"Delayed Speech"

[tbtf]

I'm swinging between being worried and trying not to be worried about my 18m DD, at her 15m HV assessment back in October they were a little worried that she didn't have many words or sounds, and the HV would call me back after Christmas and send us along a delayed speech pathway if needed. Since then my DD has started saying Muma, but a lot of her other words are still Da:

Banana: NnnDa
Dad: dada / daddy
Dog: da
Cat: dat
Car: dar
Tree: dee

She understands and answers with nods of the head and follows instruction (when she wants ) At bedtime if I say "do you want milk in bed?" She nods, drops what she's doing and races to the stair gate. She answers if she's hungry, she knows where to go to get certain toys I ask for etc. She brings me the prompts I use to sing songs with her, grabs my hand to take me somewhere (kitchen cupboard) She'll tickle the palm of her hand for In The Night Garden and clicks her tongue for Do You Wanna Build a Snowman. Great at animal noises from a picture or me saying the animal name she'll reply with the noise.

I've started doing alphabet sounds to see if she had full range of tongue movement, she can do way more sounds that way like S F E W R Th they just don't feature if her talking.

Is this normal? Is she delayed? What more can I do? I do blame myself for having a look on my phone every now and then through the day and then I feel really guilty that I've caused this.

Does she make noises generally? Babbling to herself, chatting nonsense, etc?

You absolutely haven't caused this by looking on your phone. Please don't blame yourself - there is very likely nothing wrong, and if there is it isn't your fault.

@Ohalrightthen

Does she make noises generally? Babbling to herself, chatting nonsense, etc?

Not a huge amount. In the pram, cot, or car she'll babble more than when we're in the living room. She's not a mute but is generally quite quiet.

Are you in the UK? There seems to be a massive postcode lottery ITO how much HVs wet their pants over talking at this age. Mine wasn't babbling at almost 12MO and HV didn't care. She wasn't saying tonnes at 18MO either but now at 2.5 does not shut up and I've listed over 500 words that she says and there's loads I forgot to add on too but I got bored lol. Understanding sounds good which is reassuring. Does she point to share interest and find other ways of communicating what she wants? You could do the MCHAT quick screening for autism for autism online and flag it up with GP/HV. Nothing you're saying is making me especially worried though tbh. It sounds like she has all the precursors to speech. I think it'll come. A website called www.teachmetotalk.com is helpful for explaining speech aquisition and ways to encourage it xx

@Jannt86

Are you in the UK? There seems to be a massive postcode lottery ITO how much HVs wet their pants over talking at this age. Mine wasn't babbling at almost 12MO and HV didn't care. She wasn't saying tonnes at 18MO either but now at 2.5 does not shut up and I've listed over 500 words that she says and there's loads I forgot to add on too but I got bored lol. Understanding sounds good which is reassuring. Does she point to share interest and find other ways of communicating what she wants? You could do the MCHAT quick screening for autism for autism online and flag it up with GP/HV. Nothing you're saying is making me especially worried though tbh. It sounds like she has all the precursors to speech. I think it'll come. A website called www.teachmetotalk.com is helpful for explaining speech aquisition and ways to encourage it xx

She does share interests with me, both by pointing or bringing me things or taking me by the hand round the room.

I did the MCHAT scoring when we were worried about the hand twirling, and tip toe walking, it was low risk at the time.

I hope that we are on the cusp of talking just so I can stop worrying about it.

My daughter was like this at 18months, and talking in sentences/had 200+ words by 2 (it didn't happen overnight by any means but she had little leaps forward).

The understanding bit is important, and if she's pointing/sharing attention etc, as the above poster said, then that is good.

For a while i spoke in very basic clear sentences/pared back my sentences (eg: 'MORE juice'? Rather than 'would you like more juice?'), was extremely unnaturally repetitive and emphasising key words like a mad woman, and sang songs about bland everyday activities to the tune of 'here we go round the mulberry bush' (e.g 'this is the way we WASH our HANDS, WASH our HANDS'' etc).
I also taught her the makaton for a couple of words (like more, open, come).

I'm sure your dd will be chatting away soon.

Obviously, if you are worried trust your gut and speak to your gp.

@Mamapep
Thanks so much for those ideas, I've now scaled back my speaking and emphasise the main words.

I've started over emphasising words and really moving my face to get her attention.

Everything is Da and I just don't see it changing

If she's understanding and sharing things with you, that sounds good. I wonder if some of it is just luck with the words she's chosen to say. My wee girl is also 18 months old and is on the early side with talking, but she still says 'd' instead of 'c', so says 'dat' for cat, 'doat' for 'coat', etc. Banana is also fairly similar to 'nnnda', even though she can say 'bed', 'butter', and that a sheep says 'baa'.

I tend to repeat what she's just said to model the correct pronunciation, 'Yes, a cat!', 'Okay, more banana', or whatever.

That said, if something just doesn't feel right, it's worth a call to the HV or GP.

** Update
HV called to check if DD have any words since our previous call. I said no so she has been referred to SALT and a hearing test, I said I didn't think it was needed but she was referred anyway.

3 days later DD has started saying Digger, Bubble, & trump! So pleased there's some other sounds in there, and it's very funny when she touches her nappy saying trump when she does one. 3 new words in a day, using them at the right times. On Saturday night I went up to the bathroom next to her room and she was lying in her cot practicing them in the dark, I nearly cried, so sweet.