Speech development concern

[Debsbabe]

Hello my Son is nearly 2 years old and although i am not too concerned about the amount of words he speaks i am a little concerned that when i ask him to pass me something he looks at me blankly. Although when he has somethng in his hand and i ask him to give it to me normally he does (unless it is funnier to run off with it!)

I know some people have said that lots of children just suddenly spring to talking huge amounts after their 2nd birthdays and that in a couple of months everything may click into place but what should i do in the mean time and how long should i leave it before getting it checked out?

Love Debbie xxxx

Are you saying that it is his understanding that worries you, or his ability to speak/number of words - it is unclear from you post.....??
His understanding sounds ok if he gives you something when you ask for it and you say that you are not concerned by the number of words he has so I am not sure why you are concerned?
He sounds fine.

Well it is his understanding of what we want him to give us which concerns me i keep reading that at 18 months children should be able to do simple tasks such as if you ask them to bring you a teddy they should toddle off and get it. If i ask Callum to bring me a teddy he would look blankly at me and carry on with what he is doing!

But having said that maybe we are to blame for this as we haven't encouraged him to fetch things for us we just get it ourselves so he may have to learn this skill from scratch.

I started asking him to pass me his cup yesterday and after 10 minutes he did pass it and i clapped at him and cheered which he liked then procceded in passing me everything within reach so I would applaude him!

but it is a start

My DD1 is 2.5 yrs, and I had a similar concern to you. It didn't help that all the mums around me with similar aged children were getting so competitive, and sometimes exaggerating the extent of their children's talking (I found that other mums were at their most competitive around this time!). I even had one mum asking if DD1 was deaf because her talking wasn't as good as her son's !! I asked the HV to give her an assessment, and she said that DD1s talking and understanding was pretty much spot on for her age. She also said that children tend to concentrate on one stage of development at a time, so if they are early walkers, they tend to be slower at speech, etc. Does he babble a lot? DD1 used to, and now she has turned this into proper speech, and has pretty much caught up with the others (although I don't see the child who's mum asked if DD1 was deaf anymore (mmm - wonder why!). If you do have concerns, the HV will test him.