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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Normal speech/language for a 16 month old?

19 replies

MommyD · 13/12/2004 19:23

ds2 is 16 months and has no real words. He points at everything and grunts and understands everything I say to him. He says "ba ba" for bye bye and says the beginning of a few words. "ba" for ball, "ga" for garden, "ba" for balloon. He says dada, (even occasionally at dh!) I label everything and talk to him lots. I pointed at the marmite on the weekend and repeated the word several times. He came back with "ma".
Should his speech/language be more advanced than this? His brother had short sentences by 16 months. Everyone tells me - all in his own time. How true is this statement?

OP posts:

Donbean · 13/12/2004 19:59

My Ds is also 16 months and says quite a few words now. Im due to take him for his 18 month developmental test in Jan/Feb and the H/V tells me that he should be saying aprox 20 words. He does but im worrying about him always wanting his dummy as this definitely stops him from talking. Ive started to take it off him in the day to encourage his speach.
From my observations,in the second or third child this apears to be a common complaint as they dont actually "need" to speak. They have lots of adoring siblings and parents who anticipate and get their needs with little effort in the communication area!
If it makes you feel any better, i have a friend who has 6 children each of whom are "gifted" and exceptionally bright, her youngest has just turned 2 and does not say a thing (although they were all dumbfounded when he said "cat" the other day)
I must say though that when he starts to chatter, he will present you with something else to make you worry, its NEVER ENDING is it!

mishiclaus · 13/12/2004 20:09

hi
my ds is 14mths and doesnt say anything..he is physically advanced so is quite happy to go and get what he wants...he has repeated words but will only say them a few times before he seems to get bored asnd think had enough of that one now....i worry about his development as my friends little girl is 3 wks older but can say loads of words...but then she is not walking....dont really know the point to reply but ur not alone...lol

Kaz33 · 13/12/2004 20:18

My 18 month old ( DS2 ) can say Mama, Dada, Me, Alex ( big brother ) and dog. This is all very recent as well.

He points and babbles away. He has been to busy learning to climb up slides and throw himself off sofas to learn how to talk.

Don't worry, you will know instinctively if there is something wrong. He should be starting to point, showing interest in books and babbling. But if he hasn't got round to naming things - that will come.

EbonyZebraScrooge · 13/12/2004 20:54

Short sentences by 16 months????
Wow.
Well, DD finally started saying some words at 16 months.
At same age, DS only said 'tee' for kitty. Didn't get any more words until almost 19 months. That's normal in our house. DD got to sentences at 2, which I thought made her a genius, compared to DS, who didn't get to sentences until 2.5yo.
Now they're 3 & 5yo. DS's reception teacher told us how wonderfully articulate he is BOAST.

fisilhohoho · 13/12/2004 21:25

Nursery told us that they start to worry when the child is nearly 3 - and they've got loads of experience.

MrsBigDrumsADrumming · 13/12/2004 21:31

MommyD - can't quite remember how 'fluent' dd was at 18 months, but whenever I compared her to my neighbours kid who's 3 months YOUNGER I always thought dd was terribly lagging behind. Maybe because she's being brought up bilingually.

Over the last 6 months however she's come along in leaps and bounds! And today she even suprised us with a 9 word gramatically correct sentence!

So don't worry too much he'll catch up soon enough and then you wish he'd shut up ... dd is in the 'what ya doing' and 'who's that' phase... argh

MariNativityPlay · 14/12/2004 10:42

Dd is 16 months and babbling away very tunefully, but very few "real" words in there, MommyD. And we had a ds who said his first real sentence at the same age too. I think if the understanding is there, which it is from the sound of things, this young is too soon to be concerned. Donbean is right about subsequent children not being ars*d to come up with the goods!

motherinfestivemood · 14/12/2004 11:03

DD2 babbles, but says pretty much buggerall, if I'm honest.

Given her sister never shuts up, I'm savouring the silence

Given I never shut up either, their dad is counting his last relatively peaceful days

Original poster

MommyD · 14/12/2004 11:04

Thanks all - yes ds1 does talk for ds2 "he wants a biscuit" etc. Very difficult to prevent.

If ds2 wants his drink he will point at it and grunt... and grunt some more.... then whine... then squeal.... then scream.... all whilst pointing at his out-of-reach cup and saying "Da!". I can't get him to use the word.

Nursery also tell me not to worry... but I'm sure you all know what it's like!

OP posts:

Original poster

MommyD · 14/12/2004 11:05

how old is dd2, mothinfestivemood??

OP posts:

Original poster

MommyD · 14/12/2004 11:05

... sorry I realise you are not a moth!!

OP posts:

motherinfestivemood · 14/12/2004 11:35

Coming up for 18 months. Obviously understands absolutely everything that's going on.

beansontoast · 14/12/2004 12:03

hi momD,
i started to reply to you yesterday and somehow got waylaid....
im doing a speech and lang degree,at the moment im half way through my second year.i also have a 15mnth son.
umm...from what you say, your littlie seems to have all the precursors for speech..eg he's copying you and attempting to make speech sounds,pointing to stuff,being social etc.they are all really good signs.does he make any animal noises or car noises?
if there is nothing else about his development that worries you ,then he is prob just doing things at his own rate.one thing they stress at uni ,is the enormous variability between children,even siblings.
that said,you could talk to your health visitor if atall worried about him.

DingWongMerrilyOnHigh · 14/12/2004 12:13

I second beansontoast
My ds2 is 15 months and I was going through my box of stuff and came across a list of about 30 words that ds2 could say at 16 months. Ds2 is nowhere near that, he says a lot of beginnings of words and only Yes and No and Mama and Daddy clearly. I'm not worried about him in the slightest as he understands pretty much everything we say to him in two languages.

Just want to reassure you that the second child is often slower to form recognisable words than the first
HTH

dot1 · 14/12/2004 12:21

ds1 didn't say a single thing until he was 17 months old - nothing at all - and then came out with "fish".... Then there was pretty much nothing for ages after that, and then a word explosion probably when he was about 2. He's now 3 and chats away (when he's in the mood to) using all sorts of words - more than we can count! He is on the quiet side, but that's just him - he's always been able to understand everything, but chooses not to speak sometimes. You might just have a quiet one? Try not to worry - sounds like your ds has got lots of beginnings of words which is a lot more than ds1 had at his age!

celandine · 15/12/2004 14:45

My DS1 is almost 17 months and hasn't got ANY real words, apart from 'borruh' for more, 'deh' for again and 'jssss' for juice. No mama or dada, although he has said them briefly in the past. Like you, i can't get him to say words and instead have to listen to his straining noises as he points at things he wants. I try not to ask him to say words directly but occasionally can't resist it so might say "can you say mummy...?", and he will reply "da". Several attempts later I give up. Sounds promising that your son is replying with the correct consonant at least!

Do you talk and read to him lots? I have done since birth but have concluded that although this won't speed up his speech initially, it will hopefully pay dividends when he's a little older and has a huge vocabulary

The sentence 'all in his own time' rings quite true I reckon. If they need to or want to they will. If they don't feel the need to (because needs are already met) or don't want to (because generally a quiet child) then there's the reasons for few words at this stage. I guess the inclination to talk isn't as strong in some people and think DS might be like dh, strong silent type (which is quite nice really). Totally a personality thing, IMO.

If you find he gets frustrated you could try signing with him. I do signs with my son and it helps him to tell me what he wants, though perhaps may be responsible for his slower speech development. Anyway, good luck.

Firsttimemammy111 · 13/01/2021 00:39

Hi just wondering If your kid grew out of this? My 16 month old does a lot of grunting and I’m a bit concerned

Muryan · 13/01/2021 09:05

@MommyD

ds2 is 16 months and has no real words. He points at everything and grunts and understands everything I say to him. He says "ba ba" for bye bye and says the beginning of a few words. "ba" for ball, "ga" for garden, "ba" for balloon. He says dada, (even occasionally at dh!) I label everything and talk to him lots. I pointed at the marmite on the weekend and repeated the word several times. He came back with "ma". Should his speech/language be more advanced than this? His brother had short sentences by 16 months. Everyone tells me - all in his own time. How true is this statement?

You shoudl relax, my son started talking properly at age of 2, despite the fact that he fully understood every single word, he kept silent. But in a span of one month he blasted with various complicated phrases and so on. So keep it up and as everyone tells you - all in his own time.

Ryan M
SFO at TheJingStock

EgSk · 13/01/2021 13:53

My 22 month old only had a few words by 18 months . Somewhere around 20 months he had a language explosion. He went from saying a handful of words to saying 2-3 new words a day . Now he is completely on track for his age . It’s hard not to worry but they really do learn at their own pace .

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