Do you consider animal sounds to be "vocabulary"?

[0phelia]

Hello DS should be talking more, he's 18mo. He points a lot and communicates well, but doesn't say many actual words except...
He can say loads of animal sounds when he points to animals in books and in real life.

He says Quack, Oink, Woof woof, meeow, ssssss, baa baa, mooo, fsh (for fish) and loads more. BUT he doesn't say "Duck, Pig, Dog," etc.

Can I say his vocabulary is developing??

yep. Any sound used consistently in association with the same thing counts. 'Quack' is a word. So is 'bobble' to mean 'dog' or 'nee-naw' for 'milk'.

Definitely count. I'm sure you do, but try expanding his vocab - when he says 'quack' say 'That's right ducks say quack' etc

Yes my HV counts those as words

Great, thanks!

Yeah DD did all the animal sounds before she started talking - wasn't long before she had some words after that.

I don't think he 'should' have more words at 18 months actually sounds like he's doing really well. In my post natal group the toddlers are now all coming up to 2 and they all have varying speech and abilities but are all developing perfectly well.

My boy is two in a few months and he has an awesome array of animal sounds

Just no words unless you include dadda (which I'm not because blatantly he doesn't mean his actual dad who is only home two days a week and just gets the fun jobs because his first word will be mama, you know the one who hasn't had longer than two hours unbroken sleep since she was sliced in half to have him)

I'm not bitter

Yes they absolutely count. Repeating and expanding as mentioned by pp is a good tip.

My DS also started with animal sounds before 'words'

Dd does the most amazing RAAA when she sees a lion in a book! Daddy is clear as a bell. I have been renamed as digger :/ not a mumma in sight

This is funny because DS is not saying "Mama" at all either! But first thing in the morning I can hear him shouting "Daa Dee, Daddyyy" from his cot. It's not usually Daddy who goes in to get him, it's me!

Seems like animal sounds and "Daddy" are quite normal by this age