Speech between 18mo and 2 years old?

[champagnekiss]

What was your kiddos like?

My DC is 17mo. Just found out I’m expecting DC2 and we’re currently going through a tough stage as he can only say certain words. He’s just started putting 2 together to say “all gone” (when he’s done eating) but by the time he’s 2 would his speech jump will he be speaking more?

I get every child’s different. But like do they just start picking up more? We read a lot I speak in full sentences , break words down for him etc so I don’t know

DC2 will be due just after DC1 turns 2

Yes it's normal to have a bit of a language explosion between 18m and 2y. And it just keeps growing and growing. Don't worry, he will keep learning and by the time the baby comes he should have a few more words to help express himself.

2 words together at 17MO is good going. My LO is slightly older than yours at 19MO and has just started to put together two words such as "mummy cuddle" for an under 2 to be developing speech well, at least 10 words seems to be a good level to be at, under that a concern so I'd say he's doing well! I've been amazed at how much they pick up and so quickly!

Paediatric speech and language therapist here, it sounds like your child is within normal limits. Keep doing what you're doing!

DS is 22mo (I’m 36w pregnant) and has leapt in the last few weeks. He’s probably had 2 or 3 obvious leaps in the last 6 months where his vocabulary and communication has really changed over the course of 1-2 weeks.

I don’t remember every milestone but for reference DS only had one word on his first birthday. Now I can have mini conversations with him. He’ll tell me when he’s hungry/thirsty, when he’s done a poo. Shows preference for this or that. Comments if he can hear a motorbike/ plane/ bee/ bird. Asks to go to the park/granny’s house/nursery. Asks to do colouring or read a book or for a particular toy “green tractor”. It’s rarely more than 3 words in a row (although he tries) and often “car granny’s house” or something rather than “please can we go to granny’s house in the car?”. Me and I is quite recent “my ball”, “I see you”, “I do it”.

But… all children are different. I know children his age with fewer words and some with more.

My eldest was 22 months when my second was born. His language was very minimal at that stage. He understood everything but only had some single words. But from 24m to 30m he had a huge leap and now at 3.5y his language is better than average. Your son sounds to be right on track,dont worry.

Thank you for the responses so far :)! I’m nervous about having a 2nd anyway which is natural , I’d be nervous no matter what age DS is

But just at the minute this stage is hard because he’s whining / crying a lot because he can’t always communicate what he wants and I panicked thinking what if he’s still struggling and the newborn is crying and he is

just feeling scared which is normal

Use makaton with him if you're not already. Learn a few basic signs, things you think he would like to communicate but can't and then model those signs in the moment. This in no way will delay his verbal communication, it will only help and he will be able to communicate with signing until he learns how to say the word verbally. You can get most makaton signs online, just Google them.

Mine is just turned 19 months (since yesterday 😄) and he has 30-40 words but hasn't started putting any words together yet. I think it's great that yours is putting a couple words together at 17 months!

We're also expecting a second baby right after our son turns 2, I'm not worried about what his speech will be like when the new baby comes. We manage to communicate pretty well as it is and I don't have any concerns so I'm happy to let him progress along at his own pace.

My DD put 2 words together around 19 months, and now at 22.5 months I cannot believe how quickly her speech has developed! So I think you'll be fine however unfortunately it doesn't stop the whining 🥲

Just to slightly nitpick, "all gone" doesn't really count as 2 words together, as it has one meaning and he probably sees it as one word if that makes sense.

I have a 21mo and he currently is picking up a lot of single words and very very occasionally will put two together e.g. "bus gone" (this counts as two words, because he'll use both "bus" and "gone" separately) - but I remember that my older two weren't really speaking that much at this age. They had more of an explosion between age 2 and 2.5 - I'd say 2.5 is generally the age that you can start having more conversations.

My first had about 5 words at 24 months old that mostly only I could understand as her speech was unclear. She's fine and caught up.

My second is 23 months now. She's saying things like hello mummy. All gone. Bye bye car. Bye cat.
Has about 50 single words and joins two together sometimes

They are all different, up to 2 for first words is normal so way ahead it seems, I had very late talkers

My late i mean 3.5 for dd1 and 2.5 for dd2, dd2 was in an early intervention group due to dd1's issues and she had all the signs of being the same but she isn't autistic like her sister, both grown now