16 month old and speech

[Dottydoodoo]

Hi all! I'm looking for some experiences as to what is "normal" regarding speech.

I have a 16 month old DS who has not started talking yet. He does a lot of babbling ba ba ba and ra ra ra and lots of aahhh and hmmmm noises, but does not attempt to say any words apart from banana which comes out as either bararara or rararara! When he first started babbling as a baby he said dada and a couple of months later mama, but he doesn't say those at all now. He knows who we are though. You can have a babbly conversation with him and he has good understanding, eg will clap, point to his head, roar when he sees the lion in dear zoo, bring you something, point to the cat when asked.

I'm not hugely worried as he's only 16 months, but I suppose I must be a bit to post on here! Will he just suddenly start jabbering away? I'm always pointing at things and saying what they are and chatting to him and we read at least once a day. Is there anything else I can do to encourage him to talk? I probably just need to chill out!

Hi,

My son has just turned 18 months and only has a few words - yes, no, digger, keys and car. I can tell that he's trying so hard to say more but just not there at the moment! I took him to see the health visitor a few weeks ago as I was worried. She said they don't worry until the are two as long as understanding is good. They gave me a number to call to get a hearing test to rule out any issues, a website to look at and put me on a waiting list for some classes. They said that he probably won't need any of the additional help, and by the time he has his next review at two he will be talking!

Oh, I was also told that animal sounds count as words, so his first word was 'roar'. The same as my sons!

Thank you, that is reassuring to hear. How cute that your little one says 'roar' too! Sometimes if I say to DS 'shall we do such and such' he will respond with a noise that sounds as if he is trying to say yeah, and occasionally if we say bye bye to somebody he will wave and say ba ba. It's so hard to know whether it's babble or he is trying to say the word.

I might go and see the health visitor for peace of mind, it can't do any harm can it!

Mine is 15 months and has quite a few words however, there are a few in my NCT class that have none or just a couple, and one of them has a mum who is a speech therapist and she's not worried. My goddaughter didn't say much at this age either but is saying quite a few words a few months later. Definitely sounds well within the normal range to me

DS will be 19 months next week and has well over 30 words (including animal noises e.g. Roar, woof etc!) but at 16 months I'd say he only had 10-15, and I know at 15 months when he had his check he didn't have more than 6, as the HV said at his check that 1-6 is "normal". I'd say since turning 17 months he's had an "explosion" and seems to come out with a new word every day, so it can happen every suddenly.

Also he's still not walking properly and only took his first steps at 17 months so they do concentrate on different skills. I think it's common for more physical babies to be less verbal, and vice verca.