14 month old not walking or talking

[Foreverbaffled]

My baby is going to 14 months next week (although came 3 weeks early so closer to 13.5 months but I know you're not meant to correct age after 37 weeks).

I'm getting concerned that he's not walking or talking yet.

He was on the black section of the ASQ for gross motor at his 12 month review although has made some progress since. He just about cruises and will take steps if you hold his hands but nowhere near independent steps or steps with a walker. He crawls like a pro though and has been sitting unaided since 6 months. He was diagnosed with hypermobility at 4 months so maybe it's that.

In terms of communication he's been babbling since 8 months with a variety of sounds, has great joint attention, name response and adequate receptive language (knows the word for many many things and will look/point when asked where they are. He doesn't follow commands without a gesture though) and points to request and share interest, he also claps, waves and imitates gestures (and some sounds) well.

My health visitor said normally children are working on walking or talking at this age and the fact he isn't doing either is concerning. I'm really struggling with this.

Does anyone have any similar experiences? Thanks.

Don't worry too much yet OP, my son didn't walk properly until 15/16 months and badly at that. He's 3 now and still walks a little funny now. He was also a late talker but can't remember what age but doesn't stop talking now!

My little girl is 16 months and hasn't started walking and doesn't stand up or pull herself up. She is a bumshuffler and gets around happily enough. My hv phoned about a month ago and said she will ring back to see if there is any progress by end of Feb. If not she is going yo refer her to physio. @Embracelife can I ask you about hypermobility please what are the signs thankyou xx

My son was the same at 14 months. I was concerned for ages about developmental disorders but it's turned out he's just a late bloomer.

Didn't walk until 16 months. Didn't have any words until 2.2. He's now 2.5 and has lots of words but only just started putting words together.

I saw lots of specialists due to my worry / anxiety and all said he was fine. It can be very normal to be late, and 14 months isn't considered late anyway.

My DD only had a few words by 14 months and couldn't walk or crawl, only bum shuffle. She started walking at 16 months and this is also around the same time she started learning words really quickly. Her speech acquisition just suddenly accelerated at that point and by 2 she was speaking in sentences. At 3.5 she is very articulate and has a very wide vocabulary - I have seen a lot of her peers and I would say her speech is more 'mature' than most of them. She wasn't an early talker by any means but seems to have 'overtaken' as time went on. Physical wise she's always been cautious and doesn't have amazing gross motor skills, perhaps a little 'behind' her peers with physical play but not to the extent that it's particularly noticeable or an issue at all.

My health visitor said normally children are working on walking or talking at this age and the fact he isn't doing either is concerning

Absolute rubbish

Really really recommend sign language for kids who are a bit late talking. It is a great way to communicate with them

It’s the late end of normal

My DD didn’t start walking or talking until 15 months. She’s now a total chatterbox at 2.3 and people often comment of the breadth of her vocabulary. Once she started talking, she was off! Gross motor still isn’t a strong point but she is well within normal range. I think it’s important to remember that normal ranges are wide and milestones are only based on averages. Your DS sounds just fine to me 💐

DD didn't crawl until 10.5 months, pull herself up to standing until her 1st birthday or walk until 15 months. She would only say mama and dada. She's 2 now and honestly, she runs around, doesn't stop talking, can happily talk in 4 word or more sentences. They do things in their own time and once they start, they'll be off and won't stop! Don't panic x

@RedHot22

I’m angry about your health visitors comments

Try not to worry OP. None of my 4 walked until 15 months or so and one hardly made a sound. They’re all absolutely fine.

I'm angry too. HVs should know better (but so many don't!). Lots of babies don't walk or talk at fourteen months. Your baby sounds fine.

My ds spoke fluent Serbo Croatian babbled until he was about 3 - apparently complete sentences but utterly incomprehensible He understood everything we said though - and I had apparently also been late to talk so we weren't worried.

He only learnt to commando crawl at 11 months, was cruising at a year, properly crawling at 13 months (and climbing stairs ) and only walked at 17 months.

He only learnt to read when he was 6.5 years old, towards the end of P2 (school were very supportive but said that some kids just weren't ready until they were around 6).

He's now 21, in his final (4th) year of an Honours degree of a reading & writing heavy degree (Politics and International Relations) and is a very good (and fast ) scrum half.

Just goes to show

....and if only we could shut him up now

He talks for Scotland, at great speed.

My DD wasn't walking or talking at 14m and I'm a Speech Therapist! She started walking at 15m and was great at it. She started using words around about then too.

Your DS's communication skills seem to be developing fine. The research says (sorry no references!) that they start labelling things about 3 months after they start pointing at them. Also if he understands some words, he is halfway there.

Really try not to worry at the moment. If by 18 months he is not doing either, then it might need looking at.

Oh and DD is 6 now and I don't think she has drawn breath for 4 years apart from when she is asleep

(The weird reference in my previous post to my daughter being 'great' at walking, way poor attempt to explain she never really fell over because she waited until she was confident. It was definitely character in her case; being cautious).

Absolute nonsense. Every child is different. My niece did the shuffle-bottom until she was 17 months.nce My dgs didn't talk until he was 3 and a half. My niece walks perfectly and dgs can talk the hind leg off a donkey, ever since he was 5!

DD1 didn't start talking until she was coming up to 2yo. DS and DD2 somewhere around 18 months. They were all bum shufflers, no crawling. Didn't start walking until 16 months-ish.

All children are different.

DS started walking at 16 months, he's almost 18 months and has not long said his first word - did have problems with his ears but the consultant at the ENT clinic said they wouldn't worry until he was about 3 for not speaking even if there hadn't been any problems

Mine didn’t walk until 15 months and talk until 25 months. Zero concerns about their development.

Sounds very similar to my DC2. They didn’t really walk until about 18 months and babbled a lot but no real words until about 20 months.

At 24 months they are now quick on their feet and a super climber (unfortunately!). Also their speech came on at a phenomenal rate once it started. Very quickly progressed to 4 or 5 word sentences.