Late talker?

[EE13]

Hi everyone I really need some perspective, as in should I be worried? I have a 15 month old baby who hasn’t really started talking yet. We live abroad ( The Netherlands) , obviously I am talking to him in English, but we agreed with my husband that he will speak to him in his own language. It is really a multilingual environment because I have lots of Italian friends and many times my little one can hear me talking to them in Italian as well. Sometimes the tv is on on Dutch programs so it might be a bit to much for him?! I don’t know. Truth is I wasn’t worried until now but my sister in law called and she was going on and on about how the daughter of her friend who was born like 2 weeks before my son can already say some two syllable words. And then I read that by 18 months they are supposed to speak around twenty words and so I just panicked because that is in less than three months and I don’t know if it will happen to us… so I‘d spent the entire afternoon- evening panicking and freaking out reading whatever I could find online. But what would really help me is some real experience from bilingual families. Just for the description baby is totally healthy in every other way, eating, sleeping good. Loves animals and likes to play alone but also very interested in other children. Loves music and tries to dance sometimes. I just really think he is more interested in moving around and being active than anything else. Points to things and understands everything we say to him in both languages. Sometimes I think he says mum (when he is crying) but because I am a very hands on mum I don’t really let him be upset. He is making lots of sounds but none of them are words (yet). Should I be worried? Do you have any suggestions? What are your experiences? Thanks a lot, from an anxious mum.

I wouldn't worry.

Our dd1 spoke very early. Around 12 months.
Ds1 and dd2 were around 2.5 yo before they spoke in a way other people could make sense of.

If you worry take advice from people with knowledge about children with more languages. Never trust advice from nursery teachers only working with monolingual children. They asked us to stop talking to our children in more than the common language Dpoken in nursery. They would have lost their native language if we had agreed.
You could follow some bi/multilingual parents groups on FB with parents in similar situations.

Years ago I read that babies who grow up in a bilingual (or more) family are late talkers and slow to develop speech but then overtake single-language children as theyir brains have a greater concept of how language can work. And they find it easier to pick up a third or fourth language. Don't worry. It sounds normal.

Don’t worry at all, it will come. You may want to join one of many Facebook groups for multilingual parents. Lots of similar stories.

My HV told me that in bi/multilingual families, babies are slow to start speaking but fast pick up both / all languages.

She encouraged me to speak to DC in both our languages and not worry about late speaking.

It was fine

He sounds like my eldest.
He understood, but he didn't really speak until well after 2 and then wasn't clear for a long time. He didn't care, as was more interested in action than speech. He used to get his younger brother to speak for him!

When he actually started speaking he quickly had a full vocabulary, so I think he was taking it all in for future use.

Try not to worry, they do things when they are ready.

Waking at one, talking at two.

Dts didn't have any words until the week after their second birthday. They babbled and 'spoke' to each other but nothing else. The they started talking in pretty much complete
Sentences and haven't stopped since

Ours is 21 months and not a word yet.

two very different languages.

not particularly worried, I wouldn’t sweat it if I were you - I am actually you in a manner of speaking!

Remember that for bilingual/multilingual children every word in every language counts in terms of milestones. Even word approximations.

So if your DC can say "milk" in three languages that's actually three words that count towards the milestone.

Check out bilingual/multilingual accounts on IG as I've found them super helpful.

The general rule is one for walking , two for talking. It's not time to worry at all.

You’d think actually it was further towards the milestone as the three words are known plus they know it’s the same thing which is a fourth element to the same thing.

15 months is still very early!

DD1 is 4 years old and barely said a word before she was 2. She's now fully fluent in two languages and hardly takes a breath!

My godson is bilingual (as was I as a child) and he was a slow talker. It ultimately turned out there were some challenges he needed to overcome and being bilingual was a red herring.

I would definitely ensure a hearing test is done and keep a close eye on this, as I’m sure you plan to. You could call the UK speech charity I Can at this stage for a bit of a chat, as they have a helpline where you can speak to their marvellous speech therapist John for free (they make an appointment for you for a short call).