14 month old DS no words or actions yet?

[RattleAndRoll]

Should I be worried?

DS is coming up to 14 months. He doesn't say any words yet. He babbles and makes lots of sounds. Sometimes he says sounds that would pass as mum or yes but they're never in context. So I don't think these are on purpose. He understands words like no(and stops what he's doing), kiss(leans in to kiss me), dummy(looks around for one), step(looks down and lifts foot). He understands that if I open the front door he's not allowed to go out, he puts his arms up to be picked up (we live in a flat so I carry him down the stairs). He understands if I have a plate of his that he is going to be eating and needs to go in his highchair, so goes to it.

He doesn't yet point, showing no signs of doing so anytime soon. He has recently started showing signs of waving/clapping ie sometimes, not often, you wave to him he'll raise a hand but not really do anything else. Sometimes when he's excited his hands go together but not in a rhythmic clapping way just random hits.

I wasn't at all worried until I just read on here that a baby the same age says lots of words and says poo poo when they need to poo. He's not even talking yet, let alone verging on potty training and understanding when he needs to go to the toilet. So now I am worried.

We didn't go to playgroups until the last couple of months so I'm wondering if this has slowed his development down as I wasn't singing nursery rhymes and actions with him, we just played. Then around 1 year I started with wind the bobbin and if you're happy and you know it etc. and then started going to groups (only 2 a week).

Should I be worried?

Please come back and let us know what the gp says. I'm wondering whether I should do the same and not engage with the Hv as I have been.

I think your son sounds normal and you're worrying too early. How does he compare to the babies at toddler group? How many of them have more than 2-3 clear words? Is he good with gross motor skills, maybe he's working on moving instead?

Good to get checked early. The lack of copying actions & lack of pointing would niggle me (he has until 18 months to be considered 'normal' for pointing at objects of interest though). If you get fobbed off I would see your HV & say 'if he isn't pointing by 18 months I will expect a referral' - it can be hard to be referred earlier than that - and in many ways that's fair enough - children do follow different trajectories - but if you're asked to watch & wait it's nice to have a deadline itkwim.

If you can find a copy, Babytalk by the late Sally Ward is a great book full of ideas of things to do to help communication. Also recommend the Makaton Dave benson Philipps nursery rhyme DVD (all my kids loved that)

www.makaton.org/shop/shopping/stockDetails/Nursery-Rhymes-DVD My (NT) ds3 was fab at signing - mainly from having this on!

My local Childrens Centre does a regular speech and language drop in - perhaps yours may have the same?

Also, there are various commercial classes aimed at speech/language e.g. in my area there's a company called Talking Tots who do classes for different age groups around speech and language.

Well I can't say how 'normal' this is but sounds very similar to my 14.5mo DS until a couple of weeks ago. No words (just babbling), no pointing or clapping and waving was very sporadic.

Very suddenly he started pointing and now points at everything and communicates with me with noises (not words yet) - eg pointing and noises to get me to give him an object out of reach. Clapping emerged in the last week and he now takes great delight in clapping when I ask him to.

He is very social and loves being around other children, always great eye contact etc, but he has a good attention span and can content himself engrossed in a book or toy for 10-15mins at a time when the mood strikes (but also enjoys interactive games with me).

I am hoping my DS has just been on the slow side of normal development and you may find you get a sudden spurt too.

Also for what it is worth I know 8 babies in our NCT group aged 14-16 months and only two are using words.

It sounds like your DS has good understanding and interaction - things like giving you a kiss when you ask for a kiss. i think that all counts as a form of communication, even if he hasn't quite cottoned onto pointing yet.

I think your DS sounds well within the expected boundaries for his age group. DD is 14 months and doesn't walk, she says a couple of words, "cat" "bear" "car" but DS absolutely was not. He didn't walk until 16 months and didn't talk AT ALL until 3. You'll drive yourself crazy on these threads, believe me I've been there, it's completely subjective. I would be completely surprised if your GP did anything at this stage given what you've said.

I don't think I'd worry just yet. I have a 15 month old and she doesn't have any recognisable words yet, although she does point and clap. A lot of my AN group babies seem to be similar. She's not walking yet either although she is close. There is a huge range of normal.

I think the opposite is true zzzz and the OP is being worried unnecessarily. How can he be a late talker at 14m?

Well that's not my experience or that of the other posters on this thread who you dismissed.
You've suggested that only a "few" "late talkers" without words at 14m have no problems and I think that is alarmist. If you were talking about over 2 or even 18m maybe but no words at 14m??

I thought "the norm" was first word between 11-14 months?

I just want to comment on words in context. Once when I was bfing DS he came off and said, iirc, "Mummy, Daddy, DD, door, house, tree, car" in one long stream! I burst out laughing, i have no idea what he meant! I don't think context always matters!

I'm not angry with you zzzz. Just disagree with your earlier posts where you implied that no words at 14months was more likely than not to mean a problem and that the reassuring posts in this thread are unrepresentative of real life.

The lack of speech alone wouldn't concern me but the lack of imitation would (absence of clapping/waving/pointing). We had to teach our DC things like holding a cup hand over hand as he would simply sit and stare at it otherwise. I didn't consider it of significance at the time but the paediatric and SALT. Also his lack of mouthing (never put any toy/stone/dirt in his mouth ever)

Within age appropriate development covers a huge range - indeed my DC with a dx just about scraped the lower end on paper. In the flesh he had quite obvious difficulties!

There is greater focus on communication development and I think in my area a DC who is under SALT may be entitled to a funded nursery place at 2 rather than 3.

I could have written your post op, I have been worrying about 15 month old DS. He sounds exactly like yours.

I actually asked his nursery key worker yesterday as she is a SALT specialist and she says he is where he needs to be and she had no worries. In fact she said that he does say some words, ink for eg when he wants a drink, and ook when he wants her to read him a book. I think I'd been missing them at home so I've been listening more intently and she's right.
We were reading a book this morning and he pointed to a picture of a cow and said moo, then a sheep and said baa. I was because I hadn't realised he had been doing it before.

She also said that boys are a bit slower than girls at talking as they can be lazy. But from what you have said your DS certainly understands a lot, so based on what I heard yesterday I would not worry

Thank you everyone for your replies.
I've been to the doctors today and I'm even more confused.
He said that he didn't see any obvious delays/issues as he was smiling and making eye contact with him. He said because he is walking already he's put effort into that and not communication, and he should catch up. I asked at what age should I worry if there's still no pointing/clapping/waving or talking. He said around 18months. He then said he'd check milestones for me and googled them and it said 7-12 months should be able to wave/point/clap and say a couple of words. He still said he wasn't concerned but I could call my HV and see what they say and if they would like to refer to a paediatrician then he would or they may want to observe him.
So I'm confused. He was saying everything was fine but he's obviously behind when compared to the milestones he googled.

You should be able to self-refer to Speech and language therapy which is what I would do in your position. A paediatric referral in the first instance would normally be to the community paediatrician and their expertise in social communication can be quite...variable ime.

Get on the SALT waiting list now as your DC will probably be over the hallowed 18 months by the time you're seen. You can always cancel if he has a development spurt and you no longer have concerns.

If you have a good HV then do give them a call. Did he have the 9-12 month? Check up?