Hi. Im sorry this post is long! My ds1 will be 2 yrs of age next week. I was worried about his language as he only had a few words at 18 months and was so physical not interested at all in listening to me and eventhough he communicated well,preferrd sounds and expressions to the actual words. In the last few months however he has come along SO well and understands absolutely everything we say to him and responds to commands(even in complex sentences) He babbled very early and has had no developmental problems. Ive posted on here before and have been reassured that he doesnt have a major delay and is ahead of some kids his age(although there are children younger making proper sentences...but just want a professional opinion to make sure!?
Im still a tad worried he is behind because he didnt start talking til later than some of his peers...but now he is becoming a real chatter. I would just like to know if he is now doing okay for his age or should I still look into having him assessed/his hearing looked at or speech therapy? I bought "it takes two to talk" by the hanen foundation a few months back and it reassured me a lot as well as helped give me better ways to help him along, but I do think something just clicked and he decided words were interesting LOL
His vocabulary consists of about 70 words or maybe more but he often uses a word and then doesnt again...he uses about 45 words regularly(on a daily basis). Some of them he does say wrong like he says "ra ra ra" for round and round and "boa" for boat, "coa" for coat etc but can say words such as "teeth" properly. I counted the words he uses regularly which anyone would understand (if a stranger assessed him) as he says them completely correctly and there is about 25 words. He also uses an additional 20 expressions (such as uh-oh, vroom,beepbeep,shh,wow,woah,ah-ah ...etc)that I havent counted as words eventhough he uses them in the right way(and had some of them before his 1st bday,before he started getting many words). He makes at least 15 animal sounds and knows all his body parts,animals,clothes and so on though he doesnt use that many of them. He doesnt use many prepositions other than "up". He uses some verbs such as bounce,pour...
He can join a few words such as "all gone" "daddy car" "Oh God" "im ok" "go bubble(bath)" etc ...and has been saying the same sentence for quite a while now with different variations such as "I got car/ball/bubble" and has started using his name instead of I. Other than this he doesnt say "my ...." or other sentences as I hear other kids his age saying. He has started trying to say "mama's this/that" He prefers to use animal sounds for the names of animals he knows and his expressive language is definitely less than his receptive language.
In the last few weeks he has started to copy things I say automatically but it doesnt seem to flow as easily as with some other kids,he definitely doesnt parrot what he hears...I think part of that is he only uses words when hes sure of their meaning and can use them in the right context. He says hello, thank you, byebye etc at relevant times to everyone and says his favorite objects(like car, ball etc) whenever he sees them but usually says "there" about things even when Im sure he knows the word for them.
Thought its worth mentioning that he is a first child and at home with me during the day, dh doesnt worry at all about his speech but he doesnt have many relatives or people around to chat to other than me and dh's family speak to him in another language...not that hes picking it up as they arent consistent with it...they just babble fluently as they would to an adult so I dont think hes learnt any of their langauge.
I know he is not a particularly quick talker but he is very physically advanced. Id just like to be sure that hes within the range of normal speech development as many milestone lists say different things.Im hoping now that hes turning two there will be a language explosion as Ive heard people say. If there is any Speech and Language Therapist or expert could they just give me an idea if hes doing okay so I stop worrying about it...or should I have him assessed? Many thanks