how early is an 'early talker'?

[dreamymum]

and i mean stringing together more than 2 words

Just to go to the other end of the scale....... My ds was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at two and a quarter... I had to wait till he was eight to hear him say Mummy!!!

lottie I think I had to wait 12 for mum(worth the wait though)

dd1 was an early talker.
could say 30ish words at 15mths, 200 at 18mths, put 2 words together at 20mths.
At 2 she could speak in 5/6 word sentences.
Now at 2.4 she speaks 8/9 word complex sentences including past,present and future tense verbs correctly most of the time and puts 2 sentences together.
Average is 6-20 words by 18mths.
50 words by 2 and sentences beginning at 3yrs. HTH

2shoes it makes it all the more special doesnt it when you have to wait that much longer!!

I completely agree about it being more special when you have to wait longer. My friends ds had meningitis which left him speech impaired when he was 1. His first word was 'app' which was the beginnings of apple, age 7 He is now 21yrs and speaks so most people can understand him which is fantastic.

I don't understand why a two-week old baby would ask for water. Milk maybe but water??

Or have I misunderstood and that blog is a piss take

My ds used to try to say Mother when he was smaller and it came out as "bugger" which was most amusing... I was lucky enough to have the privelige of talking to Johnnie Walker on Radio 2 a couple of years ago and he was roaring with laughter when i told him that story

ds1 phenomenal early talker. Walked at 9.5 mths and said look mummy walking.
he was advanced and has stayed that way.
dd non verbal til 3 yrs now 5.5 she has above average language skills.
ds2 14mths. Loads of words bum nana dinner all family names car door open shoes shut hat bear bike choo choo brum brum clap no

But as my mum so succinctly put it
piffle, the one thing you know for sure is that any kid of yours will feckin talk...because let's face it, you never shut up yourself...

lottie it was wonderful. like when she started blowing kisses. I was dancing on air

Babies are programmed to respond when spoken to - all babies "chat" and will put their tongues out at you if you do it to them. (Somebody on the bonkers-blog was saying that this pretend chat was unusual - it isn't!) And if you spend a lot of time listening to them of course you will hear lots of "word" type sounds. All the noises they make are pre-speech and designed to make us listen and respond to them. My dd's "hungry" cry from birth was a MuhMuhMuh noise, which, if I had wanted to produce a self obsessed blog about, i would have said was her asking for milk. Or mummy. But it wasn't. She would still have made that noise if she had been French, or Russian.

Dreamymum, if you're still on this thread, I hope you're not worrying about your child's speeceh. If you are, why not come back on there and tell us more - there is lots of experience on here!

Perhaps I can clear matters up for you.

My son took to saying water at a couple of weeks for a very simple reason: we gave him water. That should be easy enough to understand. We live in Singapore which is on the Equator - it is very hot and any baby NOT given water is likely to dehydrate. He preferred water to milk, interestingly, in such circumstances. That was his choice. Why not ask him why he preferred it?

Singapore is not the UK: things have to be done differently there. People here are thinking in terms of their own UK based lives and not considering the differences others would face.

The blog is a simple account of what happened. Anyone who actually took the time to read through it from beginning to end - some 765 posts - would realize this. It is not a "piss take" as one of you suggested.

By the way, the origin of the word "poo" is, according to the American Heritage dictionary, from the word "pooh".

Since I started the blog, we have had contact from parents with interesting children from all over the world. We accept them as they are - and never have we subjected any of them to the curious doubts I see on this site.

The world is a plural place and there are many types of people in it. A mature response is to realize, accept and celebrate that - not to have a go at it.

I have encountered many kind and interesting and intelligent people through my blogging - and it has been rewarding. Not everyone, however, is nice - but luckily they are fewer than the other kind.

Best wishes all, in raising your children, early talkers and otherwise.

I cant believe that your child was "saying" water at 2 weeks old!

DS21 - late talker - no words at all until approaching second birthday. Now almost 9, very bright, doing very well in all subjects particularly maths.

DS2 - very early talker - single words by nine months, stringing them together by one, conversing competently in joined up sentences well before age 2.

DS3 - nearly 4 - no communicative speech or language at all although he is echoing more and more words and does use some descriptive language now (e.g. Up'a Daisy for Upsy Daisy).

Excepring particularly late talkers like ds3, it's all irrelevant

ss1- talking at about a year, walking at ten months

autistic, severely dyslexic, severe emotional and behavioural delays

he did have a sppech and language assessment at 6 popping himaround the age 16 mark in ability, but if he on't talk to anyone and can't translate it onto paper it's large;y useless.

When - if- ds4 starts talking i shall as its another problem that didnt happen, but thats about it for significance really.

Thebloggerhimself - has nobody ever questioned your assertions before? Really? Maybe this thread will be an intellectual challenge for you then!

I did not question what you heard from your child - what I question is the interpretation. If you listen to a pre verbal child babbling you will hear all the elements of speech - that is what they are leaning how to do. My own daughter made a sound that I could-had I wished-have interpreted as milk or mummy. But I knew that she was not actually talking - she was making sounds and I was hearing "words". There are famous cases of talking dogs - for some reason they always seem to say "sausages"- but it is just a particular bark interpreted by the listener.

Oh and by the way, just in case anyone form a very hot country is reading this,there are no circumstances in which a breast fed two week old baby needs water - the mother's body adjusts the make up of the milk to suit the circumstances. It can actually be dangerous to give water - it could mean that the baby does not get enough milk and may become malnourished.

Wah wah wah wah
yes babies crying sounds like water.
wonder if babies first cries were beer beer beer we'd have lots of toddling alcoholics.
sorry being facetious I know!

"The world is a plural place......"

wonder what moondog would make of bloggers theories?

Hope she's around - I would like to hear her opinions too.

I alos wonder who alerted him to our discussions!

he can trace it back from his blog, seeker, i think

yes- if anyonee clicks a link he'll get stats reports saying where they came from.

my 5 week old says a noise that sounds like mummy- but its not mummy, its the sound he happens to make when his crying reaches a certain pitch

how could it be anything more?

Can he? Blimey - that's a bit scary!

Mind you I still secretly think the Internet is powered by black magic - it seems the only explanation that makes sense to me!

Blimey, hasn't he got anything better to do?