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20 month old development and words

3 replies

harlacem0507 · 07/03/2025 17:16

Just wondering what other people's 19/20 month old children are doing/saying as I honestly don't know if she's in the average stage behind etc. she turned 20 months last week. These are the things I'm happy with -

She has various words she can say such as cat, mama, dada, balloon, bubbles, bot bot, shoes, nana(banana) car.... there might be a few more but I can't think right now and a couple of longer phrases such as 'what's that?' And 'all done'. She used to say oh no but hasn't said that in a while.

She understands instructions such as let's go upstairs, dinners ready, shoes on, let's go, lunch is ready, go see (brother name) and night time.

She can clap, point, run, walk, eat with a spoon and fork, drink from a straw, climb stairs.

Things that worry me is she won't say family members names except me and dad, she doesn't make animal noises (apparently that's quite common) she doesn't gesture unless prompted so such as waving goodbye and she won't say the word bye or hello or blow kisses, if I ask for a kiss she doesn't really do it.

Does this seem normal or not? I don't know whether to be concerned or if this sounds like I'm worrying over nothing?.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
TinyMouseTheatre · 08/03/2025 09:21

She sounds fine. If you want to check, there is a 20 month Ages & Stages that you could fill in and score Wink

harlacem0507 · 08/03/2025 10:23

Very helpful.thank you!

OP posts:
Superscientist · 11/03/2025 15:59

My daughter only had 3 words at 20 months and our HV sent someone to do an assessment. They weren't overly concerned by her only having 3 words the issue we raised was she couldn't retain words so she only ever used 3 words if she learnt a new word she lost an old word even mumma and dada.
We moved house a few months later and the next HV let her settle before repeating the assessment so she had it repeatedly at 26 months and she had come along loads and was now on target. The first person gave us some exercises to try to help her retain words around 23-24 months she was up to about 10-15 words but still mostly communicated by pointing.
She's 4.5 now and thriving at school despite being one of the youngest in her class. If you are worried give your HV a call and see if they can do and assessment and give you some advice

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