Re: Language skills, what can your 16-20 month old do?

[BonesyBones]

I have a 19month old son, and I am concerned about his language/social development (plenty of reason to be concerned with autism running strongly in all of male family, including his dad and brother).

Could you please tell me how old you child is and whether they:

Know their own name?
Can say their own name?
Can understand/respond to simple requests (pass the teddy, come over here etc.)?
Ask for something (drink please, Want biscuit)?
Point to things, knowing what they are?
Tell you how they feel (hungry, tired, cold, hurt etc.)?
Call you and other known people by name (even if it's not clear to others what they mean)?

Also:
How many words do they say clearly (recognisable to others)?
How many words do they say in total (roughly)
Do they string words?
Do they copy facial expressions?
Do they know any shapes/colours/animals/other groups of things?
Pretend play (feed a dolly, talk on phone etc.)?

I just want to know roughly where my son falls in with others of a similar age.

I just did the m-chat quiz pp mentioned and it came back as risk of autism guess i'll mention that at the 2 year check.

OP - at 15 months my ds had over 80 clear words. By 18 months he spoke in three word sentences and understood everything said to him. He could count to 20, knew his colours and shapes. By 2, he could 'read' (recite back) any book read to him a few times before.

And - he is autistic. At 24 months, he wasn't using language to express his emotional needs or wants, more physical wants or just to talk about topics he was interested in. He didn't talk to other children, only adults. He didn't point.

Language can vary massively at this age and lack of language does not necessarily point to autism.

captain, it only is a screening tool. not a means to diagnose but mention it. how old is your DC? it is only designed from 16 (or 18 months, not sure) onward. if you child is younger I would redo it once your DC is old enough.

Thanks coffee he's very nearly 21m. I will just mention it at the 2 year check if he's still looking a bit behind then. At the moment I am pretty sure he's just focusing on his physical development first.

DD is 16 month.

Know their own name? Yes
Can say their own name? No
Can understand/respond to simple requests (pass the teddy, come over here etc.)? Yes
Ask for something (drink please, Want biscuit)? Sort of, she will point and say that. The only thing she can ask for if she can't see it is a banana.
Point to things, knowing what they are? Some things. E.g will point to body parts/familiar objects when asked
Tell you how they feel (hungry, tired, cold, hurt etc.)? I wish!
Call you and other known people by name (even if it's not clear to others what they mean)? Just mumma and dada

Also:
How many words do they say clearly (recognisable to others)? Banana, that, look, mumma, dada, cheers, cheese, duck, uh-oh, beep (when pressing her nose) and a fair few animal noises (duck, fish, lion, cow, monkey) so say 10 plus the sounds things make
How many words do they say in total (roughly) Around 20
Do they string words? No
Do they copy facial expressions? Not unless you count tongue-sticking out
Do they know any shapes/colours/animals/other groups of things? Lots of animals, no colours if shapes, she knows different fruit (banana, apple, orange)
Pretend play (feed a dolly, talk on phone etc.)? Yep.

Thanks again to all who have answered, it's really helpful, I knew about mchat and other things posted, and was more trying to work out if the milestones apply to most children or whether it was just an average.

I'm not even remotely worried about his physical development, and much less so about his actual talking after reading these responses.

I am however concerned that most of you who have answered say your children know their name, point to things, and pretend play which are things my son does not do, and is showing no signs of doing.

Think I need another chat with the health visitor.

Thanks again everyone.

I have a 20mo DD. Yes to all but saying her own name in the first category, although telling me she is tired and hungry is still done with a sign rather than a word. She will request specific foods when hungry though.
She can say at least 10 words that are very recognisable to others, plus a lot more we recognise (maybe 50?), and can join two of her words together eg bye bye Daisy. She copies expressions, knows a few animal noises and can name maybe 10 animals, knows all dogs are dogs (which I find amazing given how different some breeds are, I've not taught her that), shapes and colours are a bit hit and miss. She can count fairly clearly to five (can't recognise the numbers on a page, just the sequence) and clearish to 10, and is beginning to recite the alphabet enough you know it's what she's trying for. She loves singing so can sing enough of the sounds and tune that again you'll recognise it for a handful of nursery rhymes. She is very into pretend play, and will walk around the house with my mobile pinned to her ear 'chatting' with a very loud "Hello? Yeah, yeah, yeah, bye bye!"

She seems slightly above average in comparison with her friends for language, but is most certainly not the most advanced I know at her age by a long stretch. They all have different skills depending on their interests, so it's very difficult to compare ability. DD is hopeless at shape sorting and puzzles for instance, but the two least lingual 20mo I know are absolute wizards at them. They have clearly just expended their energies into different things.