Dd (20months) hardly talks

[jofeb04]

My dd is 20months, and doesn't say alot. TBH, the only thing she does say is mama, gaga, and aaaggggg when she points at something that she wants.

She does have a dummy, and I think this may be slowing her speech down.

My ds was the same though, and didn't really talk until he went to playgroup.
How can I get dd talking?

if you are anywhere remotely near a Surestart centre/children's centre, see if they do a Hanen course or other similar course to aid toddler's communication. It sounds hopeful that it's just a late talking thing if your DS was the same and is now fine, (pointing and whether your DD understands you are also things to take into account) but I would still discuss this with HV at this stage, as if your dd does end up needing to see a speech therapist, the waiting lists can be long, so she might as well go on them asap, then you can always take her off the list if things improve dramatically in the meantime.

some websites you might find useful:-
www.ican.org.uk (you can order a copy of a free DVD by Tanya Bryon called chatter matters - just have to pay 49p postage) which gives ideas about communication.

My DS2 was like this, then at Easter he just started saying more and more!! He just turned 2 last month btw.

Just last week somebody came out from Surestart for speech development (not something I has requested) but agree it could be useful ifyou could find out what they have on offer.

Also, does your DS talk for her??

My DS seems to talk for her, think she's lazy trying to talk. She points at her drink,and we know she wants another one etc. So I'll ask her what she wants, and ds says "mammy, dd wants another drink"!!

Will try surestart tomorrow

my dd is 19 months, and can say, mamma, daddy and baby. thats about it. she is very vocal, just hasnt put many words together yet. i would be to worried about it and the thought of seeing someone about it hasnt crossed my mind. im sure she will be saying more soon. she understands simple requests, and has learnt some signs,( thanks to mr tumble!!) we always say the word she is signing and has recently progressed to saying 'dee' while doing the dog sign. ahh they are so cute!!

I just wanted to share my own experience

My niece was exactly the same until the age of 30 months she would only say the odd word mum, dad etc but developed her own version of sign language to compensate, this was cute and sometimes very funny but also very worrying. Then one day out of the blue she decided to talk not odd words but full sentences now her speech is very advanced if you could only hear her you would think she was 4 or 5 (she turned 3 in April).

I think there were many reasons for this, she does have a dummy, she also has a 6 year old sister who can talk for England, we gave in to her sign language and didn't get her to say what she wanted. Also I read that some children do not speak until they can form sentences so skiping the one word phase.

She is also strong willed and very independent, she has been exactly the same with potty training not doing it until she was ready and wanted to.

I have the Chatter Matters DVD and would recommend it as well and just keep talking to your daughter even though she is not talking back at the moment - which I'm sure you do any way. Good luck with it hopefully you will soon be posting because she will not stop