Vague concerns w/ 2.0 language-potential PFB?

[FanjoPaterson]

DD just 2 has been talking for...six months ish. Single words, sometimes two, but no sentences or anything.

I'm not worried that she's not forming sentences as she has always been 'physical' (running, climbing, riding her trike etc) rather than 'mental' and we rub along well enough. My concern, vague as it is is in her sounds.

One syllable words are fine- mum, cat, bed, dog etc but two syllables give her difficulty. 'Daddy' is "da'ee," 'bottle' "bol" 'telly' becomes "te-ee" and so forth. She also has problems with sibilants. If she was older I'd say she had a definite lisp, and in thinking of an adult friend who has one, it's close to identical.

Another concern I have is in when she speaks. I am all for allowing her to choose who to speak to and when- I dislike speaking to those I am not familiar with and would never force her to talk so a relative stranger.
Despite modelling manners constantly, she never says 'please' when asking for something although I know she can, having heard her chattering away to her teddy ("bweebweebwee, peeeeeth! Bear! Bweebweebwee") and only says 'thank you,' oh, one in ten times. If prompted she stares in consternation and appears to be really struggling to make words but nothing happens.
Daycare say she never speaks. She is incredibly excited to go to daycare- I have no concerns as to her enjoyment as she is by all reports constantly smiling, laughing and very affectionate towards everyone. I often watch her for ten or so minutes before letting her see me and I see nothing but a very content toddler.
But not one sole word will she utter.

I suppose I just want to know if this is normal, am I being utterly PFB, is she delayed?

She does still have a bottle and dummy but these are strictly night time only. Both are tucked up in bed in the morning and untouched (well, obviously I wash the bottle but it goes back so she an bring it to me) until bed time.

Sorry this is so long- I wanted to get it all down and not drip feed.

Are nursery concerned about her? I would definitely not take the fact that she doesn't talk there as a sign that she is delayed -- you know she talks at home.

I am not an expert, but I think leaving off letters or even lisping is normal at that age -- my DD definitely did that. Lots of times the vowels were correct but the consonants were wrong.

I would expect to keep prompting for manners for several years! My DD (3.5) knows please and thank you but forgets a lot -- I constantly say "What do you say?"

Totally normal not to be able to pronounce certain letters until school age; interesting if you speak several languages (as my family does) because you can see that it is different sounds that causes problems in different languages (the rolling r in Norther Europe is a real pain, the English th sound is also normally quite late).

Expect to have to keep prompting for manners until Yr 6 or thereabouts. Don't make it a big battle though, try to keep it fun and pleasant for as long as you can.

As for not talking at nursery, that won't be about delay but about shyness in a different social setting. Ds was like that. Am just reading his school report (Yr 8) and noticing that what his teachers complain about now is not excessive quietness. [grr]