18 months old, not speaking, HV has worried me!

[sockonmyhead]

Sorry to do another 'not speaking' thread but having spoken to the health visitor I am now stressing about DS3 so advise would be greatly appreciated!

He is 18 months, has no words but babbles and chats constantly. He doesn't know his body parts and doesn't follow simple instructions. He was a quite late walker, only just steady now. He also doesn't point or wave. His hearing seems fine, but now I am questioning if what I put down to selective hearing is more than that. But would a simple hearing problem explain the no waving or is it something more?

HV wants me to take him in to be looked at but not until Thursday so I am now going to spend all week fretting. Does anyone have any experience of this please?

If he is babbling and chatting then evrything is probably fine.
There is no point in anyone telling you not to worry because you will.
But I would just assume that she is being very cautious because of his lack of pointing and lack of understanding - but 18 months is very young and the chances are it is nothing.

But it took me ages to get someone to see DS" and the delay in getting help meantthat his speech delay was probably more acute than it needed to be if he was seen earlier.

So I don't see his being referred over a suspicion of a delay as a bad thing.
But if he has a slight delay better to get someone looking now as the earlier the intervention, the better the outcome.

But it really is probably nothing at all

my ds, 18 months, doesn't talk either. He chats and babbles a lot too. My dh says he didn't speak until 2.6. My hv is completely chilled about it.

My ds does things like go to the fridge & get the carton if I ask him if he wants milk and he runs to the bathroom if I say "clean teeth". Those are things he likes. But if I say "time for bed" or "shoes on" he ignores me. So I think the selective hearing idea is likely.

Do you use the same simple phrases all the time so he can recognise them. Maybe try saying "want milk?" before you give him his bottle. He'll soon work it out. Don't worry, for some reason speech seems to be the focus topic of the moment

My DS had a handful of words at 18 months, but like yours, he babbled a lot. My HV advised it was normal, and if he hadn't started talking by about 2.6 to come back.

Just before his 2nd birthday he seemed to 'get it' and started talking very quickly; he's 2.6 now and can hold full fluent conversations. He's now the bossiest toddler I know!

I think these days so many worry about asd and the link to lack of speech if children aren't holding fluent convos by 18 months everyone worries when the reality is that is perfectly normal. My friends baby had his 1 year check and because he didn't have 20 words yet she was going to ring in a few weeks to see if friends ds speech had come along! He is 12 months old,how mental is that!!! Try and relax it's normal x

Hi, thanks for all the replies. If it was just his speech I wouldn't be too worried, but he seems to have missed some other milestones too. Bloody kids will always give you something to fret about!

Please don't fret yet. Your HV is right to investigate, but that doesn't mean that there is a problem.

I have 3dc. Ds1 and dd had massive vocabularies at 18m, and understood simple instructions from before they could talk. Ds2 (dc3) had 2 wordsounds at 18m, and did not understand instructions, though he did point and sometimes waved. When I realised the differnce between him and his siblings I was horrified and worried.

Then I got thinking: ds2 had been a terrible sleeper, and I had been a stumbling zombie for the preceding 18m. Whereas with the other two I had talked all the time, I barely spoke to ds2. For example, with the others dressing was accompanied by runnign commentary: "Oh, where is X's hand? In it goes, into the sleeve! Oh, hand, where are you? Hello hand!" and so on. Whereas ds2 just got shoved into his clothes any old how in stony just-got-to-get-it-over-with silence.

So I made a massive effort and talked to him. Made eye-contact and jabbered away. Within a month he was using about 5 words, consistently, and within two months he was showing understanding of instructions and games. By the time he was 2yo he had almost caught up with his peers. And now, at 3 he doesn't shut up.

With 3 x ds - coudl you be in the same position as I was?

That is what I am thinking prettycandles, the older ones were much more 'advanced' but he doesn't get much one on one time so there is a good chance it's just that. Will start jabbering away and see what happens, although i'd be much happier if he could suddenly start waving and pointing this afternoon!

Don't worry. My dd1 (middle child) was late in all her milestones and couldn't do body parts/animal sounds etc at that age.

She didn't sit up till well over 8 months, walked at 20mths.

At 18-20mths she had one word- ta. She didn't even say dada or mama. She didn't babble either just made open mouthed sounds like ahhh and oooh. I don't think she could wave or point either. She could maybe clap hands?

Anyway by 2.5 she was talking, difficult to understand and quite babyish but talkingt all the same.

She is 3.5 now and you can't shut her up. She still has quite immature speech patterns (she's putting she's shoes on etc) and is sometimes difficult to understand. She also talks very loudly so I am taking her for a hearing test. However, she has a massive vocabularly now and there's n real problems.

I think some children are just like that. My eldest is really advanced, particularly with language so it made the difference even more noticeable. DD2 is now 22mths and has lots of single words and is just beginning to put 2 words together whereas ds could talk in sentences and dd1 couldn't talk at all!