Does it sound like my 16 month old is behind with speech?

[L3tti316]

I wouldn’t normally be worried but I have a 17 month old nephew who seems far more advanced and it just has me occasionally worrying.

So my son has great understanding and can follow simple instructions. He points to things he wants etc. but I don’t know, he doesn’t seem to have as many words ‘down’ just yet. He can say bye bye, daddy (not mommy yet 🙄), he can say ball, bubbles, he copies some animal noises like the monkey, lion etc. He says ‘booboo’ for boobie when he wants milk. But I’d say that’s about it.

Like I said I wouldn’t worry if I didn’t have a nephew only 3 weeks older who was speaking a lot more. He seems to say yes, no, more, says peoples names etc.

Am I worrying for nothing? It’s worth mentioning my eldest who is 5 has autism so I’m on high alert as it is, but so far he is a totally different child to my eldest son and I’m about 95% sure that he doesn’t also have autism.

As a general rule, 17 month old babies don’t talk.

it sounds like yours can say quite a bit already which I’m surprised about.

ive worked in many nurseries and no one would give it a second thought if a 17 month old wasn’t talking.

My 15 month old DD says dada and ta. It's not unusual to have no words yet, it's also not unusual to have a blooming vocabulary! They're learning loads all at once right now, some things will happen before others and that's entirely okay. You'll know by age 2 if there's something to worry about but at 16 months I wouldn't be concerned at all

They vary so much don't they. Anecdotal but DD1 didn't speak until she was two and was described by her reception class teacher as "highly articulate". Just keep talking to him and reading picture books to him. If you're really worried the old but still good book "Baby talk" by Sally Ward is excellent for developmental norm ranges and ideas for supporting children. It's a marathon and not a sprint though those sometimes smug parents with early talkers would have you believe otherwise...

Thanks everybody, I figured I was just worrying for no real reason. It’s hard when you see another child a similar age often not to compare but I’m sure we all do it.

All children are different. I have 3, my first had full conversations before 2, my second communicated in noises until just after 3 when speech was a little better, my third had a few words at 18 months but spoke in sentences by 2.
2 of my children are autistic but from speech alone only one would have been noticed at an early age.
i honestly wouldn’t worry about your DS his speech sounds like it’s within normal parameters for his age.

All children are different, our eldest was stringing words together at that age, our youngest didn’t utter a word until she was 2.4 years old.

I've got 6 kids... when our hv came at 2 for youngest her speech was not what the books said it should be but... I told them I will not worry about that unless she is behind once she goes to nursery at 3. She has developed lots since then and says plenty of things and even sings. They all do it in their own time early on so try to relax for now. If you are concerned as they get closer to school age then seek help from there as they will be able to provide some sort of language therapy.

My first child started talking at 21 months. She never said choo choo, dada, mama or any baby language...just straight into normal language.
Her first word was daddy and her second word was please!

It's been the same two words ever since 😂😂😂😂

DC4 isn't talking yet, but older older have varied massively at this age. Eldest had a ridiculously massive vocabulary. Way outside normal range (she has ASD, btw, and is hyperlexic), about 1000 words used in context and using simple phrases. It was bonkers. My twins were much more typical. At that age, one had about 15 words I think andput them in the middl of babble to make a "sentence". He's very chatty now at 3.5. His identical twin only had "ball" and "mumamil" (mummy milk) and said them with no other sounds around them. His speech is very normal, no less capable than his bridge but his personality is just quieter. Some children WANT to chat. Others like to sit/listen/move/take things apart.