19 month old speech

[charlotte2129]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone else can relate or offer any advice please?

My dad is 19 months old and I'm a bit worried about her speech. She says things like "here you go" "ta" "daddy" "go" "hello" "bye". But when I try and get her to copy things I say for example.. "Apple" "cup" "drink" "car"... you know, the typical first words, she just has NO interest whatsoever. For so long I've been really persistent with trying to get her to copy simple words and involving flash cards and pictures but she just isn't bothered.

Is anyone else going through this atm? My theory is that with lockdown and not being able to interact with any other children she's just not picked things up that she otherwise would. I have a big family with lots of little cousins just a little older than her and they're so much more forward than her because obviously they were going to toddler groups and socialising at her age.

Am I worrying over nothing?

She sounds like she's managing just fine! Some children are not as willing to copy as others, even with no lockdown. She has some words though and she's using them.

My youngest was slow to talk but she's picking up now (she's just turned 2) and she's only just started trying to copy words. She has lots of words of her own now and is confident using them.

As long as your little one has some words and is communicating and understanding what you say and basic instructions, then she's doing fine.

@CP2701 thankyou so much!! You have no idea how reassuring that is to hear.

How does she communicate what she wants? Does she point or gesture towards things?

@Mamapep Yes she goes and points at things and speaks gibberish along with it

My daughter said around the same amount of words at 19 months, used gestures to draw our attention to things she wanted, wasn't great at imitating words but good at imitating actions/gestures.

She started leaping forward with her words round 21 months and by 2 she had 200+ and 2-3 word sentences. Her imitation of words also improved massively around 21-22 months.
I was so worried around 18-19 months but was reassured by her using gestures/pointing to communicate, and realising she understood so much more than she could actually say.

Hope that's reassuring

If she's pointing, has a few words, and understands a fair bit, I wouldn't worry about lack of direct imitation at this stage. I don't think my wee girl started repeating words until she had quite a few words that she used independently. Early on, though, it was all about the actual object. She'd happily squeal 'duh!!!' at ducks dozens of times a day (which is why I know where every duck is in Fox's Socks), but not just because I said 'can you say duck?'

I think I would also try a change from flashcards. You need her to want to (try to) say the word, and I'm not sure flashcards are that motivating. Perhaps try games where something happens when a word is said, 'ready, steady, go!' and a car rolls down a ramp, 'here's teddy!' and teddy pops out from behind the sofa, or whatever. Do it a bunch of times, then pause and leave a gap for her to say the last word. Or offer choices without something she can just point to, 'Do you want apple or pear?', etc.

My son, when he had his check up at 2 hardly said anything and the health visitor was quite concerned. All other checks were fine. I think he was spoiled, he just pointed if he wanted something and made a sipping sound when he wanted a drink. We were probably lazy in getting him what he wanted without making him ask. Health visitor rang 6 months time and he had improved so much that she had a conversation with him on the phone. He walked at 11 months, could count up to 100 by the age of 3, it was just his speech that was slow.

You've all been so helpful and really helped me relax about it all. Thankyou!! I'm going to try the things mentioned and give the flash cards and things a break (🥳). But I feel a lot happier about dd speech now x

At 19 months my DS said about that, probably even less. He’s now ( nearly ) 23 months and says 50+ words , probably closer to 100 words now but I can’t keep track . He recently started copying words I say too . Out of nowhere he had an explosion of new words ( between 20-21 months) and it was shocking how quickly he just got it .