Worried about my 19mo

[Cinderella1997]

My little boy is 19 months and I’m worried about his speech.
He understands things like ‘no’ and ‘give me a kiss’ ‘hi-5’ and does all those things brilliantly but he doesn’t say any words other than ‘mama’ ‘dada’ & ‘uh-oh’.
Is this what people would call ‘normal’ and I’m worried about nothing and he’ll speak in his own time or is this behind? He’s so quick at learning things such as, walking and etc but verbally he doesn’t seem very interested, I mean he talks in his own language and seems as if he wants to say something but things don’t actually come out?
Thank you for reading.

Kids develop skills at all different rates, and plenty of kids who are late talkers go on to have no issues at all, but I think I would be starting to make enquiries with the health visitors or gp if I were in this situation. If there does turn out to be an issue then early SALT might make all the difference.

As a guide the ages and stages questionnaire looks for 5 “words” (including sounds with a particular meaning) at 1 year, and being able to use 3/4 word phrases at 2 yrs.

My friends LO had delayed speech and it turned out to be undiagnosed tounge tie, so I’d get that checked as well.

Go see the HV and ask for a SALT referral. It took almost 18 months from me asking for DD to her starting proper speech therapy and 3.4 her speech is classed as severely disordered. All being well your child will have a vocabulary explosion and you can just remove yourself from the system but I would always advise going to the services sooner than later.

Just for reassurance, my DD didn’t talk till she was 3. She did have 6 sessions of SALT at 4 but then was discharged.

How’s his hearing? It might be worth asking your HV if she can refer him for a hearing test.

My DS1 didn’t say much until he turned 3. At 2 he had zero words. Even at 2.5. There is so much nonsense about how children need to be doing xyz by certain timelines but every child is different. And boys are typically much later.

I even sent my son to a private speech therapist at 2.5 and she assessed his understanding which was fine. Then she said the speech will come. And it did. Now at 3.5 he won’t shut up.

Her view was first words are fine anywhere between 2 and 3 years old and that comparing your child/googling it is pointless because they will do it in their own time.

Now my DS2 is nearly 2 and has no words. I’m not even remotely worried.

My DD1 had about 10 words by the time she was 2, she understood a huge amount, just didn't say anything. By about 2yrs 4 months she had caught up with what was 'expected', when she started talking she just really got the hang of it quickly. DD2 on the other hand is 20 months and talks the hind leg off a donkey- she actually said "I'll be back in a minute" to me this morning! I think the main thing is all children are different (in my case despite the same upbringing) and to not worry at all just yet.

Thank you all for your replies. His hearing is fine as far as I’m aware as he does pu attention to things, like you tell him it’s bath time and he goes to the stairs and waits for the stair gate to be opened, he puts things in the bin when told, he brings me things, he just does not want to say much, today I’ve taught him how to say ‘cheese’ for taking a picture but he seems to be trying to say “say cheese” like I say to him lol. I’m going to speak to my hv tomorrow just to get her opinion but thank you, a lot of these replies have put my mind to rest x

Don't forget a lot of communication is non verbal too. Does he gesture, smile, nod etc? These are important aspects of communication too and are a reassuring aspect of development

Ds had slightly delayed speech due to glue ear. Our HV told us to fill in the self assessment here www.talkingpoint.org.uk/progress-checker , which we did. It came out that we needed to see SALT and on the basis of the self assessment we'd done we were able to self refer. (His glue ear cleared up and his speech has caught up at 2.5).

My youngest daughter began to talk at 10 months and was talking in sentences at 18 months. My friend had a daughter the same age who barely babbled but suddenly began speaking in sentences at about 3 years. Within a couple of months there was no difference between my "early" talker and her "late" talker so I wouldn't worry about it all. They all go at their own pace!

Thank you all.
I spoke to my health visitor today and she’s going to put in a referral, but today he’s decided to start making new sounds, saying “oh” and “up” since this afternoon anyway, but thank you all for your replies x