17 month old no words?

[HappyBiscuit]

Hi all!
so my DS is 17 months and a physically very well developed boy, always hit milestones early until recently, he started saying mama, dada, hiya etc around 13 months or so however recently he seems to have regressed slightly, he babbles all day long and Is fully understanding most things we say but no longer will say his few words, instead of ‘hiya’ it’s turned to ‘yayaya’ and maybe I’ll get a mama if he’s in the mood.
I was just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to get the ball rolling with his speech, he is great with gestures and getting good at animal noises (mainly just saying rawr at everything but you know). I have come to the conclusion that he is a very stubborn boy and will only show his tricks on his terms, but let me know if you have any similar experiences and anything that can help me encourage a few more words. Thanks! :)

Bumping for you as my 19mo still has no words, will make animal sounds like yours and it's obvious he understands but I do wonder sometimes if he just isn't doing it because he knows how much we want him to😂 I've heard him on the baby monitor say mama but never to my face🥲

Mine will hit 17 months in 10 days time and has no solid words yet. I'm not worried yet as her comprehension is going up so I expect words will come over the next couple of months. My friends child didn't speak until 3 and is 11 now with no developmental issues, he was an unusual case but proves the norm isn't always the norm!

I'd wait until he hits 18 months then do this simple progress checker.

It will tell you if he needs some support with speech & language

I don’t think it’s particularly late but you can read lots of stories and sing songs. Also sending to nursery will help development if he doesn’t go already. More exposure to older children who talk - play dates/ visit family etc.

Do you read lots of stories to him? My LO is a BIG talker and has been from a very early age. We'll never know for sure but I think a lot of it is down to the amount of books we read together - when we are both at home (weekends and non-nursery days) we can easily get through over 20 stories a day xx

If only that were true! We did the same level of reading to DD. Barely said a word until she was 3!

Oh fair enough, that's so interesting to know! She's our first so I have no idea what behaviour is just 'hers' and what we have encouraged xx

Yeah I pretty much thought the same. The first was talking in short sentences at 12 months, was signing to us at 7 months. Then came the second DC...

Make sure the TV and radio are off during the day so the only speech he's hearing are real voices in context, if you're using a dummy, lose it, and read lots of books and talk to him all day, especially when you're out and about.

As above, we read and read and sang and only a bit of TV when we were actually sat down (no radio or TV in the background). My nearly three year old is now talking but it wasn't for want of trying. We were referred to speech and language at 22 months as he only had animal noises. It took a year to be seen. If you have concerns then get in the system early. Chances are he'll start talking in his own time but much better to cancel an appointment you don't need than to be desperately waiting.

I'm thinking back 50 odd years!!!! My son was saying very little and could show me what he wanted ( going to fridge if he wanted a drink for example) We moved and the girl next door was same age and talking in sentences. Playing with her, he picked up words very quickly. (nothing to do wiyh the fact she sometimes hit him if he didn't reply, I'm sure!!). Does your lovely boy have friends the same age with whom he can play?

Honestly, don’t worry about it.

I could have written this myself as my son was exactly the same. Meeting every ‘milestone’ and way ahead of his peers with everything but speech and understood everything we said. We had our 27 month check and HV had no issues even though I raised it. As soon as he got to 2.5/3yrs he was absolutely brilliant, I didn’t even notice but he just started with the long words and long sentences out of nowhere. Just keep talking to him and be patient, it will come!

All my friends had ‘girls’ so I was always comparing him to them and I shouldn’t have as it is believed girls a quicker to talk but he was walking before them all. Everybody now, will say what great speech he has for his age. Please don’t worry xx

I went through this with my now 6 year old.

the general advice is talk to them, sing songs, read to them, tell them what you’re doing as you do it. Play games that encourage them to say words. I imagine you’re already doing most of these things though.

you could check out your local library, or if you have a local family or neighbourhood centre that may have groups on but sometimes they’re aimed at slightly older kids.

my biggest advice would be to flag it to your health visitor, if he’s in nursery to his key worker. Keep flagging it. Don’t take no for an answer when they tell you not to worry, that they all get there in their own time, or that boys are slower to talk. And ask for a referral to speech and language therapy. The waiting lists are insane we waited around 9-10 months to be seen when I eventually persuaded our health visitor to refer and my DS is struggling in school now because no one took me seriously.

All of this

My DD is 20 months, 21 months next week and she doesn’t really say too much. She will clearly say mama, dada, oh dear and down but that’s about it. She chats to herself all day and might try and repeat some things but most of it is just babble. She understands what we are saying, will happily point to everything and grunt (lol) if she wants it, and all animals apparently say baa! We have no concerns, and nursery have no concerns - they have said they always repeat what she says if they hear her saying anything. She didn’t walk until she was nearly 16 months, that bothered me more than not saying more than a few words. The best thing to do is just talk to them and read stories/sing songs and repeat everything they say. If you are concerned get in touch with your health visitor if they are reachable (in my area it’s very difficult!) all children will develop in their own time and at their own pace. In a few years time no one will know they might have been slower to walk or talk than anyone else. One day your DS might wake up and speak full sentences! Keep doing what you’re doing, you’re doing great!

Some tips which I think worked for us but I'm by no means an expert:

• Get down to toddlers level when talking to them so they can see your mouth moving, and repeat the sounds at the start of words like "C C C Car". Repeat back to them the words they're trying to say with positivity and praise.
• Play with flash cards and point to objects in books and every day life and ask what the words are. Ask them "NAME, what's this?" regularly.
• Narrate your day so there's lots of speech being heard.
• Give them lots of time to have a go trying to communicate with you, be enthusiastic with listening responses "oh really, wow, that's lovely" etc.
• Songs for Littles on YouTube (Ms Rachel) is very speech focused and my LO loved it. I copy some of the approach :-D

If he needs extra support hope you can access this. I'm sure he'll get there in his own time xx

The regression is what worries me. I’d check with a professional.

otherwise lots of good suggestions here.

a friends kid had to go to speech therapy. Turned out they were using too complex of sentences with them. They switched to simple sentences and BAM within a month couldn’t get kid to shut up!
that’s not the case here, you’re looking for a couple words not sentences, but shows what the pros know! They may have a tip or two!

I went through this with my DS.

You can ask for a referral from your health visitor to speech and language therapy. Although when I spoke to them they were happy as long as he was able to communicate and as long as we understood him. If this is not you then you definitely need to contact them.

Thankfully words came quickly as soon as he turned 2 and since starting school he's been very chatty.

Thats quite late for mama and dada. So it's possible he's a late talker. Boys are usually far behind girls with speech. My son couldn't say much by age 2, we saw a Dr and health visitor who sent him to chatterbox. Think it's a 6 week programme, they can assess his behaviour and see if there's more to it or if there's just a delay in speech. My kid was referred for a hearing test and finally he was given speech therapy for 2 years with a speech therapist and a nursery place early to bring him on as they felt being aroubd other kids would help. We read stories each night to him, we did alot of homework with flash cards and had to make him a drink but then not give him it and hold the bottle till you make eye contact and say the word. He got speech therapy at school for 3 years and was signed off by age 8.
Definitely make an appointment....its the only thing I can say looking back was, I did everything I fully could to change the situation. Not that I want to alarm you but regression in his words, that could be something serious and for that reason I would also make the appointment. Best of luck!

my son barely said anything at that stage and didn’t really start properly talking until he was nearly 3 and had tonsils removed, hes now 6 and never shuts up 🙈 I was worried, he understood everything but would just grunt at things. Boys typically are slower with speech, just keep talking to him, play games, chat in the park etc and hopefully it will come

Whilst I'm sure this feels like common sense advice, but actually both of mine learned a lot from tv - my son is 2 and knows all the dinosaur names, my daughter is one and knows different flowers - it just has to be useful tv. The biggest issue is often if you are bilingual or if they kid can already communicate (point or nod what they want) then they aren't really pressed to speak. I would say OP doesn't really need to worry if the kid is communicating what they want and chattiness comes with time.

I was quoting advice from psychologists and speech therapists. TV hugely limits speech development in that the learning isn't truly contextual and it's much harder for the child to concentrate on the information in the sounds they are hearing. There's nothing wrong with a small amount of screen time for kids but it's detrimental to toddlers' development.

Because you think he has regressed I would speak to your health visitor or key worker if he is at nursery and ask for their opinion.

My DS is under speech and language and was slow to say words, he would babble loads but you couldn’t define what he was saying.

We were referred to speech and language but just given things to do with him at home and at nursery as 1-2-1 wasn’t something they offered so we went private in the end and did a 6 week block. He has been under NHS speech and language since he was about 3 and he is now 5 and he does now get the odd block of 1-2-1 through them now but that’s because of his needs are quite specific.

Although your DS is still little and it’s probably nothing to worry about if you are concerned follow your gut. i was worried from about 18 months and I wish I had acted on it sooner.

lots of people have given good advice already, read lots of books, comment on what you’re doing while you’re doing it. Once he starts talking you can expand on what he’s saying so if he said red for instance pointing at a red car you would say back yes the car is red this will help sentence structure and help enhance vocabulary.

There are loads of good speech and language therapists on Instagram so take a look at some of their suggestions too.

I would also get his hearing checked, as you will likely need to do that before being seen by speech and language anyway.

Yeah, mine was reading Kafka at 8 months…

I wouldn’t be too concerned at this point. However very good to be aware and keep a note of emerging words and sounds and when. If you get referred they’ll be interested in this.

The majn thing at this age they’ll focus on if you spoke to someone in SALT is whether they respond to their own name and have shared joint attention. If both of those things keep an eye and potentially audiology for hearing test would be next.

Shared joint attention is when you point at something and will they follow the finger to see what you’re talking about.

Also how are they for direct eye contact?

My son is 7 now and still has speech therapy. I advise you stay on top of it in terms of monitoring and trust your gut because getting into the system is lengthy should he ever need support of any sort.

I was also fortunate my son (who was behind with speech and we noticed by 18
months a regression) was also not formulating words clearly or lots of them even at 4. Nursery got him on a MyPlan before reception. My friend who is a primary teacher encouraged me to get this in place so primary took notice and supported him from day 1, rather than the fight others have to get on one.

Monitor for a bit longer and you can always do a self referral to SALT too.