What counts as "recognisable" in the "need to have 50 recognisable words by 2 years" quota?

[fettle]

DS was 2 in September - I received my birthday card from the health visitor this morning who had me slightly concerned about him 6 months ago, as he was saying nothing.

He easily says 50 words now (I think), but quite a few of them, only I can understand:
Such as "dup" = cup, but also means up, ""el-el-a" = helicopter, "yah-yah" = Bob the builder, "tat tat tat" = Postman man, "to-to-tops" - cocoa pops. He has other more recognisable ones such as "dye" = bye, "hello" = hello!.

Do these words count, or should I be a bit more concerned?

I have no concerns about his understanding or making himself understood, pointing etc and eye contact is fine. It is just his actual speaking.

Thanks for your help

My DS2 said nothing for the first 2 years and soon after his 2nd birthday began talking - launching in to 2-3 word sentences. He is 6 years old now and if I were to describe any of my DCs as 'chatterbox' it would be him!

Every child develops at a different rate, even within the same family. I am sure you have nothing to be concerned about and I feel certain that now he is gaining a good vocabulary, the next step will be his developing pronunciation so that others can understand him, too.

50 words by age 2? I thought it was more normal for boys to have 2 words by age 2, 3 by age 3 and then suddenly about 200 in the space of a week

I have no idea though, I just remember hearing this somewhere. 50 words by age 2 seems like a lot.

Your son is doing fine, I know someone who's son isn't even saying a single word and he is two and a half now.

I honestly wouldn't worry, he seems 'normal', so to speak.

At this stage I think it's more important that he's labelling things consistantly with the same "words" than getting the words exactly right.

Thank you all so much! It is hard being a parent - always something to worry about!

I wish I knew why Bob the Builder was "Yah Yah" though! See that one sticking for a long time and I personally love "el-el-el-a" (which also means aeroplane!)- you have to witness the accompanying finger pointed to the sky going around in circles while he says it to signify helicopter over aeroplane! 'Tis very cute.

We have speech therapy for my dd and we were told it was between 6 - 50 words by age 2 so your ds is doing fine!

Thanks Scotty - but they should tell that to my HV's - they told me 6-50 words by 18 months and 50-200 by 2 years! And if he wasn't saying 50 words by 2 years, to go back and see them again.

I'm feeling more reassured that he's doing ok now.

Sorry - Scottie, spelt your name wrong.

The words are recognisable to you. I think it's whether he's meaning them rather than articulating them perfectly. I'd never heard of this 50 word standard.

your son's words sound so cute! 'tat tat tat' for postman pat. awww!