Late developer with everything?

[Excited85]

My dd is a happy placid girl, 21 months old. She was late to crawl (12 months), walk (16 months) and is still quite unsteady on her feet - no running or jumping yet. Speech wise she still only has a couple of words. There's been no development on the talking front for months, and I'm getting a bit concerned. Family are telling me she's fine as she's happy so I don't know whether I'm being silly, but it just seems a bit concerning to me that she's 'behind'with everything, and doesn't seem to be progressing with any more than her few words she's had for months now.

Can anyone offer any experiences or advice? Don't want to waste the doctors time but she hasn't hit any milestones on time so far. All I keep reading is non talkers have been focusing on motor skills and vice versa whilst she appears to be struggling with both. Thanks.

Have you asked the HV? It wouldn't hurt to get her checked out. Walking at 16 months isn't too late, but not speaking much by 21 months is a bit of a red flag. Do you think she can hear?

None of mine walked til about 16m it's not particularly late. Dc1 was late speaking he was well turned 2 before we had more than a few words from him turned out he had glue ear which held back his speech as he couldn't hear properly to repeat. Ask for her hearing to be checked to rule anything like that out. Also don't be worried about reaching certain milestones by a specific age they all do things in their own time.

Thanks for the responses. I think her hearing is ok, she definitely hears when we say things she likes like park, bath, dinner etc! Also dh had glue ear and mil said he had lots of infections - dd hasn't had any ear infections so had sort of rules that out? I guess it's who you compare with, all the kids I know were walking by just after their first birthday latest and it was the same at nursery, she was the one non walker for ages so I thought that was late, perhaps she's just around exception kids!

Ask HV to come and fill in (or just give you a copy of) an 'ages and stages' check for her age. It asks questions across all areas of development (gross motor, fine motor, communication, social skills, problem solving) then scores them as either fine, needing follow up or in a grey zone to be rechecked in a couple of months. If there is an issue HV can refer you on to community paediatrician, physio, SALT as appropriate. It's a slow process, we waited 3 months for a community paeds appointment after a supposedly 'urgent' HV referral. If she suddenly comes on leaps and bounds in the meantime you can always decline the appointment.

It's hard watching other people's babies jump from milestone to milestone effortlessly, when yours doesn't seem bothered, I can really sympathise! My advice is listen to your intuition, I think it's better to overreact! My positive story is this- my eldest was similar to your DD, and could hardly talk at all at 2. He was at the far limit of every milestone, also emotionally quite immature for his age, few behaviour problems , especially when his baby sister came along.

Fast forward a couple of years, he's starting school in September and recommended for g+t programme, he's really happy, emotionally adaptive and doesn't shut up!

I've found with both of my DC that their language developed in bursts, so they would learn a clutch of words and then that would be it for a few months. Then all of a sudden they'd make a leap and their vocab increased or they started linking lots of words. It wasn't a steady process IFYSWIM. 21 months is still pretty young, so I'd try not to worry too much. HV should pick up any delays at your 2 year visit.

My dd (3.8) was late with everything as well. Did not walk confidently until she was 2, very few words at this point. She was referred to SLT, Physio, paediatrician etc. nothing diagnosed just developing slowly at the lower end of what was considered NT. fast forward to now, I am not going to tell you she is G&T but you would never know she was a late walker, her language is coming along very well. I still think she is a bit behind most of her peers in relation to speech but I saw the SLT last week, and she commented that dd was unrecognisable from the child she first saw aged 2.

It was the HV who initiated all of our referrals, if you are concerned speak to them.
It is best to err on the side of caution IMO.

Thank you everyone, sounds like there's a variety of different experiences. I think I'll give the HV a call just to put my mind at rest, hopefully she's just taking her time.

My son was late with milestones. He walked at 16 months, couldn't jump or whatever for ages, had around 20 words at 2.6...referred to SALT, diagnosed with a severe speech delay...he's now 4.1 and never stops talking for a second and has a great vocabulary. Get get checked, especially her hearing...there's loads of boards on here with great advice for late talkers. Try and go with your gut feeling though, she's still pretty little.