When did your little one start talking?

[redfox14]

Just wanting a bit of an idea of when your babies/toddler started to say their first worlds. My DD is almost 16 months and babbles like mad but doesn’t say any recognisable words yet. I’ve flagged it to my health visitor just to be on the safe side and she said not to worry and that it will be assessed at her 18 month review.

DH and I read to DD every day, we chat to her all the time, I try to talk to her as much as possible and narrate what we’re doing. Even things like trying to get her to mimic animal noises or copy sounds. I just want to make sure im doing what I should be to try and help her learn.

It sounds like you are doing an amazing job !!!

my DD is 22 months babbles with a few words scattered so I mostly understand her - she is on the waitlist for a speech pathologist but I’m not worried as she is developing talking skills and tries to talk and I encourage her daily - and she loves books too!!!

But I get it the stress of thinking they aren’t developing at the same rate is astronomical but just keep doing what you are doing and sing the wiggles etc as much as possible as recognisable tunes and words also develops vocabulary

The week before he turned 18 months 😂I was just starting to worry. He was making lots of animal sounds and dadadada babababa type babbling before that though, with the occasional proper 'Dada' aimed at DP. But the week before 18 months was his first proper word.

He then seemed to learn one or two new words a day for the next few months, the explosion was crazy. And then just after 2 he went from only saying one or two word phrases to putting whole sentences together within a week.

He's now 5 and doesn't stop talking...

I remember when I was worried about my daughter’s speech the HV said they’d look for 5 word or animal sounds by 18 months. Dd just about hit this but by 2 years old was saying loads of words and wouldn’t stop talking - sometimes something just flips and they suddenly get it

We had very little babbling apart from mama and dada with DTs. They skipped to talking in pretty pretty much complete sentences the week after the turned two and haven't stopped since

My 21mo babbles endlessly and says about 3 words I understand. I was getting so stressed out at the age yours is because I couldn't understand how he'd walked so early, 8 months old, but was so late with speech. I've just realised that he's not going to do it when I want him to, and he's quite obviously trying to talk now that I am just waiting for the explosion of words. Keep doing what you're doing and he will definitely do it when you least expect it 😅

I think that it's really good that the HV will see you at 18 months.

Just before the appointment I'd do, this simple SLT progress checker but please don't do it before as they can change so much in 2 months.

If that progress checker says that your LO needs some support then ask the HV for a referral for a hearing test and to Speech & Language Therapy. It's unlikely though that you'll need this, they're likely to have a language explosion before then

I was exactly the same as you! Panicking and he babbled constantly. When he turned 20 months, we had 3 words, by 22 months, about 20 and then from around 23 months, 100 and it's just grown and grown since. I just wish they wouldn't put 'milestones' to hit by strict times as it's so stressful for parents when he was going to do it anyway a few months after, I just never knew!

Ds didn't say a word until 26 months. He babbled but didn't say mama or no or anything vaguely recognisable. I'd flagged it to the gp and had an appointment booked for the following month when he said 'key' meaning he wanted the car key.
Within a week he had twenty words, and was talking in full sentences within eight weeks.
it was as if he wanted to be sure he had it right before he started.
Then he talked non-stop until 14. Now he's 15, just finished GCSEs and barely speaks to me at all 😁

Thank you so much for your replies everyone! I feel much better now, I know all children are different but it is encouraging to know that she doesn’t seem to have a delay. Thank you again ☺️

No words until 2 years. Now he doesn't stop talking!

Any updates please ?

Dd 18 - started talking when she was 4.
Ds7 - is non verbal.
Ds3 - started talking at 2 years old but still only has limited speech.
Ds2 - started talking before his first birthday.