Encouraging speech

[Creambluepink]

DS (18 months) doesn’t say much.

He used to say ‘mum/mama’ but seems to have stopped, although he says it to his dad and at nursery sometimes. He says Hiya a lot, daddy, baby/baba. He does say Cat, but it isn’t clear and sounds like Da (but different to when he says dad, I know this makes no sense but you can sort of tell!) Tractor - dah-doooor, and Nigh (no.)

So - I’m trying to encourage a bit more as I keep reading he should have a vocabulary of between 15-20 words and am worried we’re a bit behind. He has loads of books and I read with him and try to teach duck, star, car, shoes, etc. But he doesn’t seem very interested and although he will read with me he’ll only engage with books that he can interact with, so touch-feel books, or lift the flap, or sounds. He gets very annoyed if you just sit and read

Any good ideas?

It will come. My DS was exactly the same at that age- very few words. The important part is to see if he is understanding language e.g can he follow simple things you say like ‘get your shoes’ or ‘where is daddy?’ Etc. If they have this language understanding, the speech part is much more likely to develop easily.

I found lots of play, days out so we had lots to talk about (zoo, farm, library, visiting family, park, soft play etc) , talking whilst cooking together, drawing/crafting together etc. All these things become language rich opportunities if you narrate what you’re doing and ask little questions.

keep up with the reading every night. My DS wasn’t overly interested at that age but we persisted as part of bedtime routine and he still has 3-4 books every night and he’s 4.5 and died love them now.

I also found good quality tv shows and even YouTube videos helped (Sure plenty will say this is awful but in reality, screen time is a life saver!) We would watch videos where it names objects or colours etc and he loved these and picked up loads of words from them. Yakka Dee on CBEEBIES was good too.

I think the main things are reading & just repeating things a million times. I'm sure I've read somewhere that boys can sometimes be later to speak than girls? Or am I completely making that up.

DD is 17 months old & says a few words - off the top of my head she can say: mummy, daddy, gone, yes, no, more, hairband (random), peppa,turtle, bird - so not as many as what you've given as the average! :) I wouldn't worry too much.

I do remember the worry, I really do.

But- he's 18 months old and taking it all in. Just enjoy him, he will be fine.

You're doing all the right things. He hasn't read the textbook and is just enjoying it all. As it should be. They're all different.

@Amammai i used to worry his understanding was poor, but it’s pretty good. He doesn’t often always do what he’s asked, but I’m pretty sure he understands!

Thanks for the reassurance. My main - not worry, that’s silly, but where I do notice a difference is that he doesn’t engage with sounds for things, so doesn’t say quack quack for ducks, or moo for cows and so on, I mean it doesn’t really matter, but I do notice other toddlers doing it.

And it would be nice to hear mama / mummy but I suspect this is just my lot in life!

Something I’ve always done with all
of mine- this is including my 4 yo DS with sever speech disorder- is everything I’m doing I give a live commentary. Example- when making up my 15 month dd bottle, she’s in one arm on my hip and I say ‘here’s the bottle’ and she’ll say ‘botbot’, ‘then we rinse the bottle’ usually greeted with a head nod, so on and so on. Same when they’re in the trolley when shopping, on walks, just literally everything🤣
18 months isn’t a time to worry but I would say to keep an eye on the words he has and if he stops using any more of the words he knows, a phone call to your GP/health visitor would be best x

Our lb was a really late talker, but his understanding was brilliant!

It was the only thing that stopped me worrying too much. He started talking at 3, and is ahead in all subjects now at 7.

Hopefully you won't have to wait that long! But it is common with boys and the understanding is a good sign

Singing. They pick up words really easily from nursery rhymes!

My son was the same at 18 months and then since turning 2 is getting new words all the time and speaking in sentences so don't worry yours will likely be the same.