what age should a child start talking at?

[leeanne1407]

i no every child is different by my son is now 2 yrs and 1 month and doesnt talk at all really he can say "daniel" and hiya but that is it ive tried encourging him to say things but he just has none of it, i have two friends and their kids were born 4 months before mines but they have been talking for ages and are great little chatter boxes
am i just worrying about nothing?

Have you had his hearing checked?

Does he point at objects of interest?

Does he make sounds - babababa that kind of thing?

I'ld get it checked out now he's two - some kids are late talkers, and don't get going much before 3 without their being any problems - but I'ld start with getting a hearing test and speaking to HV/GP - or if you can easily talk to a speech therapist - such children's centres have drop-in sessions with a speech therapist.

useful websites:
www.ican.org.uk
www.teachmetotalk.com (has free video clips)

useful books:
baby talk by Sally Ward
The Parent's Guide to Speech and Language Problems.

might be worth trying out some baby signing with him as well to help him communicate with you.

The point at which they say you should be looking for some sort of problem (eg hearing etc) is if they don't have 20 words by the age of two (unless you are bringing up dc to be bilingual).

yeah he points at stuff no problem and if hes wanting a drink or that he will just winge and winge till he gets one, its actually got to the point i no what he wants by the sounds hes making if that makes any sence

Is your child a second+ child? My little one is lazy at talking because her slightly older sibling talks for her. I found asking questions really good for getting her talking. For example, "milk or water?" and it's amazing how quickly she started answering, especially when one of the options was less attractive!

I could have written what you did - ds was barely saying two words by the time he was 2 ys 1 mth, at 2 ys 2 mths started saying quite a few by 2.6 was talking loads.

His cousin was the same but a few months later.

His other cousin was talking reasonably well in three languages by the age of 2!

They are all different. I talked to a paed and a psychologist when he turned two (and my ILs were going crazy about him not talking) and they agreed that if he was communicating effectively using non-verbal means you could leave it a fair bit longer before worrying.

My DD didn't start until she was 2 years 3 months - now at 3.5 she doesn't stop !!!!