Speech worries 18 mpnth old

[Louise2424]

Hi everyone, I was hoping for a bit of advice and to hear other people's experiences in this area. My 18 month old has rarely said anything other than 'da', 'di', or made grunting noises such as 'uh' and 'ah' for around the last 6-9 months. At around 12 months old he did start to try to say other letters such as 'b' for ball and 'pff' for pompom however shortly afterwards within a month or so he seemed to 'lose' all of that and revert only to da/di for everything. He was never much of a baby babbler, he made a lot of vocal noise but looking back I don't remember him using many consonants when babbling. I have spoken to health visitors, gp's, anyone who will listen, all of which have brushed it off as "he is still only little, I wouldn't worry" so I took it upon myself to arrange a speech and language therapy assessment privately which he had yesterday. The therapist did not listen to how he spoke nor try to get him to, but instead analysed his understanding of her questions through play, for example, can you give teddy a drink? He did not need to speak but to simply show he understood by carrying out the action. The therapist has given me 'tips' of how to encourage him to speak, such as ways of giving him more opportunities for communication and giving him choices when asking questions etc as her assessment of him was that his understanding was on target for his age therefore he is simply a delayed talker. She said that there are no red flags for apraxia, autism etc. Whilst this is obviously a relief, my gut feeling is still that he CAN'T pronounce any other consonant (not won't) as he is extremely interested in words, constantly pointing to things and "asking" me to say the word, numerous times a day. He has been doing this daily for around 9 months. He also sometimes seems to analyse my mouth and seems to really try to copy but it just won't come out. As each month goes by I have kept thinking I'm sure it'll be soon now that he will start to pronounce other letters, but 9 months has gone by now and if anything he has only regressed. I wondered if anyone else has experienced the same with their little one and if they had any advice or insight into what might be going on? I just can't imagine after all this time he will wake up one day and start to say other sounds.

I was just about to make a post about my DSs delayed speech, he is 2.8yo now. He was very similar to your DS at 18months, at his 2year hv check up they really weren't very concerned, they did suggest trying to get a place on a talk time course at our local children's centre. We didn't get a place and I wasn't too worried as DS had just started a few sessions at nursery.

I think nursery has helped a bit, does your DS go to nursery or interact a lot with other children?

My DS has really good understanding, even if quite complex requests and is way ahead with physical milestones so the nursery staff say not to worry too much about his speech.

It sounds daft but I have heard that it can be hereditary, DH and I are both very quiet, I have memories of being a child and just not really wanting to talk!

Please try not to worry. The advice you received from SALT sounds spot on. 18 months is still very young and a lot of children don’t start talking until 2.5 years.

What you are looking for at this age is non-verbal communication (understanding instructions, gesturing to communicate). The Language Pyramid lays out how speech and language develops. Each tier needs to be in place before the next can develop and speech is right at the top.

Obviously keep an eye on things, but it sounds like everything is on track.