18 month old speech

[hannjocelyn]

How much does your little ones say?

I have 18 month old and I'm forever worrying he isn't talking like he should be, or if I'm expecting too much from him for his age.
He says the odd few words but nothing clear yet

Could I be just expecting too much?

@hannjocelyn

How much does your little ones say?

I have 18 month old and I'm forever worrying he isn't talking like he should be, or if I'm expecting too much from him for his age.
He says the odd few words but nothing clear yet

Could I be just expecting too much?

Is your child pointing to show he's interested in things?

At 18 months my son hardly said anything recognisable, he had his own made up words for things though. The health visitor was concerned and arranged for him to be checked again at 24 months, by then he was speaking in sentences.
I don't think you need to worry at the moment, give him another 12 months and see how he's doing then.

@BAST1 yeah he points to a lot of things and is able to show me what he wants and knows what he wants to do

If he points and is on track socially I wouldn't be worried. Mine wasn't saying loads at 18MO. By 21MO she was talking sentences and able to finish sentences in our story books etc. A lot can happen in that few months. I'd rethink things when he turns 2. If hes not saying lots of words by then and stringing them together then I'd speak to your HV and start to monitor things more. Xx

My DS is 18 months and barely saying anything. He was late to babble dadada etc (10 months). He says one or two words 100% for sure, and a couple more possibly, that sound very unlike what they're actually meant to be!

I'm not too worried. I go through brief phases of worrying but know that it's not unusual, especially as he is my second and apparently it's quite common in subsequent children as the older child speaks for them. He points, does some actions for songs, gestures in other ways, copies, seems to understand a fair bit.

It's hard, DS1 was saying several words at this age, and starting to put two together at 19-20 months, but he didn't walk until this age whereas DS2 has been walking well for months and months.

Yeh just to add mine didn't babble until almost 12MO but said her first words about the same time and even the sounds were really odd like she was underwater (guaguaguagua was a common one). I was so worried at the time. I have no idea why she didn't babble on track coz she was really social and clapped/pointed etc very early and she's hit all her speech milestones with ease since then and always had really good understanding. They're all different. I used to hate when people said 'wait til they're 2' or some variant of that but I'm a convert to it after seeing how my LO has come on in leaps and bounds in that time. Xx

And badly spoken words count if they're saying them in context. Mine called her dummy a nana for ages (perhaps more meaning night night?) And at almost 2.5 still says milk really weirdly (it sounds like 'qualtz' ) but says a lot of things quite clearly so I'm not worried x

My DD said 5 words around 18 months, she’s just over 20 months now and says about 25 words in context, which is still quite low for her age (though not uncommon).

I looked up Hanen techniques and have been trying to use them with her to encourage her speech. The way I understand it is they are all different and some children just develop language later on their own, other kids need help and for a few kids there’s a reason for it (i.e an expressive speech or social communication condition).

There is stuff you can do to help them even at this early stage and loads of it is play based that you can just slot into your daily interactions, like the below - www.hanen.org/SiteAssets/Helpful-Info/Articles/Printer-friendly_How-to-help-your-child-learn-new-.aspx

I’m sure everything is fine and you have nothing to worry about, but I know how it feels to be in this situation and swing from worrying to feeling like it’s not an issue!

Thank you for all your replies. Has settled my worries.

I will see how he goes over the next few months, and try different things to encourage him.