Child development, help please

[Mummy9431]

looking For some advice
my 18 month, is barely talking she says mama, bye bye constantly but her other words like pat, ot oh, hi, bar(tar) she’s used from time to time. Blabbing all day long, everything she baaaa or babaaa.
she can do dog noise, duck noise, cow noise but if asked where these animals are in a book she’s not interested.

she’ll put her shoes on if asked and get her doll if asked where is babi. Anything else we ask she doesn’t know.
she’s just started pointing when she really wants something but not often.
does some imaginary play, feeds baby, puts blanket on baby. Tries to feed me all the time. Loves peek-a-boo, plays all time with her 5 year old sister.

does some odd things that my older girl never did, tip toe walking, and she looks through her legs upside down but not often.
responds to her name 80% of the time 20% she’s too interested in what’s she’s on with.

walked at 11 month, climbs everything and anything all day long!

I think my main concern is the speech, I feel like a lot of activities I try to do with her get over seen by her older sister. So if I ask her to find ball her sister will do it. It’s annoying but I can’t say anything because I want to include my older daughter.

should I have concerns or do you think she’s just a normal 18 month old?
I’ve also mentioned this to nursery and they have no concerns.

i feel like I’m not enjoying my daughter cause I’m so stressed about her development 🤯

Have you looked at the 18 month development questionnaire used by HV?

Looking at the questionnaire she isn’t meeting the milestones for communication. I would ask GP to refer for a hearing test and self refer to SALT.

@2026willbebetter I haven’t no, how would I get that?

https://www.cgfm.com/wp-content/uploads/ASQ-18mo.pdf

@2026willbebetter thank you!

She s 18 months only
But by all means ask hv to check

Don’t panic about her being ‘behind’ on one area. It’s common when children are excelling in other area.

I have autistic children and in terms of autistism the medical staff are only interested in tip toe walking if kids are doing it all the time.

Yes she’s just turned 18 months and I’d say she does it about 50% of the time in the house. I haven’t seen her tip toe walk outside :)

Honestly I wouldn’t be worried about this.

FWIW I had speech delay as a toddler. It was because my older sibling would always talk on my behalf/answer for me/do things for me. When they were in nursery more and I had more one to one time with my mum the speech came in quickly

FWIW, in my area nothing happens with regard to SALT until at least 2 1/2. And then a hearing test is done first. 18 months is still very young.

It can still be worth talking to the HV. My DD was only grunting at her 2 year developmental check - no words at all. The HV arranged to phone me the week DD turned 2 1/2, to get the SALT ball rolling. She remembered, which meant DD got started that much sooner.

She sounds very similar to my friends 18 month old son , he literally climbs on everything no fear whatsoever , but doesn’t say anything at all . He had a hearing test last week they said there was nothing wrong with his hearing at all , he just responded when he wanted to .

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies had the SALT helped with your little one?
I think I’m going to ask for an hearing test just to rule it out.

when we go down to the grandparents, her granny can to speaking to her and she literally ignores every word she says. It’s like she just doesn’t like her hahaha but if grandad talk she responds straight away

I was going to say that’s really common. Also children pointing and adults getting it or saying ‘you want a cup, here you are’ instead of asking ‘what do you want?’ So they’re getting opportunities to say a cup.

Also shortening words ‘ta’ instead of thank you goes through me but I know lots of people say it! Baa-baas, moo cow, choc choc, bic bic etc, often adults are saying things like that when it’d be better for them to hear the word.

DD is now 18 - but I know the 2 1/2 year threshold for SALT still applies. However, this may be area specific. My older 2 girls went on the SALT pathway at 2, as the guidelines were different. There was no discernable difference in the speech of the two older girls, who started the speech therapy 6 months earlier.

My DDs were fairly unusual - DD1 'only' had a speech delay, whilst DD2 and 3 had a severe speech delay (barely any more words at 4 than your child has at 18 months). That was it. They had no hearing issues, tongue tie, communication disorder. They were just very, very slow. They did catch up. The older two have both graduated with a first, and have good jobs (totally brazen boast, there).

Mind you, the number of people who told me their children were very advanced speakers because they spoke to them all the time made me realise that I probably shouldn't have locked them in the cupboard under the stairs, a la Harry Potter

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies hahahah what a fantastic comment! I finally know now where I’m going wrong 😂🙈