another speech related question

[LeBFG]

My DS is nearly 15 months and doesn't really say anything. He makes roaring noises when he sees a tiger or lion, moos with a cow. He loves me to read stories and describe pictures to him. He now definately says dada, but no mama. Everything else, he points to and says da (this has different inflections: da! for cat or that (I want that), daa for Jack, sometimes a daa-a? not sure what this means!) He points to correct object in pictures when I say 'where is the ....' so he understands many words and follows some simple instructions. Most commonly, he points to an object and looks at me to say the name, never attempting to say it himself (I've said digger to this baby so many times I want to campaign to get it removed from the dictionary)

Following on from the late talkers thread, posters have pointed out DC may not try and speak if the parents are doing the hard work (ie not giving a choice, speaking for them). Do you think this is the problem? Am I talking too much for him? He should have more variation in his babbling shouldn't he? I'm not too worried yet - just looking for reassurance this is normal and to be expected.

DD is 16 months and has days like this. She can say some words but not many particularly well.
We don't do baby talk, we don't do the talking for her, read to her and do all the things you have described above.
At bedtime she'll happily babble away - using strange combinations such as 'bdum blub pschhh' so I guess it's just a case of wait and see. I don't have any concerns at present.

Im no expert, but this sounds v normal to me. My DS 2 is 16 mths and still just does lots of "das" and "nas", with a little bit of "mama" and "dada". My DS1 had quite a lot of words by this age but I think they just all do different things at differ stages. My Ds2 like yours clearly understands most of what I say. So I really wouldn't worry and for what it's worth, it sounds like your doing all the right things to me.

Ahhh, thanks guys. Just needed a little reassurance!

15m is still very little, the spectrum of language acquisition and when they actually put into practice what their little brains are soaking up is pretty broad; HVs and specialists tend to not worry until 2 IME and they tend to reassure you if they are doing things to communicate - such as animal noises , correct ones for the appropriate animal, actually do count as words apparently! mine says so much more than I would have thought now (at 2 and a half) as at year ago he barely said anything at all, even animal noises. He said "di!" for most things, it became a running family joke (as most of them didnt know I was going quietly demented with the worry of it), as in 'ready, steady.... "di!" it could go for most things. He said di, daddy, up, and I think that was it at 18m. I think I was jumping in and not encouraging him to ask for things though as well, as I knew what he wanted from his pointing or just because I did. I've recommended the DVDs Sookie and Finn a few times on mnet lately as I feel they gave my DS a real confidence boost (they're done by speech therapists, a cartoon, kids repeat the words like a game, quite clever and yet simplistic). we were reading to him from the time he was born, I'm a real bookworm, we're both talkers and did the 'running commentary' thing with him, but maybe he was more physical than chatty earlier on, who knows. He doesnt shut up now though!! I never, ever thought I'd say shush to him, was soooo pleased when he started saying proper words! :)

That's a lovely story - so pleased you shared it with us. Interesting about the animal noises. Yes, there really isn't anything to worry about. The paed. said she would only start doing language assessment at 2 so that fits with what you say. Just have to wait for it to happen I suppose.

just keep talking to him pointing things out and hoping its sinking in!! I know it seems like nothings happening but you're laying groundwork for his curiosity to run with. we played an animal card game thingy and he didnt say anything about it at first but then we were at the zoo and he said "oh look! a flamingo!" which he had heard me say at home 50times but hadnt said till he actually saw a real one :) tbh mine only started saying a flurry of words/phrases just after 2 - so frustrating but I needn't have worried in the end (try telling any mum that, eh). Now at 2 and a half loads of his sentences are about where he's going, or what is his, or telling us what we allowed or not allowed to do, I don't know where my quiet-ish baby has gone!