Loss of speech - worrying or normal?

[LilBloodRedWantsGore]

DD is 17 months and has lots of words, but most of them she has said a few times and now doesn't say. She understands a scary amount of what I say but other than 'Mama' and the occassional 'Ta' the only word to come out of her mouth is 'Ga'. Everything she points to is 'Gaaa', usually loudly. Is this normal, frustrated toddler chatter (she's desperate to walk but not quite theree yet) or should I worry that she's losing her ability to speak.

Sorry for the paranoia, can you tell I'm a first time mum

God yes, I have had feew mindees that spoke clearly before that but the majority did had one little boy who was 20 months last Christmas, he chattered away in gobblegook, hands going and expressions, knew what he was saying but we then suddenly a week before Christamas starting coming out with clear words, no sentances (in fact his first clear word was Scabbers, our rat, wouldnt speak to anybody till he had given scabbers his treat in the morning) anyway I digress came back after Christmas (a fortnight away) speaking clear sentances, by then he was 21 months.

I have had others at 2.6 who really could say no more than Mama dada, now she is 4 and I saw her te other day and her speeis as good as any other 4 yeasr old.

Just carry on talking and singing to her, it will come.

majority did not I mean

Thanks. She has said lots of words in the past but seems to say them and then store them away. I'll quit with the paranoia now

If she's pointing to things of interest it sounds as if all is well, but usually any loss of speech should be checked out. Especially if its clear words that have been lost.

I wouldn't leave it too long to be honest, waiting lists for speech and language therapy assessment are huge - up to a year isn't unusual- and its better to be on the list and then cancel the appointment, than decide you need to be seen 6 months down the line then have to wait a year from then.

Ds went through a phase of not saying the words he had previously learned. Admittedly as his first word was "wombat" and we do not live in Australia, there may have been few conversational ins for it. However, he was moving on to new words.

Agree with Yurt that it sounds like everything is probably OK but is worth checking out to make sure it is part of her normal development. Can't do any harm.

Personally I would check it with a GP- I am sure the vast majority of kids who do this are well within the normal range and need no further action but in some cases it can be a regression, as it was for our DS3. But please dont worry too much- better safe than sorry and all that, and with most kids I know LO will be bound to start using full sentences whilst you are telling the GP all about it....

She is seeing her physio in the next week or two so I'll ask her what she thinks. She did a full assessment when she started seeing DD and commented that her communication was advanced - I'll ask what she thinks now.

Thanks ladies.

Update: I asked the GP on duty (when I took DD in with a cough) about her speech regression and was asked patronisingly if she is my only child . So, I asked DD's physio who is a star and she said that DD is fine and just concentrating on learning to walk at the moment. Gave me tons of reassurance.

Thanks all.