Language development delay - when to worry?

[Cbell]

My DD is 20 months and I'm beginning to become concerned about her language development.

She has a few words/ sounds that she uses (Mama, Dada, Bear, Yeh). Her comprehension and hearing seem to be fine so I'm wondering if I should just wait or do I need to speak to the HV? I'm a teacher so I know about children being differently situated on the developmental spectrum but...it's different when it's your own!

Is her language development normal?

She sounds completely normally. No doctor or health visitor would worry at this stage...AND YET knowing all this I was you 4 months ago

My DD2 just turned 2. At 20 months her speech was pretty poor - mummy, daddy, 'ilk (milk), bye-bye and about 10 other words/sounds.

Everyone said not to worry, they will catch up, but it's hard not to. My DS was average in his development and my DD1 precocious. Taking in sentences at 20 months.

From about 22 months to now my DD really started chatting and every day learns about 6 new words. I can now see clearly she will catch up fine.

Completely normal not normally. Urgh!

I think you are fine. My DD2 was more than 2 1/2 and not even doing 2 word sentences. In fact she was probably only doing about 6 words in total which were barely understandable even to me. I did speak to Dr. about it and asked if she needed speech therapy as she was seen by this point as significantly delayed. Dr. said that it was possible but probably not necessary as all ST would advise I was already doing - send her to nursery so she is exposed to a lot of speech and read to her a lot. I would say you are definitely in the normal range. If it makes you feel better DD2's speech is not exploding and in the space of 2 months she has gone to multi word sentences and multi sentence conversations, initiating conversations etc. It is hard to worry when it is your own so speak to dr. if you need more reassurance.

now exploding - rather than 'not' exploding which would clearly mean the total opposite and not at all reassuring :)

Sounds completely normal to me, my ds is 20 months and at about the same stage I think. As a speech therapist (not currently working as one), the time you would want to get things checked is before they start school, if their language doesn't seem appropriate for their age, as this can then impact upon learning to read a write. I'm sure you know this as a teacher, but you're right, you do worry about your own more!

Thanks for the reassurance.

My DD isn't currently at nursery and she probably wont be starting for at least another 6 months. I feel the fact that we are at home alone with no family living close by means that the speech she is exposed to lacks variety. Although I try to encourage and model speech to her she seems to feel that 'urgh' and pointing gets the message across just fine.

We do read a lot and I try to provide lots of varied activities in the home but I am starting to worry that I might just not be stimulating her enough. I always though this part was more about nurture and anxiety about performance comes later!

Don't worry about lack of nursery. She will benefit from hearing speech and language being modelled in the home without all the background noise of nursery.

Hanen do an excellent book called 'it takes two to talk' that is full of good ideas.

Dr Sally Ward's 'Baby Talk' goes from birth to 4 and gives ideas for each stage of language development. It's very readable and also much cheaper.

Just re-read your post. I'd buy Baby Talk. Then if no improvement in 4-6 months get the Hanen one. She is still within normal limits.