Concerned about DS speech again - should I be?

[Flossam]

DS is 18 months. He can say around 15 words. I have just had my MN email and they said 5-20 words was about right at this age, but have just met new HV who was a little concerned he wasn't stringing words together yet and also at the size of his vocab. I thought he was normal - is he?

health visitor

Please don't worry. My son is 2.9 and we have just had our first appointment with a speech therapist this morning, arranged by a HV who was more concerned about his development than I was.

My old HV said that boys typically start to talk between 2yrs and 2.3 yrs. Mine did, but nine months later he doesn't use verbs or pronouns, and much of what he does say is intelligible only to me.

However the therapist said there's nothing to worry about. Plenty of kids have a delay (and yours is so young, this may not even be the case), very few have an actual disorder.

Something interesting a 'friend who knows about these things' said recently, that trying to ascertain whether a child has speech problems before they can actually speak is pretty much impossible, kind of like trying to prove a negative.

I'm absolutely sure you have nothing to worry about; the reason so many of us do is because of all this insane 'scheduling' of childhood milestones, that we get from all sides, and which is for the most part unnecessary and meaningless.

Hey, Floss. DS1 didn't say anything much till he was 19mo - few words, some quirky things, but not much at all.

He's two and a bit now (see, Twiglett, I can get it right ) and has LOADS of words - hundreds - and knows numbers, letters, lots of shapes, loads of colours and recognises Argos, Sainsburys and Tesco logos But when he was 18mo, I did wonder when he'd ever learn any words!

So don't fret - am sure your DS is fine.

I was just about to start anew thread about this subject when I saw this! My DS is also 18 months and although he has said prob 20 or more words and strung a couple of sentences together - he will say a word once (like he said yogurt in the supermarket a couple of weeks ago - perfectly), but has not said it since, no matter how much i try and encourage him. I wasn't unduly worried as he babbles constantly, until a couple of people mentioned it (one of them being my MIL who is a retired nursery teacher - grrrr).
The only word he says on a daily basis is Dogga (hmmm!), even mummy and daddy don't get a mention :(
It is reassuring to see that I am not alone!

Mabel,one thing I would say to you...
our speech therapist told us to really lay off the "Say XXX for mummy" or "Say biscuit and you can have it"etc. I was in danger of trying to turn Ds3 into a performing seal at one point,not kind and it doesn't work anyway.
He'll say yoghurt(or whatever)when he's good and ready not when you are.
Chill babe!
He sounds fine to me.

That's what I thought - it's not til other people comment - you start to question whether they're ok!
I sat down with him pointing to objects in his book this morning saying 'what's that" ..... no response!
We 'chat' to each other all day, so I am sure you are right - he will talk when he's ready.

I'm interested to see whether when they talk/walk etc does mean anything in the long-run though. My ds1 spoke brilliantly at 18 months and was reading and writing at 3. ds2 is coming up for 19 months and has just added his 3rd word, but he's really good at other things, like climbing and playing football, in a way that his brother just wasn't. Maybe they do it in a different order, or maybe they're better at the things they find more interesting, or maybe it does reflect their natural strengths. One of my friends has a boy who's nearly 3 and can hardly talk, but he can swim by himself, including lengths underwater, and has been riding a bike without training wheels for months. Future Olympic gold medallist?

if it's any interest legophobe my DS is extremely sharp - I show him how to do something once and he picks it up - but I guess that could be completely normal at this age. He is very good at climbing, kicking, throwing- his co-ordination seems good.

Flossam - ds was nearly 2y 6m when he started saying sentences. I was worried, but now (nearly 5) he talks for England.

My ds didn't put 2 words together until he was over 3. He does have a language delay. How many children do you have, Flossam? Ds in question has two older siblings and I knew from a young age that there was some kind of a delay somewhere - he wasn't making the sounds the others made. If you're not worried, there probably isn't a problem. However, if you do think there could be a problem, get help early as it is slow work getting the nhs ball rolling and funding for speech and language therapy is low. All the help we've had has been friendly and constructive but few and far between.

my dd2 is 17mths can only say ta,mummy , daddy and tata

DS 16 moths says dada and has just (last week or so) started saying "eh" for "yes". That's about it on definite words he may be saying some or all of "uck" (duck), "ook" (book), "dair" (stairs) but I'm not sure. He babbles a lot, points and understands a lot of what is said to him, so I'm not worried at all (although sometimes I feel sad for him when he gets frustrated). Your new HV sounds a bit loopy tbh ask her for the references that support what she's telling you and watch her backtrack rapidly.

months not moths. Or he might just be entymologically very advanced...