22Mth Speech - Do I need to worry

[Paula2006]

Hi My 22mth old hardly says anything not even mum and dad all that often - his favourite word is 'Whose that' - he makes all the baby talk but no actual words and my mum and everyone keeps saying he should be talking by now and saying things like Ta/ Mum /Dad/ Nan/ Hi ya/ Drink - should I be worried as I am fed up with everyone saying is he talking yet. In other areas he is very bright and understands everything you tell him to do etc - Also when I get Bounty mailings they say he should have a vocabularly of about 200 words? I have also noticed he keeps biting his hand and leaving marks which I put down to frustration - Please help do I need to worry as I called my HV and she said to worry about 2.5yrs

my ds 22months has only started to say words in the last week or 2, he only says about 20 words not 200, i don't think it's anything it worry about my neice didn't say any words at 2 then by 2.5 she was speaking fine.

A paed told me that the "200 words" at that age is mostly words you can't recognise so when you say he makes baby talk, this is it. Also asking "whose that?" is inquisitive and a really good thing. Like your HV, I wouldn't worry until he is 2.5 years.

your hv sounds like she is right. my dd is also 22 months old and can say maybe 40 - 50 words. other kids her age that i know are well ahead of her. not worrying yet.

It'd be delighted if my 22mth old said 40 words - 10 would be great even! We have mama, dada, baba (to refer to himself) and brover (for his big brother) and any other object or person gets called baba!

I am worried actually and do feel there is something wrong, but apparently speech and language therapists won't start working with a child till 2.5 or 3 yrs so there really is no point being referred for an assessment until then. You'd have the hope they'd have improved enough by that age to not need referring anyway.

We just keep repeating words clearly - one tip though, we don't have the radio on in the kitchen anymore, after a HV mentioned that background noise can make some children switch off from hearing langauage

My friend's 23 mth old has no words at all but I don't feel it's my place to worry as she doesn't seem to be...Is this very unusual? His understanding of what's said to him seems quite limited too. (Sorry to hijack, btw - I've been fretting quietly about this for a while and just wanted to post when I saw the thread title)

My sister has 3 kids and 2 of them were diagnosed with dyspraxia as neither of them were saying anything by almost 3 years old. The big thing with them was they weren't babbling or doing any baby talk at all which is often a signifier and your little chap is so that is great

They are now 9 and 7 and the smartest, brightest little girls you have ever seen who never shut up are extremely loquacious and doing great at school. The dyspraxia was downgraded from severe to mild and in the end it was almost like they just did it later than most. Have certainly made up for lost time now.

Maybe something you can get checked is his hearing if you haven't done so aleady. A close friend was worried about her 15 month old (this is in Australia) and it's turned out to be 'glue ear' which has been hindering his speech. Very easy to fix

Thanks for the reassurance - feel better for that any idea with the hand biting thing as he does it when he is angry, excited and for no reason at all but he actually leaves bite marks on his hand - my friend said not to worry as her son use to bang his head on the floor or wall and he is fine?

That he understands you is very good. Does he point? 'Who's that?' is practically a sentence. Am faaaaar from being an expert but do think if he is pointing and understanding I wouldn't worry yet. He may well have his own words which have the same functions as 'our' words but are not immediately recognisable as such - our ds (21 months) says 'ap' for yes (no idea where he got it from).

Don't think so RR - I always say 'yes' as far as I'm aware, and dh says 'ja' (he's German). It might be some sort of yes/ja compromise, but it's with a short a as in apple, not arp.
You're right that language development does seem to happen in short bursts. ds had a big one at about 15/16 months, and now he's starting another.

Think Berolina's right about pointing being a key sign of understanding language - Jimjams always cites this when people post about autism. I don't really understand the full implications, but think it's because pointing means they are showing that they want to draw your attention to something or understand what it is you are talking about - the dog, that person, the ball.

My DS is 24m and has only very recently shown any interest in speech. He basically had no interest in people and was very self-sufficient so I guess he didn't feel it was necessary. He didn't have a sense of humour until about 18m.
However I KNOW he understands everything and that he is trying now so although he is basically a year behind, he just needs to practise articulating. Most of the time he points and says 'mmm mmm mmm' but he now says 'dada' and 'mama' and manages 'cockalaw' for cockadoodledoo LOL. He has a handful of signs too.

I'm sure 50 words is 'normal' at 24m, I remember I wrote a dictionary for my dd at that age as her pronunciation was rubbish (spot on by 3 though.)

Oh yes, my friend's 22m old bites his hand, she was taking him to the homeopath this week as the skin on it is bad. She was thinking maybe it was eczema and he was biting it because it itched. But it may just be sore because of the biting and sucking (no doubt homeopath will sell her something expensive anyway LOL).

I was concerned about my DS when he was younger, as he was quite slow to start. It all seems to come all at once and suddenly they seem to be copying and understanding every word you utter (even those under your breath!). I wouldn't worry just yet. Do you have a two year check with HV?

My 20mo bites his hand - or mine! I think sometimes it's frustration, and sometimes just trying it to see what happens! Like headbanging

my 24 month old is the same. As long as he's connecting with you eye to eye and communicating in other ways, lke pointing, then you probably don't have anything to worry about.

hi, i think the handbiting is just a way of him releasing his emotions ( u sayhe does it when he is happy excited etc) as for his speech i do feel he should be saying a few words by now, i doubt there is anything to worry about its just as im sure u are aware every child is different and will accomplish things at different speeds, the best advice i can give u is ... for instance if he is colouring and he is using felt pens or pens that contain lids i would make sure the top is on very tight so he cant possibly take it off himself this leaves him in the situation that if he wants tpo carry on hes gonna need help, so when he comes over to u waving the pen in ur face and babbling/crying u can pretend u dont know what he wants for a few seconds then u can say "oh u want mummy to HELP" then u can carry on saying the word to him as u are removing the lid, u can use that method in other situations aswell, eg if hes pointing at a fave toy or food drink etc. hope that makes sense.