16 month old no clear words

[worriedmumma21]

My DD is 16 months (15 corrected) she was also born at a low birth weight (2.6kg) as well as a month early.

I have no concerns about her development other than speech and receptive language. She has no clear words and only some word approximations and animal sounds and I feel like I am being a little generous.

She says ow for meow every time we say cat
mmmm for mum
Ha for hello when she picks up a toy telephone
eeeee when she wants dummy
aaaa for baaa when I say sheep

She has said mum mum maybe 3 times, boo twice but I feel like I can't really count these as its not consistent.

She started pointed a few weeks ago ( I was worried about that but not so much now)

She's really good with her gestures- if someone says bye she will wave, she does high five, she does some actions to a couple of songs. She's not great with her receptive language- if I ask her to come here she will, or if I tell her no she will stop, but if I ask her where the dog is (which I have done what feels like 100 times) she doesn't look or search for him.

I have had her in speech pathology for about 4 months but it's online been online due to covid so it feel very slow progress, but I know I am doing every strategy to help her to talk including even using her touching my mouth when I say sounds and of course facing her etc

I would love to know if anyone else little one was liked this and they turned out just to be a late talker and all caught up just fine??
I am soooo worried about her not catching up

Absolutely nothing to worry about. She's too young to be talking. Give it 6 months and she'll likely be talking loads.

The speech sounds normal - DD managed her first 'word' at 14 months, it was 'she' for sheep which she used for any animal, so pretty similar. She didn't say mama until 22 months, but by 3 was really articulate.

I can't comment on the receptive language (though I understand your concern), sorry.

UK Speech and Language Therapist here. She wouldn't even have been referred to our services as that is completely within normal limits for her age!

My 20 month old has only really started to say words in the last month or so. They're tumbling out now - hes still yet to link to words together though. Your little one is fine!

@2ndTimeRound90

UK Speech and Language Therapist here. She wouldn't even have been referred to our services as that is completely within normal limits for her age!

Out of interest, when do they stop being 'late talkers' and when is it a cause for concern?

Very similar here. My DD was born a month early but even smaller (1.6kg). She’s 19 months and only says mum and dad but knows loads of animal sounds. I was worried too but the lovely people here reassured me it’s normal. She’s started babbling a hell of a lot lately so hoping some words will follow.

Is your DD walking? I found my DD went very quiet when she learnt to walk. Recently she’s been learning to run and jump so assuming she’s working on that rather than talking.

I think there's a really big range and she just might need abit more time

I thought that was normal? My 16 month old only says dada, no, tee (tree), and barks when she sees a dog. She will do things like high five, clap, touch her nose etc too. I think you've got plenty of time before you need to start worrying about it.

She sounds like she’s a little delayed but nothing so out of the ordinary that it’s really concerning.

I would speak to your health visitor about getting the ball rolling for a SALT referral and hearing test, and in the meantime keep doing what you’re doing.

My nephew was like this - no words at all til well after he turned two, and now after some SALT he’s a total chatterbox and is actually ahead of the speech milestone for his age. Some children just need a little extra help to get going.

I have a 16.5mo and sounds very similar. He says dadadaa and mmmumummum, makes sounds for animals but kind of the same 'eeeeekkkk' for most animals.
He was very interested in santa and could say 'sansa' when we pointed to santa ... but now xmas over so its no longer relevant 🤣
He understands a lot though, I can ask him to do things.
He was walking from a young age and can kick and catch/throw a ball very well so I think that's where all his brain power is going at the moment.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene
Our service would probably accept a referral if a child was approaching two with no words at all, but if the rest of their development was appropriate and their understanding of language (receptive language) was fine then they would likely just receive some initial advice and parent training to help support language development. Any attempts at words are accepted, they don't have to be pronounced clearly. Animal noises technically count as words too!
A referral would be accepted earlier than 2 if there was no/little evidence of understanding of familiar language or no communicative intent as those would be more of a concern - could indicate hearing issues, more concerning language delay or cognitive difficulties.