Am I too laid-back about my sons lack of speech

[Bleatblurt]

He has just turned 20 months and only says car, bob (the builder) and ball.

He is smart, funny and not behind in any other ways so I hadn't worried about it as I just assumed he couldn't get a word in edge-ways between me and DS1 and figured he was just lazy like me, definitely me DH.

But now I'm worrying that I'm not worrying. [rolls eyes at self]

Should I be worried? I guess the change from being in a teens month to being a twenty something month has made me think.

I would say,as long as he has lots of babble,pointing,eye contact etc etc and can understand simple instructions that you are saying to him this all sounds perfectly fine and dandy

(mother of severley speech delayed child)

There is a lot babbling and what appears to be attempts at singing!

He understand instuctions like, "Go jump on Daddy to wake him up," too.

I knew I shoudn't have googled.

Thanks wrinklytum.

my dd3 is 20 months , she says mum, bo(for bottle). This week she decided to say cheese and shoes.

my dd1 was speaking in long complicated sentences at the same age. funnily enough she is 14 now and says very little

if you are too laid back, then so am i!

oh blimey - not at all too laid back.

Sounds like my DS1 at 23 months .

He's 8 now and never shuts up, and when he did eventually speak it's always been very clear.

Relax and enjoy, he'll be fine it's very early days,don't compare him to other children he's unique!

Message withdrawn

My dd is 18 mths and still says the same 3 words she could at 9 mths.
I do sometimes do think i should be worrying but she understands simple instructions and follows them and babbles a lot or pulls me to where she wants to go so trying to think it is the can't get a word in scenario!
My ds and dd1 were both talking a lot at this age so can understand why you feel you should worry.

Thank you everyone, you have all put my mind at rest. I shall carry on not worrying and stop worrying about not worrying.

Definately butterball don't worry.

My ds is 21 months and my hv had me so wound about his lack of speech. Talked about referring him to SALT at 18 months and had me take him to the gp to check for glue ear (not a thing wrong with him).

He never really babbled except making ga ga noises and in the past two weeks his speech (noises) are really flourishing. Now it's mummm and daddy and doggie.

I've since learned as long as they do the sing song imitating speech and pointing or gesturing to things not to really stress.

Whenever I give him instructions he follows them so that's the main thing to me. He understands, is just lazy about vocalising.

it's understanding and gestural communication that you want to focus on.

Don't worry, he is still within the 'typical range' for developing talking.

I would try some more complicated instructions though just to be sure.

Can he follow?
Put the teddy under the bed.
Put teddy under the ball (this is the test instructions because it wont work but he should look puzzled or try it)

Also, make sure he is asking for things, e.g. pointing, pulling

If you have any concerns ask your GP for a referral to a speech & language therapist - they usually see kids around 3yrs, earlier is there are difficulties in understanding basic instructions.

1 thing that I find frequently: when parents speak to kids they often question instead of label. When DS points say the noun and maybe a a verb too, e.g. car, car driving
NOT 'What's that?', otherwise the next few words DS says to you are going to be 'What's that?' instead of building a vocabulary of words.

Good luck, sounds fine to me, watchful waiting

Is his hearing fine? Seems to be since he has a few words and can understand instructions.

My youngest had a tiny vocabulary between 2 & 3, mostly concerned with wheeled transport (car journeys were very boring) but he understood lots & eventually became extremely articulate.

(He was referred to speech therapy due to problems with various consonant sounds but it was just a developmental thing - watchful waiting, as TurtleAnn says )

He can follow instuctions very well. Except, "Don't do that!" he pretty much ignores that one. He can fetch things I ask for and put things away where I say etc so I'm not worried about his understanding.

He can hear the word biscuit from behind a closed door so his hearing must be fine.

I do do the, "What's that?" thing but always follow it up by saying, "It's a train," but perhaps I'll just skip the what's that part now. Thanks for the advice.

I think it was the lack of saying mummy and daddy that had me thinking. They seem like words he should be saying but he's pretty much attached to me 24/7 so he never needs to say mum.

Thanks again for everyone's comments. It's great to hear what others think.

Worry when he gets to 3 and not before

My ds didn't speak much initially - but he is 5 now and very voluble

DD has just turned 2, She only has about 20 words and most of them have been in the last 6 weeks or so.
She never said Mummy or Daddy until recently and now she says them ALL the time, over and over again (As well and NO and MORE )

My godson is 20 months and only has very limited words, although he is starting to talk a bit more in the last month. Most of it is still babble though, buthe seems to have a new word each week.

my dd could only say 'ta' at 20mo.

She is now 3 and talks very well. She is quite babyish in the way she sounds and still says, 'can ME do it' and 'she's putting she's shoes on' but that's getting better now!!

my 4yo ds is fab with language- grammar and vocab so it's hard to know if she's more average or not bacause he was so good IFYSWIM.