Speech regression in 16 month old

[kiwiem]

Hi,

Just a quick question about our DS - he is nearly 16 months now and was initially very early with some words (apple, bottle, bath, shoes to name a few!) However, lately he seems to have regressed and to be only able to say 'ba' and 'ka' type one syllable sounds. I wouldn't be worried if I thought he was just going to be slow talking, but it's the regression that concerns me a bit.

BTW - he does get chatted to in German by DP, and does not show any other signs of any problems. He's otherwise a happy, healthy little boy who definitely understands loads of things (can point to lots of body parts, follow simple instructions etc).

Anybody have any clues about this? Have looked at a couple of websites but all they've done is make me worry!

Thanks.

[kiwiem]

That's made me feel a bit better - he points and makes lots of eye contact. In general he's hugely affectionate and is walking well (just learned to go backwards) so maybe it's just a combination of things. Am hoping it's just a lull like you say Berolina, but think I'll take him to the GP here in the UK just in case.

[Chugnuts]

Sometimes children seem to put one set of skills 'on hold' while they concentrate on other skills. Dd (14mths) was early to talk but lately she seems to have gone back to general babbling and jargoning. She's now busy concentrating on the more physical things like standing alone and attempting to walk. Like your ds she understands instructions, points to some body parts etc. Her 2 brothers are autistic but dd is very different to them.

It's worth speaking to your GP if you are at all worried about your ds, even if only to put your mind at rest.

[berolina]

Pointing is good. Does he spontaneously point to things that interest him? How's joint attention, eye contact?

ds (bilingual English/German too) had a 'lull' in his language development where several words he'd said once or twice didn't turn up again for ages. Then things took off again. He's 2 now and speaks in sentences of varying length (sometimes 2 or 3 words, occasionally fully grammatically correct ) in both languages. Do have it checked out, just in case (are you in UK or Germany?), but my (very, very inexpert) feeling is he's likely to be fine.

[Peachy]

General advice iirc for GP's is to refer whenever ther has been a regression HOWEVER the vast majority are inconsequential. Its just the best way to pick up those whose futures somewhatr rely on early detection, iyswim.

[kiwiem]

Yes, I guess so, although because he seems happy otherwise I'm hoping it's just something he's going to grow through. I'm assuming a GP will refer to a paed if there is even a slight possibility of something like this? DP and I were going to give it another month to see what happens, but maybe we should see the GP now to be on the safe side.

[Peachy]

Children ro bilingual abckgrounds ahve different speech development patterns HOWEVER the genbral advice is any regression should be discussed with a HV and probably a paed just to be certain. It's probably nothing much but itb was something like ASD (coz thats the worry right?) then the earlier ts oicked up the better, from someone who left it late

[kiwiem]

Thanks TenaLady. Yes, he's at nursery three days a week since I went back to work in February, so he should be getting lots of stimulus there. Having said that, there is a big ethnic mix so maybe that makes a difference.

[TenaLady]

Is he socialising regularly with kids of own age and older?

I specifically took on the after school care of much older children who brought my ds' speech on no end. He was about your ds' age at the time.

[TenaLady]

I wouldnt be worried personally at this early stage. If its any consolation my ds' speech regressed when he went to nursery, he was able to put things in the right tense but somehow lost the ability to do this.

I put it down to the fact he was playing with children who didnt have the ability to work out the tense and so he simply fell in line with them.