My DS (23 months) does not have delayed speech.....does he?

[blissieblue]

Grrrrr... DH told me last night that his mum thinks our DS (23 months) has delayed speech. She is a nursery teacher and so should know better but I think she just has very high expectations of her grandchildren (she is quite competitive).
He knows lots of words but doesn't yet put them together to make "sentences". Quite a few of his words are only understandable to me and DH. Some of them he has made up himself ("doot doot" for aeroplanes and trains). He doesn't seem to be learning new words at a fantastic rate - certainly not every day or even every week. However, he can identify lots of colours correctly, and parts of the body and seems to understand pretty much everything we say to him and can follow instructions, carry out requests etc (when in a co-operative mood!)
I know other kids his age who are much chattier and more intelligible but he is still normal is he not?
Please be honest!
(Oh and we had his hearing checked when he was about 18 months and it is perfect.)

He's fine! (Have lots of experience of speech disorders/language disorder). At this age I would only have been concerned if my children couldn't understand simple instructions and never pointed.

I was always told "one for walking, two for talking" which implies that they should only just be starting to talk at 2.

You get the same old stories about the girl who didn't say anything till she was 4 and her first words were "please get me a biscuit down from the packet in that cupboard" or the 5 yr old boy who, when asked why he doesn't talk replied "because I don't need to"

That all said, I'm no expert. All I do know is that soon enough you'll be wishing they were quiet!

My DS is exactly the same age and he has only minimal words. We understand him and he understands us. Bloody MIL's. Please don't worry. All normal here I think

At that age DD had, well, a few handfuls of words, and I think was yet to put them together (first 'sentence' was 'no, daddy!') She's now just short of three and hardly ever shuts up (she told me the entire plot of an episode of Dora the Explorer on the phone the other day, it was most edifying).

The acquisition of words is interesting ... I read a lot of stuff about children's words suddenly 'exploding', but then read a bit about two different models of language acquisition. The one which is more common in boys tends NOT to have that explosion, more a slow but steady acquisition, not the 'fantastic rate' thing.

Sounds like my dd1. Her only 'sentence' so far has been big slide (said with blissful look!) after we took her to soft play. She is 2 this month and I still meet the people from my post natal group and of the 7 kids 1 speaks very well, 1 speaks pretty well and the rest are all pretty much where dd1 is. Our neighbour is a speech therapist with special needs children and she says that dd1 is doing just fine and that understanding is more important at this age anyway.

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage. Especially if he understands you and you understand him

GS didn't really say much very clearly until we moved here 18 months ago (he was wel over 2 1/2) He's just 4 now - and literally never shuts up, and his speech is perfectly clear if not a little odd.
I say odd because he uses yorkshire words and terms - but often with a cornish accent ...wierd. SOOOO cute though when he goes for the full Cornish and asks me "What time is is my lovely" or tells me he'll do something "dreckly" or he feels a bit "teasy" - all complete with cornish accent!!!

This is going to sound very PFB, but I still have the list of words I made that DS was using at 22 months

yes no OK please fish light look again teddy Daddy Mummy peas cheese juice teeth upstairs high chair Spot hallo car cat dog owl elephant gone empty up out shoe clown

Some of them were really our interpretation - when my mum looked after DS while I was having DD (he was 2 & 6 weeks) I had to write a translation list

17 years later he's extremely eloquent, though he's never been chatty.

I really wouldn't worry.

i wouldnt worry, my friends ds was 3 and a half before he spoke properly, his first sentence (yes sentence not word) was mummy can i have chocolate? now that is not a child that cannot speak, jsut one that didnt need to.

i however have a very eloquent 2.4yo and she never shuts up! fancy a swap?!?!

thank you all . I really believe that he's fine but was a bit upset at MIL's judgement and needed a bit of reassurance.
RustyBear - I think it's lovely you still have that list - I might do one myself!

lol stacey will do you a temporary swap if you can sort out his current sleep/ tantrum issues for me!

ah, no mines got that too!!! think its the age!

He's not even 2 and he is fine. Making up words is actually quite inventive and clever.

MIL just can't cope with the fact that your ds isn't as good at talking as the best 23 month old she has ever come across in her experience of hundreds (thousands?) of children.

EXACTLY twentypence! And that is what annoys me most - he is her grandson FFS she should think he is amazing... whatever!