22 month old not talking.

[Avie29]

Hey 👋 Wanted to start this thread by saying i don’t believe she has any sort of ND, she is thriving/ ahead in every other development area but she doesn’t talk besides making animal noises, can growl/grr for lion/bear/tiger, bark for dog, cow, sheep, owl, bird (can whistle) and howls for coyote- so cute lol.
she makes bubububub sounds for her bathtime song (bubble bubble fun bathtime)
she can say Kitty! Clearly- but doesn’t make meow sounds 🤔
i have been through SALT twice with 2 older children so have good understanding of how to help with speech etc but i feel like rather than she can’t talk she just isn’t? Any suggestions? xx

If she’s doing so well in other areas, maybe speech will be along soon. It sounds like her brain might just be a bit busy. DS didn’t speak at 22 months. At is HV check at 24 months he could say 10 words; HV was expecting nearer 30 and put us through for SALT referral. About 4 months later I was in hospital with hyperemisis when I was expecting his sister… we hadn’t told him yet, but he’d taken it all in and had a long chat with his nursery nurse about how Mummy was having another baby, but wasn’t very well, and he’d like it to be a boy…. He’d literally never put more than 2 words together until then, but by the time he was two and a half you couldn’t shut him up. Big words too.

Yes everyone keeps saying she will probably one day just start talking in sentences and im not overly concerned but i just never dealt with non speech without ND (my older 2 are autistic- 10yo still mostly non-verbal) i guess my concern is maybe because we are good at picking up nonverbal ques with her sibling and she is really good at expressing herself/communicating without talking that maybe she feels she doesn’t need to talk? Or maybe its like you say her brain is just busy with other things she wants to accomplish, but ive tried everything from SALT ready steady go games, cause and effect toys, mirror games, offering choices and waiting for verbal expression but to no avail, i guess its just a waiting game xx

My little boy is also 22 months and has very few words but understands everything we say to him and can communicate by pointing. We’ve been encouraging him but in a similar situation where he just doesn’t say words.

Understanding is more important than speaking at that age - can she follow instructions (without non-verbal cues) eg go and get your wellies, choose a book to read.

Have you had her hearing checked?

Yes she has good understanding of words, will follow instructions and will sometimes be cheeky with instructions for example i will say ok 1 more book and she will grab 2 and think its funny, no not had hearing checked but im pretty sure she can hear just fine, if she is playing upstairs in her room and i call for her she will come downstairs, @Straightomyhead yes pointing and hand gestures is how she communicates too, and i feel like she has gotten to the point where she doesn’t feel like she needs to talk because she can communicate fine without it, i don’t know how to get her to combine the two because i don’t want to discourage her nonverbal communication either its very good skill to have xx

Mine didn’t really get going until 2ish, no other issues so wasn’t too worried absolutely wasn’t thinking about it every second of the day

but she’s a chatterbox now at 3.5, there’s a really wide range of normal so honestly don’t be worried

I feel like we are in very similar positions. I don’t know whether to be worried at this stage or just know that the words will come soon.

I think if the understanding there it’s fine, that’s what they told us with DS12 when he was little.

My DD is 2y6m and has zero understanding and zero speech. She is also delayed in other areas of her development though so rightly this is flagged as a concern.

try not to worry. I am sure the speech will follow soon!

My 2 year old son was the same, didn’t think anything of it until his check up with the health visitor said he really should be talking by now. I went home and watched him and what I realised was he was pointing to things he wanted and we were just getting them without trying to get him to ask for something, it was basically us being lazy and just getting him things, he would also make sippy sounds when he wanted a drink. Between DH, MIL and I we started saying he needs to ask for drink and not point, it took a couple of months as he was quite confused, but we stuck to it and soon he was talking fine.

Dd started to talk at 2.5. Suddenly in the evening at bed time she said “Phoebe hit me” meaning a girl from her childminder’s actually hit her. Her first proper word was a sentence. After that her speech developed quickly.

Yes i have experience of no words alongside a ND but my other NT children were talking by her age and i guess i assumed she would be too especially since she has 3 older sibings talking to her, plus me and dad, (she has 4 older siblings but one is non verbal) xx

Yes i think this might be some of the issue in our house, she has 4 older siblings too who will get her what she wants without her needing to say anything, me and dad will try to encourage her to tell us what she wants but maybe try to get the older kids to do the same xx

@qercv yes everyone keeps saying she will one day just start talking in sentences, apparently my brother was the same, no words and then one day couldn’t shut him up lol xx