how many words for 18month old?

[misdee]

dd3 doesnt seem to have many, but communicates well. i often hear about people saying how well their children speak, and early talkers etc etc, but none of mine have been,

not overly worried really, well maybe i am as dd2 has a speech delay, but really, is it possible to make your child talk more, or is it soemthing that just occurs naturally?

kaufman cards I mean. If you google nancy kaufman you'll find them.

ds1 had about 60 words at 18 months. Ds2 had about 3! Ds3 has a lot of "words" which his immediate family understand but I don't think a stranger would stand a chance, things like "boo" for spoon and "doe" for door. I think the fact that ds1 mostly hung around with adults while ds2 and ds3 hang around with their siblings made a big difference.

cheers jj. she is gabbing away, and does silly dances, points etc, but the words arent there.

if i am at all honest, none of my girls have been quick to talk. dd1 was the most fluent, but even she preferred not to talk at times, (now i cant stop her at age 6) but she did have more words. dd2 is just jumbled and not know how to communicate well. dd3 just doesnt have the words but does communicate.

confused? i am lol.

My ds started talking at a normal age and walking at a normal age and he is now almost 6 and everyone who has met him is convinced that he is a genius (my father and brother are, so no an unlikely concept). My dd on the other hand started speaking very very early and was talking in full sentences by the time she was 12 months. She didn't walk until she was 19 months. However, now she is almost 4, she is very clearly very bright, but probably not the genius that my ds is. But I would bet good money that she will have a much easier time in the real world than ds.
And then there is my stepson who is 12 and still can barely read and write, but is an amazingly talented artist.

All of this is to say that you should really just celebrate what your child is good at and not worry about what they aren't. And let them do things at their own pace. Especially when they are young and really just being themselves.

DD didn't say her first word till after she was 2 .. she was 2 in May and still only gets the first syllable of most words .. but she does think she's talking lucidly

DS was forming sentences at 18 months

it really is up to the child misdee

although I did think DD was a big thick for a while she is actually far brighter than DS was at this stage (makes more connections, understands things better)

DS is 15 months and only says Maaaa, Daaaaa, boo, row and this weekend added brrrrrm when he is steering a wheel in his boat sandpit! He doesn't point though and this worries me much more than the speach. My HV doesn't want to refer him yet as otherwise he seems OK but I am still worrying myself stupid.

I really wouldn't worry too much Misdee. Ds1 couldn't be slienced from 15 months onwards (and still can't now at 12 ) Ds2 aged 3 1/2 I reckon was about average, didn't say that much but enough for me not to worry too much and ds3 aged 19 months has suddenly just started to come out with everything!

A month ago he would only say things like, mama and dad, his brothers names (but only so would would know, not clearly) woof, car car, and dinner, and a couple of others, but now he is singing all kinds of songs and you can tell what they are, saying 'where are you?' the wonderful 'MINE!!!' , he can ask for quite a lot now, so I have stopped being concerned and am now trying to locate earplugs because as you can imagine it's very noisy here now!!!

Your little one will very suddenly start to talk and if she knows what she wants and can tell you in whatever way, I would say she is fine. x

Dd1 had 70 words at 14 months (I'm not lying!). Dd2 said virtually nothing - or nothing you could understand - until she was 2.5, by which time we were seriously worried. 9 months on people are commenting on how well she speaks for her age so I guess there's a quick catch up for the slow starters.

Ds is just over 17mths and off the top of my head, here is his list.
Words - juice, shoes, up, this, that, bye bye, hiya, muma, dada, no, duck, fish, teddy, turtle.
Animal sounds - roar, eak eak, baa, quack, his own funny sound for a bee buzzing.
Plenty of uh's and pointing at things that he wants though.