When did your LO start talking?

[TheIckabog]

Just that really. My DD is coming up for one in a couple of weeks and babbles but nothing concrete yet. She does say ‘dada’ and ‘mama’ but it’s directed at everyone/thing, not specifically linked to us.

I’m just wondering when I can expect her to start saying anything specific? I know every child is different but what’s the general age range for first words?

Do you ever look at milestone timelines online? They need taking with a pinch of salt as regards timings, but I found they were helpful because they sort of give you an order that things will happen e.g. if they are doing something at a particular level on gross motor, you can guess what will come next. But I found my DD was very “lumpy” in her progress - she’d obsess over gross motor for a bit and do “3 months worth” of progress in 1 month but not make much fine motor progress, then the next month she’d switch onto different skills.

Those sorts of guides say that a one year old “may” say mamma, dadda and maybe a couple of other words.

(Personally, my DD did much more talking at age of 1 as that was the “obsession” of the time, but was “behind” on gross and fine motor according to those scales. Not the case any more)

My daughter turned one just before lockdown started and was the same as your little one. She’s now 16 months and has about 10-15 words as a rough estimate. I can’t remember exactly at what point she started saying anything other than mama/dada but probably a couple of months ago.

We have an early talker, but I do agree with the PP who said about watching out for milestone sequences rather than specific ages. The ages seem quite random sometimes.

You might also find it helpful to Google pre-language skills, which usually mean talking is not far off and are reassuring to spot.

About 20 words at 18 months in both cases.