16 months and only saying Mama and Dada?

[SusieR]

My DS1 is 16 months next week and only saying mama and dada. The rest of the time he just points and shrieks. Does anyone else have the same? I think he's just a late talker but I can't help being worried . My litle girl was more vocal than he is.
He is good at getting what he wants by pointing and does understand us as he can follow instructions.

my ds is the same and so are most of my friends children who are all roughly the same age. I've been teaching signing to ds which he is doing very well except when signing mummy he shouts aswell

Hi Susie

My DS has just turned 16 months and doesn't have a great vocabulary either. The only clear words he says are mama (but not dada), dog, and quack quack, hiya and bye bye. He does say a few (as in 3 or 4) other words that only me and DH understand. He also saya 'baba' to mean 4 things - pudding, blankie, baby and barney so we only work that one out depending where we are when he says it.

So although he says a bit more than your DS, I wouldn't say it was much more at all but I am trying to relax about it and think that it will come in time.

Compared to most of the July 06 babies on the post-natal thread (come and join us ) he doesn't say anywhere as much as most of them but I do try not to compare.

HTH

I sometimes think he is saying "whats that" and other things but maybe I'm hearing things. He also says "digger" quite a few where we live at the moment.

It sounds failry normal (slightly behind average, but well within normal limits) -- except that a lot of children don't actually say "Mama" purposefully until quite late, so your DS is ahead on that (DS had a vocabulary of a several dozen words and was happily saying the name of MIL's dog before I got anything that approximated "Mummy" out of him).

I wouldn't be worried about this at all.

my niece didn't talk at all til she was 3 yrs old. Suddenly she started, and now she talks non stop. Making up for lost time maybe?
If your ds is communicating as much as he wants to, he probably doesn't feel the need to talk more just yet! My brother would probably say enjoy the quietness while it lasts

I worried about this when my son was the same age and it annoyed me when everyone said don't worry, but he is now 2.5 and talks loads so don't worry.

Don't worry about it. Some children, especially boys, just take a little longer before they are vocal. Doesn't mean their understanding isn't good either!

My DSdidn't babble or make any sounds as a baby, had a few words like mamma at 16 months, but other than that didn't speak till he was over 2, and when he did it was in sentances! My theory is that some children just wait till they can properly talk before attempting to say anything

My DS still has this trait of not trying something until he is sure he can do it properly.

I have had a thread on this, my 19 month old has about 4 words now but only very recently.

Nothing to be worried about. Don't compare him to others. Lots of kids don't even have 2 words at this age. Developmental charts say average for 18m-24m is between 8 and 20 words.

Thanks for your replies. Its comforting to be reassured that hey are all diferent.

My DS said "tractor" at 22 months, his first word. Then he said nothing new until 26 months. Now at 27 months he speaks in full sentences.

16 months seems very early to be saying anything at all for a boy in my experience!

Dd2 is 20 months and only says muma and roooooar

I really wouldn't worry. One of my nieces didn't speak until she was close to 3 (apart from odd bits of gobbledigook), but hasn't stopped since, and now (at 5) has a huge vocabulary; she is noticeably brighter than her (much earlier-speaking) siblings and same age contemporaries.

My DD doesn't say mummy or daddy and she is 20 months! She does know all the animal sounds though - if she sees a cat she'll me-ow, if she sees a sheep she'll baa etc etc, says "please" "car "more" "shish" (we think she means fish) "all gone" "all clean" "aaah kkk" (think this means ok?) "oh dear" and "boo" (if we are looking at a peek-a-boo book) but her not saying mama/mummy or dada/daddy is hard not to take personally! My neice who is the same age, will copy every word that she hears but she doesn't know what the word means....still sweet when she says "hello aunty" to me, even though I know she is just copying what she has been told to say...I try not to compare but it is hard sometimes!

My DS1 (24m) has only just started saying dada in the past few weeks, and no mama yet. He says "mould", "lid" and "pink" though, so I'm not worried. And he did his first two word sentence at the weekend "two stars". 16m is very young, but I know how worried I felt about DS1, so

I don't think DD was saying much, if anything at 16 months. She is 2.2 now and speaks in sentences most of the time. I think she was slower in starting to speak than DS, but can't really remember when he started talking .

Hi susie, I would say don't worry too much yet. The fact that he shrieks suggests his ears could be blocked, but if he can understand and follow instructions then it doesn't sound like a hearing problem but it could be worth getting it checked incase.

I CM and have 2 girls who came to me at 18mths neither saying more than a habdful of words, now at 2yr 4 and 5mths they both are able to say lots of words and put 3 words together. 1 of them now speaks in full sentences. By contrast, like your dd, my lo is only 22 mths and speaks in 3 word sentences. This is early and the other 2 are perfectly normal.

I think that boys generally speak later than girls, although there are always exceptions. The other aspect is that being the youngest sibling his articulate sister will probably speak on his behalf, so he has no real need to speak.

My DD2 is nearly 17 months and says dada and doggy and lots of babble. Doesn't even say mama! Like Ceebee said-come and join us on the July 06 PN thread

HC
x