When are kids able to communicate needs

[Helena1993]

Like saying „food“ or „water“ „ouch“

My toddler is almost 15 months with no words and he had a rough night with screaming for hours and I just couldn’t figure out what’s wrong.

My DD is Deaf, so learned sign from birth - she could consistently communicate your examples by around 10-12 months.

Yeah kids pick up signs a lot better than words at first so if maybe try teaching some basic signs - we only ever did the basics (mum/dad/food/pooh/etc.) but they were great!

Around 7+ months. Teach them signs.

Easy ones like food and drink etc

Really? At what age did you start introducing it for them to effectively convey signs to you at 7months +?

Remarkable.

I didn’t teach signs OP but around 18-19months mine had could have communicated that his teeth hurt by saying ouch etc. He has loads of words now at 23 months but it would obviously still be very difficult for him to articulate if he had a rough night due to a bad dream etc!

That sounds really harsh, what was it in the end?

I agree that consistently using signs might help, I'd start with milk, food, more, yes and no.

How did he score on his 12 month review for communication? I assume he was on track then?

Really? At what age did you start introducing it for them to effectively convey signs to you at 7months +?

Remarkable

Dc1 was signing to us at 7 months but I do think that was unusual.

DC2 definitely wasn't signing that early

Im still not sure she refused to drink milk for the whole time she was crying. At some point I just put her in her bed for 5 minutes while trying to calm down and think of what to do next and she fell asleep

Did you do classes or just at home?

We did classes with my 15 month old but honestly though fun/friendly she's not the best at using the signs . Thankfully she has word and some signs (more, drink, milk, all done) but I'm pregnant now and thinking would I start sooner with this baby

Depends on the need and the child. And having words doesn't necessarily mean they can accurately identify their needs. Children need to be quite old before they can accurately say where pain is, for example.

When in doubt, offer food, water/milk and check their nappy. If they're not hungry/thirsty or wet/dirty, theirs a good chance they are teething or have wind (at least that's the case with my 16 month old). In terms of when they learn to communicate, they're all different and communicate in different ways.

With my niece who is now 3½, she could sign food it's just putting her hand to her mouth.
More was a sort of clap, so if she wanted more food, she would bring her hands together.
And she could do drink she kind of waved her hand, like you're drinking an imaginary drink.

She mastered food first ha ha

They just used to do it as part of every day, so anytime my Sister and BIL would eat food they'd do the sign for it, and niece would copy when she was eating food etc.

It's always worth doing a head to toe check in situations like this. Some things such as a hair wrapped around a toe can be really painful but not obvious.

Sorry you had a rough night.

@Helena1993 it could just be she wanted to be close to you, my DD is 17mo and is like this sometimes in the night refuses, milk/water/dummy and I lay her in my bed and she settles and goes back to sleep.
With your actual question.. my DD doesn't communicate with the words but if she wants a drink she'll pull me to the cupboard where her water bottle is kept or to the fridge if she wants milk. She does say what sounds like potato but that actually means dummy 🤦🏼‍♀️😂. If she's in pain though with teeth I normally notice because she rubs the side of her mouth x

Most kids can't communicate needs effectively before age 18-24 months, and much older for some things. The kids can sign and the parent can guess, and the kid might say words in roughly the right context.

But often kids can even identify their own needs. Child feels 'something is wrong' and cries but might not even know if the wrongness is hungry or thirsty or something else. Even adults get 'hangry' and don't always realise it is hungry not angry.

Can -> can't in second para

Was that your bed? She was probably feeling a bit off and needed to feel safe.

We did baby signing with both DDs. They started using them at around 6/7 months.

Milk was the first sign for DD2 and dog for DD1 (she is autistic).

I’ve tried teaching sign language but she doesn’t sign back but I stopped using signs at about 9 months because I got impatient and my husband laughed at me for using them.

Lots of babies don't sign till they're older than 9 months and your DH do was not sound very supportive.

What strategies has he come up with to help LO now?

I’ll give it another try. She copies stuff I do and maybe if I’m a little more patient she will be able to use sign language.

My husband just tries to feed, cuddle, change diaper. All that stuff.

Keep on with the signs. It's very helpful. You can also keep the signs to prompt them a little bit when older without drawing attention to things. Like you can sign please/thank you to the kid to remind them to say thank you to someone else etc

Ignore your husband unless.hes offering a better solution?