Does having 2 children close together hinder the eldest's speech development ?

[dubnobasswithmyheadman]

I ask because my ds (21 months) is not yet talking. I am not particularly worried - he understands loads and can recognise and point to objects/people on prompting, but will not say a darned word other than 'gain' as in again. DD is 8 months, has started dadada-ing and seems a lot more alert to words. I wonder if there is any connection with the fact that there is only a year between them - has anyone got any similiar experience ?
Ta

Sorry don't know but thought i'd bump this up for you. There will be the same age gap between my two babies, am 20 weeks pregnant at mo.

I'm sure it is nothing to worry about all babies develope at different rates.

DS1 was 20 months when DS2 was born. He wasn't very good at talking - mainly because he is bilingual. He is progressing well and at 2.8 yo, he has started to use sentences and we can now understand - some of - what he is saying.
Personnaly, I wouldn't worry. All children develop at a different speed and boys tend to be not as good at talking than girls. Also, looking at DS2 he seems to progress much faster than DS1 on a lot of subjects (I think he is copying his brother so is learning quicker).
I am sure that your son will lern to talk at his own speed. At 21 months, he is still young. He is also showing all the signs that he understand so the tim when he will start talking will come.

hi, sorry not to be of much help but my two are close together and it didn't seem to affect either's speech i don't think. but they are all different and situations affect them differently. your ds is still young though i wouldn't worry if i were you. you could always have a chat with your hv to put your mind at rest.