Health visitor or give him more time?

[Winterfellismyhome]

Hello,

My DS is almost 19 months and doesnt know any words. He can babble dadada and mamama but has no words. He can understand certain things fine. I don't know if im being too overbearing by wanting to make an appointment to see where we can go from here. He goes to nursery 3 mornings a week. We sing and read with him at home also. Any advice is welcome. Thanks

More time! Completely normal at this stage and I don't think health visitors would do anything till about the 2 year point.

If your worried then it’s always worth giving your HV a call for a quick chat.

Approach them now -- if there IS a problem then a referral now will get him on the waiting list and you can always cancel any SLT appointments if (as it's entirely possible) everything resolves by itself.

By all means give them a ring but I doubt they'll do anything until 2 years at the earliest.

Do you have any concerns about his hearing?

You can self refer for speech therapy on the NHS and it maybe quicker to go to your GP rather than the HV. My DS is 28 months and he has very few words. We taught him Makaton which has helped him communicate and has brought on some of his speech.

Thanks everyone

Not really any worries about his hearing. Sometimes he ignores us but i put it more down to being engrossed in what hes doing

My son is 18 months and knows no words although he is just starting to imitate proper sounds or very very loosely attempt some words "tata" for "tractor" for example. Nursery have assured me he is not behind for his age and they wouldn't worry until he is closer to 2. So I'm trying not to! :)

How about having a look at the Talking Point website? They have lots of useful information on what they should be doing at what age and tips on encouraging speech.

It might also be worth doing the m-chat before you speak to your HV