Very quiet 22 month old - doesn't want to speak

[tealeaf]

I would appreciate your views on when your child starts to speak. My 22 month old daughter is very quiet and does not seem to be able to formulate any words. She can at times babble quite a bit and understands most of what we are saying to her but does not formulate hardly any words herself. Her vocab is a limited "dada" and an "oh dear". When should toddlers start to speak more words? Is there anything we should be doing to encourage her speech development ? Or is this quite normal at this stage?

sounds normal to me. my dd started nursery at 2.3 and then her vocabulary was limited to about 10 words (mummy, daddy, car that sort of thing) everyone said she was late talking and she was slow, but she started nursery and has been going for 3 months. now she can say nearly anything you want her to, and has started making sentences like 'whats that noise mummy' albeit not pronounced perfect, but i know what she means!

dont worry and dont compare with others.

if in a few months you dont see any improvement or are still wondering if she is lagging behind, see your health visitor, just to put your mind at rest.

I would say, don't worry. However there are some things you can do to help encourage her speech development. I would also get a hearing test done, just to be sure. You say she understands, that is great, does she point to things that she wants etc?

Things you can do are:
repeat repeat repeat

never ask her to say anything.

choices - "do you want juice or water" then "you want juice?" look DD has Juice etc etc. This really really works. You can ask her what toy she has "is that your dolly or a sausage" always something silly as the alternative. Whenever you play with her, say what things are, or say what is that you have? try and limit things where a yes or no answer will do. If they struggle, you can say, do you have a dog or a cat, or oh look you have a dog.

Sign language is great, we used this lots and picked it all up from "something special" and justin. Hes my hero

I agree, sign language a brilliant stop gap until the language picks up. Brilliant for dispersing tantrums too IME.

Normal for dd1 she didn't realy speak until 2.6yrs to 3yrs now at 4.3yrs she does not have a off switch now.

As other have suggested try to encourage her without putting pressure on her.

I was going to suggest sign language too, it will give a way to communicate and hopefully cut down on frustration for you and her!

I teach sign language to babies, so if you want any pointers - websites, books, just a chat, please feel free to ask!!

some children miss the individual word stage completely and launch straight into sentences, perhaps she is doing this? I assume that you only speak 1 language at home bilingual children are often later to talk. don't stress at her, and doesn't sound worrying (i studied speech therapy), but speak with your health visitor to put your mind at rest.

Many thanks for your suggestions, I will give these a go and see if we make progress. In the meantime I will try not to worry!