Worried about 17 month old’s development

[emrg]

My little boy is 17 months old on July 2nd. I’ve been a little worried about his development for a while but since lockdown I’ve not been able to get any help.

He can’t clap or wave. We encourage him a lot to do this but he just won’t - when I clap he grabs hold of my hands and ‘claps’ with me but he won’t do it himself (been trying since he was about 9/10 months) same with waving - we wave constantly to try and encourage him and show him what to do but with no luck.

He says mama and dada and has said nanny once - google (shouldn’t have looked) said by 18 months they should be saying 20 (?!) words.
He won’t use a spoon or any cutlery. He has a few times but he would rather be spoon fed by me (things like yoghurts etc) I just feel like a failure. I’ve been trying really hard to encourage him to do all of these things above but had no luck whatsoever. I feel like I’m failing him or could be doing more. He’s a very happy little boy (most of the time) he loves playing with his toys (only really likes playing by himself) loves being outdoors etc (he began walking in March) and I’ve not really any other reasons to think something’s wrong with him other than sometimes he just seems in his own world and he rarely answers to his name (he does occasionally) and the clapping/waving/speech thing. Am I just being a worrier? Or can anyone suggest any activities/toys that may help me with his development a little? It’s getting me down massively.

I sympathise with this. I have concerns with my 15 month old too.

What do you mean by his own little world? Does he enjoy games like peek a boo/I see?

Could be worth having his ears checked. My son doesn’t always respond to his name either. Dr found a moderately blocked ear and has referred him to ENT.

It could just be he is taking his time with some of these things, or maybe doesn’t want to do them? My DS is 17 months and rarely claps or waves. In fact, he’s only just started waving in the last two weeks. He claps every now and again but doesn’t do it often at all.

Speech wise he seems ok but we have been doing lots of sign and sign classes during lockdown so I don’t know if that’s helped. He never says mum and dad but will happily say bread and milk. My DS never answers to his name. I just don’t think he wants to and is happy doing his own thing without being told what to do.

Please do not think you are a failure. I feel like this too but I try and remind myself that these little people absorb so much and do things in their own time.

If you are even slightly worried I think it is worth getting hold of your health visitor or GP to talk through your concerns.

Has he started to point to request things? and more importantly, point to share interests? (like a plane in the sky) - that is big development stage that tends to occur between 12-18M which has a very positive impact in many areas of development like for example speech (ps. only 8 words are expected at 18M, excluding mama or dada, but can include animal sounds or frequently used sounds/approximations that are used consistently for the same thing).

He just seems to prefer playing himself, he walks straight past me sometimes when I’m trying to cuddle him etc, feel like I’m irritating him sometimes
He does play with his ears a lot so maybe I’ll get his ears checked out.

He does point but very occasionally - I sometimes feel like he’s just a bit lazy (feel awful saying it) and that he just doesn’t want to learn things. He goes to clap then just decides not to, things like that.
He hasn’t started sharing interests yet but I’m hoping by 18m he may do that - he’s pretty well developed every other way I just know how big a milestone clapping/waving is so it got me a little worried - thank you for your replies

Hi emrg,
Just reading through your posts and this is exactly like my son. I see this was last summer, how is your little one getting on now, if you don’t mind me asking

Does anyone feel maybe all the lockdowns has anything to do with the developments of the kids?.. my daughter is 17months and I have a few worries about her too but she has been in lockdown alot of her life.. if that make sense.. how do you all feel on this?