - at 16 mo DD2 had few words (as opposed to DD1 who was speaking in sentences) but now at 22mo she is chatting away and can be understood by 99% of people, she speaks in sentances. At 18mo she suddenly had a vocab explosion.

My dd (dc3) is almost 15 months and says nana for banana and ma for mum that is it, she has however been walking since she was 9 months and can climb almost anything! She does get incredibly frustrated by her inability to communicate though!

Ds1 had load of words at that age and ds2 had probably 5 but was also a fast walker. I was concerned for ds2 as I was comparing him to ds1 and I also thought like you about how on earth he would have 20 words by 2 but at around 2 he could speak in small sentance and had a huge vocabulary, it came from almost nowhere!

What I'm trying to say is that they are all different and it all comes out in the wash! I think they say understanding is the key, of he understands you then the talking will come eventually.

THanks blueberry - that's really helpful. I feel that might happen with DS, because there's just a sense he's got a big range of sounds etc, but I get anxious so this is just another thing to worry about!

He sounds perfectly fine. My ds didn't have loads of words at that age but you wouldn't believe the progress he has made since! They all develop at different rates anyway. Don't worry

My 15mo dd can say

Mum
Ta (instead of thank you)
Name of brother
Dog
Door

She make loads of noise but very rarely says actual words.

She's been walking since 9ish months and would rather be climbing on things than speaking.

I spoke to my hv about this. She says as long as they know 8 words by 2 then that's fine.

sounds fine for 16 months personally i wouldnt be worried with that. normally they learn loads more between 18-24 months so see in a couple of months he will probabluy start picking up new words every day, i wouldnt say he is behind at all for his age

Thanks all

Just another voice to say it sounds fine. DD had hardly any words until 18-20 months then her vocabulary exploded.

My DS is 21 months. He can say properly, in the sense that strangers would understand him:

car (90% of his spoken words!)
no
Mummy
Daddy
bear
bye bye

then various other words / sounds that we might understand, but others wouldn't

His sister is a right chatterbox, so I'm quite happy for him to keep quiet for the moment!

5 to 20 words at 18mths is perfectly normal. here gives some milestones. All children develop at different rates. One child I nannied for barely said anything until she was 2 and then all of a sudden started talking in sentences. It was as though she'd be silently learning and saved up all her speech in one go! Another child, at 18mths, could count to 20, recite the alphabet and had an amazing vocabulary.

My DD is 17mths and can say: Hello, byebye, Daddy, see you soon, yes, no, thankyou, please, drink, tea, Ds's name, Makka Pakka , cow, sheep, duck, pig, dog, cat, ( along with the animal noises ) it's a..... , car, teddy, bear, bed, all gone, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, twinkle twinkle and love you amongst others. She's going to be a talker like her brother. goes to order ear plugs She's slightly slower in other areas, refuses to feed herself, only just started walking etc. They all differ and they'll all catch up eventually.

Baby Goo can say Mama and More at 16 months.

She can sing the Batman theme tune and sometimes says hiya hello.

DS could talk A LOT by this age, but then again he only just walked at 16MO and she learned to walk at 10 months.

She has only just started to talk incomprehensibly all of the time, and I remember DS doing that a lot younger :)