Positive stories about toddlers with only a few words at 21 months? Remaining hopeful! ✨

[dibbledobbley]

Hi all,

I would love to hear any positive stories about language development if your toddler only had a handful of words at 21 months or thereabouts.

I’m still waiting for the ‘language explosion’ to come and I’m really hoping there is still time for it to happen? Receptive understanding, social skills, gross/fine motor all appear to be broadly okay.

I would love to hear some positive stories of your child similarly only had a few words but then they did eventually come, as I am so worried about it - it feels like the rest of the NCT group all have mini Shakespeares! Thank you 😊

(Please - no links to progress checkers, or info about referrals - thank you!)

DS barely said anything except “car” until he was 3.5. He caught up fast, is ahead at school, and has just finished Year 2.

My 19 year old is very articulate, earns well in a FT job and gets lots of compliments about how chatty and polite he is. He said barely a single word until 3 years 3 months then suddenly spoke in complete sentences.

33 year old lawyer daughter. Had half a dozen words at 21months. 3 months after her second birthday she started talking in sentences. I've just spent the last 1.5 hours in the car with her....she hasn't stopped talking!
It was clear at 21 months she was understanding everything. Her brother did things by the book but then he couldn't get a word in edgeways

My sister got sent to a speech therapist for not speaking much at age 2. She could speak but didn’t bother. Spoke plenty later and got a first from Oxford in languages.

I think we were told 50 words by 24 months was just about ok. DS had around 45 words at 23 months, then we lost count by the time he turned two.
He's 16 now, and despite being a bit of a sullen teen, he's super chatty with an excellent command of the English language.

DS1 had not a single word at the age of 2. He was referred all over the place.

He had about 5 words at 3. They included the all-purpose 'Da' which covered everything.

He's 16 now and TBF has been diagnosed with autism, but he is also an insane devourer of books, has a vocabulary far beyond his years, is predicted an 8-9 in English and everyone comments about 'how smart' he is. (Strangely, he has had his IQ formally assessed twice and he is in the LD range with a score of low 70s). But we have never told his (mainstream) school or anyone else that and the comments are always about his high intelligence.

Yes, DS (heading off to uni in September) started talking late and attended speech therapy aged about 3 (in the good ol' days of the NHS...) as no one could understand him. The good thing about his speech therapy was that it was based on the phonic sounds, so he started school knowing all the letters, phonics and their actions so able to read well.

Our 11 year old only said “Da” at that age - and not reliably. Just before she reached 2 years old, she started trying more words. She had caught up by age 3 and now has a mature and sophisticated vocabulary. We could tell she understood what was being said to her and she just got there in her own time. She was a late walker too.

Very important; have you had a hearing test done?

My ds was very slow to talk. Speech did dribble in when he was three but he formed the sounds badly and got his grammar and word order wrong for years (still making basic mistakes in year 2).

I felt sure there was a problem but he seemed able to hear and preschool and everyone said he was just a normal boy - they take longer to become verbal, look how sporty he is, he can read and write it’s just he’s not chatty, I’m comparing to his very bright sister and that’s not fair.

In Reception and year 1 and year 2 always same story. Oh he’s fine, he’s meeting expectations, don’t worry.

In summer of year 2 I decided to stop being intimidated by the teachers and I went to the GP and I lied and said our SENCO had told us to get a hearing test as he had slow verbal processing and they wanted to rule out hearing problems before anything else .

Eventually got a pediatric audiology appointment. And guess what - my son has a relatively mild bilateral sensorineural permanent hearing loss which affects his ability to detect certain consonant sounds, and means he struggles with background noise. He lip reads a lot.

Hearing aids bring back all the sound in detail - like glasses let you see branches and leaves on trees, not just a green blob.

Very important; have you had a hearing test done?

My ds was very slow to talk. Speech did dribble in when he was three but he formed the sounds badly and got his grammar and word order wrong for years (still making basic mistakes in year 2).

I felt sure there was a problem but he seemed able to hear and preschool and everyone said he was just a normal boy - they take longer to become verbal, look how sporty he is, he can read and write it’s just he’s not chatty, I’m comparing to his very bright sister and that’s not fair.

In Reception and year 1 and year 2 always same story. Oh he’s fine, he’s meeting expectations, don’t worry.

In summer of year 2 I decided to stop being intimidated by the teachers and I went to the GP and I lied and said our SENCO had told us to get a hearing test as he had slow verbal processing and they wanted to rule out hearing problems before anything else .

Eventually got a pediatric audiology appointment. And guess what - my son has a relatively mild bilateral sensorineural permanent hearing loss which affects his ability to detect certain consonant sounds, and means he struggles with background noise. He lip reads a lot.

Hearing aids bring back all the sound in detail - like glasses let you see branches and leaves on trees, not just a green blob.

It’s a success story - but I wish I’d done that test earlier, I had a hunch but I let dh and teachers overrule my instincts. I think dh didn’t want a deaf son, and the teachers don’t look for for problems when kids are doing fine.

And because ds is bright, he had been compensating like a hero all those years, and found a way to cope.

My now 12 year old boy had 15 words at most at 2- and some of them were made up words and animal sounds. I found my note books for that time-and remembered how worried I was. It turned out fine. He picked up words over the next year at an amazing pace and is now very articulate and academically able. I’d give it a good while longer before your get too concerned!

My DS had a few mispronounced words at that age. He is now an articulate adult who talks for a living!
As a child/teen he never bloody shut up!

Thank you so much all, some really interesting stories to read.

Funnily enough, out of nowhere, we had a new word tonight over dinner, ba-ba-ba for ‘blueberries.’ Hopefully it will stick! Takes the running total up to about ten, with about four of those in everyday use. 🤔

Dh didn’t walk or talk until 2.5. 🤷🏻‍♀️ He is dyslexic, but otherwise fine. He’s a company director and plenty sporty now. Just took a bit to launch I think.

It’s can be such a worry when they do things on their own timetable. My oldest had a (very small) handful of words at 18 months and I was googling speech and language therapists, exploring referrals, all sorts - I don’t precisely remember when he had a big ‘explosion’, but he did at some point and is now approaching 5 with a great vocabulary. You’d never know he was slow off the mark.

My now 18year old could barely talk at all at 2. A few words max. TBH he wasn’t very clear or vocal until he was 4 or so. Had speech checks and health visitor checks and was just about Ok. He got much better in about Year 2.

He is still a man of few words but that’s out of choice rather than necessity.

My DS was like this at 2. He did catch up eventually but had a lot of speech therapy. Good vocab etc now.

As pp said he also had his hearing checked, it was fine.

Not sure why you don’t want info about referrals. Only hearing the good news stories isn’t going to make the problem go away, IF there is one. If in doubt I’d get that process kicked off, if you don’t need it by the time you get seen that all the better.

My eldest didn't speak much until he could say whole sentences. However, by 3 he was reading and was eventually listed as gifted and talented at school.

I thought he was colour blind for a while too as he would always say the wrong colour but I think he was just winding me up 😉😂.

US!!

Little speech at this age and then we bought the Hanen book It takes two to talk, from the well respected Hanen speech therapy charity, did all the fun little games in there which really helped.

Also got grommets at 25 months (we hadn’t realised it was possible to hear some things but still be deaf in relation to human speech frequencies - should have got him tested much earlier!!) which really speeded him up.

Consulted Hanen trained SALT at 22 months and did everything she advised!

Now an eloquent teen!

DC2 didn't say as much as "mama" before 2 and 9 mths... Lots of senseless babbling for a while before then with very limited sounds..... Roll on a couple of months and they were pretty articulate. Roll on 5 years and they were far too articulate for their own good, quirky but academically brilliant, and could argue their way out of anything. And now there are times where frankly I wish they would just shut up 😆

However, none of this is really helpful to you... You have got to make it your best judgement on your own child as you go along as all the best parents do. Meet them where they are, and do your best to help them. Anecdotes are useful for context, but you are the expert your own children. Try not to worry too much at this stage, keeping a close eye and doing your best is all that you can do. x

I have twins, 1 barely spoke the other barely stopped. Mid twenties now with equally excellent vocabulary.

Yes my 2 year appointment my oldest son wasn’t saying much and she said ‘2-2.5 years is the explosion’ and it was - he walked at 9 months

was baby an early walker?

health visitors say babies are walkers or talkers!

Oh totally! At his two year review my son had 5 words. I spent months being worried.

He’s four now and talks non stop in full sentences with plenty of vocabulary!
the explosion for him was shortly before 3 if I remember right.

really, try to put worry out of your mind. I wasted so much time worrying pointlessly!

I have two boys, bright and top sets for everything, didn’t start properly talking until after 3.

Also, does your child need to talk? The SLT made this point when we had DS2 assessed, she said he doesn’t need to say anything! Everything he wants is catered for by me (food, milk, comfort) or his brother (toys, entertainment), and she had a point! Started talking when he went to nursery school.