18 months and won’t say mummy

[Spiceyricey]

She’ll correctly say daddy and the names of her 2 siblings. Says ‘yes’ in context and shakes her head for no. Understands what I mean when I ask if she wants a water/snack/apple. Follows simple commands such as ‘sit down’ and ‘come with me’. Can ask for a banana or her ‘baby’. Will not say Mummy! Doesn’t even make an attempt when I ask her to repeat a word (but does really well with other words). Is this normal?

This was my daughter, she just wouldn’t say mummy, had a few other words (including daddy) but probably as many as she should have had at 18 months. She absolutely wouldn’t repeat anything I asked her to say. Between maybe and 19-21 months she had a massive language explosion, she’s 2 next week and has hundreds of words and has lots and lots of 2 and 3 word sentences. And yes she says mummy ALL DAY LONG. I wouldn’t worry about it she sounds like she’s doing great, it will come.

Hiya @Spiceyricey my 18m old has mum and dad (plus a few other 'words' though more like half words, e.g. uh for up etc) and makes zero effort to repeat words back to me. However his receptive language and understanding is great and he can sign and gesture age-typically so I've every confidence he will get there. Thank you for your post @MotherOfDragon20 I'm hoping for a similar trajectory! X

There's a useful SLT progress checker for the 18 months stage here.

If there are any concerns, which I doubt, they have a helpline

My son didn’t say mama till 23 months. He is now nearly 3 and very verbal, talking in sentences etc. however we are pursuing a autism assessment - but then he didn’t say anything at 18 months - nothing. And lots of behavioural markers. Basically what I’m saying is even when there might be something going on there’s still huge potential for speech development beyond 18 months.