Hi all,
I know this is a very common subject and I should speak to my HV if I’m concerned but it would make me feel better to hear about similar experiences!
My son is 19 months old and only says a handful of words. He says ‘ta’ (when he wants you to do something!), ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ (but quite sporadically and not always in context), and tries to say ‘more’ when he wants more food. But that’s about it. He knows a couple of animal noises but they aren’t particularly clear (he roars for most animals 🤣)
He is very good at communicating what he wants without speaking and understands every word said to him. He will follow instructions given to him and plays appropriately with toys (pretends to talk on a phone, cuddles soft toys, pushes cars around and his latest thing is to make lion noises when playing with toy lions!) He loves nursery rhymes and can do all the actions to his favourites.
He eats very well and feeds himself beautifully with cutlery, and drinks out of an open cup. He also sleeps really well and I can put him to bed awake and he will go off to sleep by himself. He loves toys that ‘have a purpose’ and working out how things work but it’s just concerning me that he won’t even attempt to say new words. And even the words he does say are very inconsistent and not clear.
My daughter was chatting away at this age so it’s hard not to compare. I read books with him and we do lots of singing. Does anyone have any words of wisdom and advice? Should I seek professional help now or wait and see?