Toddler language development question

[crazyloon1]

Ds is about 18mo and he's worrying me a little bit.

I don't know if he is just totally normal but he seems only to use about 3 words most of the time - he has about 8 in total, maybe 10 - but he will spend 20 minutes just repeating two words, 'hello' and 'bye bye' with accompanying waving.

It gets a bit repetetive. He says these two words all the time. Sometimes interspersed with 'No' and shaking his head.

He will also say 'yes' or 'kyou' (thankyou) at times and he can say a few more words - bang/bo (as in peep bo)
mama

er - that's about it.
Is this usual?

My DD is 22 months now and the difference between 18 months and 22 months has been quite astonishing. She had a few words at 18 months.

Now she is singing several nursery rhymes pretty well and talking in little sentences ("what yu doin Daddy?") ("mummy, daddy an' DD goin on uh plane tu Spain!")

Your little boy is probably coming up for his language explosion in the next few months.

try this answer from someone who knows . you'll see it's not really the vocabulary that matters....

"By 18 months a child should be warmly engaged and capable of initiative and two-way communication. She should also be able to use complex gestures to communicate what she wants - taking her mother's hand and leading her to the door or toy chest, or pointing, for example. Without the use of words, she should be communicating with her parents, clearly understanding much of what they say to her, and communicating many of her own wishes back. If by 18 months the child can do these things, her gestural communication is developing on track and the building blocks of symbolic expression and language are present. .......The child who has a circumscribed language problem that will take care of itself will be mastering these preverbal gestural communication patterns."

"The Child with Special Needs", Stanley Greenspan, page 386"

Definitely agree that communication is more important than words at this age - pointing to share attention, sharing attention readily with an adult, referencing both adults and peers for social engagement/play, following age appropriate instructions etc.

i have an 18 month old DS who doesn't regularly talk. He can say 'No' but tends not to, he can also say 'hiya', and does on occasion if you walk into a room, and we think he might be able to say 'Dada' but that isn't consistent. So in terms of the number of words your DS has i wouldn't worry. I've read lots of teh other links and there is a huge variation in the number of words they can say at this age and your DS is not behind the curve IMHO.

However, I know my DS has great hearing because he hears aeroplanes before i do and looks up and points - same with trains and birds. I also know he can understand me because if i say something like 'can you get me that bag' - and point at it, he will usually get it. He also uses signs for 'biscuit' and 'had enough' and points to stuff he wants.
If you feel that your DS isn't understanding you, and hasn't given you cues that he can hear you or other things that make noise (eg does he bop to music) then maybe it is worth checking it out with an HV.
But he is still young and lots of these things just come with time.

This thread's from 2008- maybe the OP can come back and give an update?