‘Tuneful’ babbling but no words at 17 months

[Bearlionfalcon]

My 17 month old DS can only say ‘mumma’, dada’ and ‘hello’(heyo). He babbles soooo much - all day long but without any distinct/ identifiable words at all. He can sometimes seem to copy the ‘tune’ / intonation of a phrase someone is saying but he can’t seem to make the right sounds when he speaks it back. Has anyone had this specific issue / have any advice? He is my third, one of my 2 elder DD is dyslexic so has an issue processing sounds in language but by this age even she had lots of words I could decipher, so I’m a bit worried.

They are words! That’s well within normal, up to age 2 for just mama isn’t considered unusual. My youngest (no medical issues) was 2.5 years old, her dsis (has autism) was 4! Both fully verbal adults younger gives large scale presentations.

Oh really @mamagogo1 ? That’s reassuring. Maybe my other two DD were unusual.
The thing that seems odd to me is the constant babbling - honestly like a constant stream of sound - without the ability to turn it into words. He seems to lack all the consonant sounds! I wondered if it could indicate a hearing issue. But as you say I could be worrying too early.

Very normal, don't worry.

My eldest didn't babble, or say anything but Dada before he was nearly two and then just after he turned two he exploded with words and sentences. The variation in development is huge!

I would suggest talk to your child with sentences he can try and answer back by copying eg 'would you like a chocolate biscuit or would you prefer a plain one?' or 'do you think we should put a red duplo brick here, or a green one?' and wait for his answer

My 18 month grandson is the same, can babble for ages and looks at you as if you should know what he is saying but he only has a couple of actual words. Do you think is a boy thing to start talking later than girls ?

At our hv visit I had a list of 25 words my 2.5 year old says or sounds. The hv reassured me that it was fine, keep reading, singing and interacting with her and she is improving. I think my first had alot more one on one time, and my second just struggles to get a word in. They all grow at different rates. Im a late speaker and its not held me back educationally.

Overall? Maybe. But I found it the other way around.

DD (my eldest) had only a handful of words right up until 2. Then she was moved up to the toddler room at nursery and realised she had to use her words to be heard. The ensuing language explosion was something to behold.

DS on the other hand was close to talking in sentences by his second birthday. He still had a sort of language explosion not long after he turned 2, but it wasn't as spectacular as his older sister's. He's 3.5 now, and the only thing holding him back is that his voice is still very babyish, which requires some puzzling out to translate (which sorely tries DS's everlasting patience).

My daughter only had 3 words when she was 18 months old - ‘mama’, ‘dada’ and ‘yeah’. She’s always communicated very clearly with gestures and signs so I hoped that the words would come eventually.

And they did! She’s 21 months now and the words just appeared overnight, basically. I’d say she says 200 or 300 words and we get new ones every day. She repeats everything, is putting so many words together and is so pleased with herself!

Try not to worry - keep talking to him, singing and reading etc. And the words will come when he’s ready!

Anecdotally, boys get language slower. Seems to hold true among little ones I know. I think 3 words at 18 months is bang on average

This is what people keep telling me! He is my first boy so I don't know. My girls were totally different with speech - both gained words steadily from about a year- even though they're both totally different academically

Thank you @Francine84 - this is reassuring as they sound very similar!

Just thought I’d update this thread. I was still worried and asked a paediatrician friend of mine about it. She said to test if he had a hearing issue by rubbing two fingers behind his ears one by one. On one side he turned straight away but on the other he didn’t respond at all. Based on that I decided to get him a private hearing test. Turns out he does have glue ear and may need grommets. The doc said this will definitely have been affecting his language as it’s like he has his fingers in his ears all the time. I sort of started the appointment apologetically because everyone had told me his speech was normal etc etc, but I had a gut feeling he was struggling abnormally with language. I said to the doc ‘of course it could be just that he is a bit slow on speech and language’ but his response was ‘well either way, the first thing you’d do would be to rule out a hearing issue, so you’re in the right place’. Just thought I’d put this out there in case anyone else finds the thread as I’m so glad I went with my gut and got him tested.

Sounds normal to me. My son only had a handful of words at 2 years. By 2.5 years he had more than caught up with peers who had started talking earlier. He went very quickly, in just a few weeks, from a few single words to fairly long sentences. Other children seemed to spend much longer at the 2-3 word sentence stage, my son pretty much skipped that. There is such a wide range of 'normal' when it comes to learning to talk. My HV at the 2 year check had no concerns as she said she could tell his comprehension levels were high.