18 month old speech

[Nc1468]

I don't know if I'm expecting too much? But DS is almost 18 months and isn't really talking. He did have a few words but since he's been walking he seems to have forgotten them!

HV is coming to see him on Tuesday but should I be concerned? I'm also not sure how much he understands what I ask him to do as sometimes it seems he does and other times it's like I'm speaking a different language!

DS didn’t say anything at all at 18 months. He’s almost 2 now and has about 30 words. He has a paediatrician because he was prem and she isn’t concerned, because the understanding it there. Ie I say put that in the bin please, and he scuttles off and puts it in the bin.
He gets checked again in 6 months.
I think it’s fairly normal for an 18 month old not to have words.
Always follow your gut of course and just check in with the health visitor.

Just to be clear that he wasn’t following any instructions at 18 months either! It all started coming at about 22 months.

Do you read a lot to your little one? Or perhaps instead of reading point out the photos or pics and say what the things/animals are. I kind of make up the story along the way (maybe following a bit of the real story). But instead of using for example the made up names for the character like wendy, max etc for the animals in the story I will say what the animals are. The dog put the ball in the bush (instead of max put the ball...). I will also add extra words to describe things like green bush or red spotty ball. And when we walk I point at things and say look “that person is biking. They are running” basically explaining everything. I did this for my first two and joe for my third (youngest is almost 15 months). I forget how many words they speak when this age or how much they understand. My dd seems to say mama for a lot of things. We think she uses it for a general word like “solve this” “help” “I want this” she knows I will solve her issues so Calls out “mama” lol. Also, if they are learning two languages at once I can delay them a little w speaking. Although, again I’m not sure as my first two learned English first and then French. But third is learning french the same time as English and atm she is too young to notice. She says a few words in English and in French. My first born was speaking proper clear sentences by age two. My second (boy) wasn’t as advanced and it was difficult to understand him.

One thing to look out for is if their hearing is okay. Bc if they can’t hear Well they won’t be able to follow instructions or understand. Glue ear can cause this. My dd has glue ear when she was 4 and it caused her teachers to think she wasn’t listening. Until we realised when one of them said “its like she can’t hear us “ and it was a light bulb moment. We realised she had some temporary hearing loss from glue ear. After a year she was back to normal.

@abouttimemum thank you for this! I swear he did have some words but had stopped! We've just had another baby so I have heard that they do go backwards a little bit so hopefully by the time he's 2 I'll be wondering why I ever worried!

My little one is 18 months in couple of weeks and says "iya" as a solid word and that's it. She did used to say a couple or more thinks but seems to have forgotten, I so think lockdown has impacted things a lot with lack of social contact etc. I'm hoping things catch up this summer with more reading and time with other children and adults as well.

Thank you for that, that's made me feel so much better!

Lockdown definitely hasn't helped has it?

Ds couldn’t say much at all at 18 months, maybe just 3 or 4 unclear words. Now at 21 months he says loads and we hear new words every day. He’s just started joining 2 words together too.