What should a 23 month old understand?

[jenduck]

I'm just wondering what my DS should be able to understand. He is just 23 months old. He can understand instructions such as sit down, eat up etc. He can also understand more complex instructions, without visual cues eg if we are sitting & I say let's go upstairs, he'll head over to the stairs or if I say shall we change your nappy or have you got a dirty nappy, he'll stop what he's doing & fetch a nappy & wipes. If I say can you get your shoes & bring them to Mummy he will do that.

However, he cannot point out any named objects in books etc. So if we are looking at a book & I ask where the train is, he will just have no idea & carry on lifting flaps/turning pages. But he would fetch a toy train if asked, so I think he knows the word. He can point to his own ears, and to my eyes, nose & mouth but not his own.

He does not really understand any questions & will not shake his head no or nod yes, unless to imitate. It surprised me today to see a 17-month old nodding when asked if his brother goes to school, did Peppa have a zebra friend etc.

He can say about 10 words or approximations of words, knows about 2/3 animal sounds & waves goodbye/goodnight. If you say good boy/well done/clever boy he will also clap.

I think that by this age DS1 knew colours, numbers & all sorts of other stuff and was having conversations, so DS2 seems very behind in comparison!

Other than this, DS2 is a happy little boy, prone to the odd toddler tantrum if you take something he wants away, loves playing with cars, trains, building, drawing & whatever his brother is playing with! He does 'squeak' quite a lot & kind of grunt, but I'm thinking this is related to him not having many words.

I am looking forward to his 2-year check next month & will ask about referring him for a hearing test, to check nothing is wrong in that area.

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Its too late now Jen, she'D have to fail to be held back, and she isn't failing, just finding some things (especially maths and the emphasis on technical perfection rather than creativity, hard and more stressful than school really should be at age 7). We are in Bavaria, which does seem to have the most demanding school system in Germany - and was always top of the league tables for standards when they still measured the states against one another, which no longer happens, but at a price, and children do fall through the net... As you say every system has its faults, and looking in at the UK system from outside, plus having taught there years ago, I can see lots of those too! Its more warm and fuzzy at infant level in the UK though, which I sometimes think of wistfully for all that has its flip side of babying DC who are actually capable of more independence!

[jenduck]

Are your DC bilingual? Are you in Germany permanently? My experience if it is having Au paired there (Black Forest) when I was 18. It was a great time to go as schools finishing a year later than in UK meant I had lots of friends who wanted to practise English & let me use my (heavily dialected) German. Ah, good times indeed I would love to live there again, possibly with DC.

Have noticed an encouraging development with ds2's speech. Rather than repeating words, he will now say eg car when he sees a car trying, I think, to draw my attention to it. He is also trying to repeat loads of new words but they all sound the same!

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

That sounds like progress for certain Jen, my 22 month old endlessly informs me "Der's a car/train/ cat/ space rocket/ plane/ bus/ tractor" etc. as we drive or walk anywhere (there are a lot of space rockets in the Bavarian countryside you know - other people would say they are grain silos and water towers... :o If we're driving "Der's a space rocket!" in an excited voice is rapidly followed by "Oh no! Space rocket's gone! Where's a space rocket!" in an absolutely distraught tone! :o I guess reporting their surroundings is in their hard coding for this stage, even if the things they are pointing out are totally banal to anyone over 3 :)

Yes the kids are all bilingual - my toddler has a lot less German than English atm but still understands everything and has a reasonable vocabulary. If the older 2 are anything to go by it will even out when he starts Kindergarten at age 3, but I am confident he already understands as much as his monolingual peers. My husband is German and the extended family only speak German, and we live in the countryside where people are a lot less willing to speak English, so most of the childrens' life is lived in German and all their good friends are German. My 5 year old son refers to himself as Bavarian and probably speaks slightly better German than English, at least he thinks he does. Luckily my daughter does really well in German at school (she's the only one at school) and people generally can't tell she is bilingual if they don't meet her with me! I don't think her school stresses have anything to do with being bilingual, maths wouldn't be her strong subject in any language, it's just that here she gets "What's wrong with you? You can do the sums, you must work faster!" written on her maths tests if she misses out questions, and has to bring classwork home because she is working slower than the speed the teacher sets.

[MoelFammau]

My 22mo DD has glue ear in both ears and the consultant suspects additional hearing loss too. Her consultant told me her speech was a concern for a girl but not for a boy, that he didn't worry about boys until they reached 3.

That said, she can point to her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, bottom, knees, tummy, feet, thighs, elbows, face, hair, thumbs, fingers and hands, and loves pointing out things in picture books...

I do talk to DD a lot and ask her questions all the time, things that need a response. Stuff like 'do you want milk or water?' or 'where's the red car / what colour is that car?'. I tend to back it up with a bit of mime to help with her hearing problem.

The consultant also told me that hearing-impaired children can learn to lip-read in 3 months. My DD certainly can do it. Have you tried mouthing the same requests (fetch your train) and seeing if he's lip-reading you or listening?

[jenduck]

Well, have just had a phone call from our local children's centre. DS (who turned 2 on Monday) has been given a place on a group speech skills course, starting from Wednesday!

I am pleased, because I think he needs help with his speaking, but I also feel guilty in admitting that he is behind I am certainly very nervous about it, I feel like I will be putting my baby up to be judged

[jenduck]

I'm the OP.

DS is now 12 & a half. He has diagnoses of autism, inattentive ADHD, epilepsy & asthma. Within that he is dyspraxic, hypermobile & has motor skills difficulties.

However- he is the happiest, most charming kid in the world! Universally loved by everyone who meets him. He has always gone to mainstream school & thrived, last year winning one of the main prizes available at his secondary school. Currently we are experiencing some difficulties with concentration at school, but I am hopeful he will overcome this.

Best wishes @Mohit1234

[jenduck]

I can't honestly remember, but must have been by 3. They all vary though, each child is different.