21 Month Old - Does he have enough words?

[Katewillows1]

Hi, I'm just reaching out to ask for some advice regarding my 21 month old DS. He's a lovely (and very cheeky) boy who is engaging, strong willed, makes eye-contact, laughs, points, claps, blows kisses, copies actions etc... but he appears to be a bit behind with his speech. He currently has 20 words, which include Mumma, Dadda, Up, Star, No, Park, Ta, Yum, Yuck, Truck etc... All of the words he has, he uses in context, although some are unclear. While we know what he's saying, other people outside of our family may not... I keep reading that by 21 months, toddlers should/can learn up to 5 new words a day, and by 24months, it is expected they have 50 words minimum with short phrases.... I know I'm probably being a bit ridiculous, but do you think at this stage I should have any concerns? I know it's most likely a 'wait and see' situation, but I'm feeling a little worried...

I'd be tempted to leave it as long as you don't have any other concerns.

Once he's 2 years you can do this progress checker, but don't try it before then as they can change so much in 3 months.

How's his hearing? If you're thinking of SLT in the future, they'll want him to have had a hearing test.

Have you thought about doing the MChat Test as well, just to see what his risk of ASD is?

@PritiPatelsMaker Yes, I've taken the ASD screening test several times and he's always gotten a 1, so very low risk...

Do you think 20 words is cause for concern? His hearing is 100% fine, have had it checked.

According to this from ICan it only starts being a concern if they haven't got 25 recognisable words by 24 months. Looks your DS will be well over that threshold as they've got 3 months to go