When should I be concerned about speech/language?

[QueenMab]

Yhello all.

This post is mostly prompted my DP who keeps asking me; "When is she (Punky) going to talk?" - Like he just expects her to wake up one day & be able to converse at length about current affairs.

Punky is 13 months & says bubbub, mummum, daddad & general babble. Sometimes it sounds a bit like she's saying "hello" when she's playing with the telephone, or "dog" when she sees our dog, but that's about it. I'm not at all concerned at the moment, she seems normal & happy & is always making noise even if it doesn't make any sense to me lol. My question is, when should I be concerned?

When should I expect more clear "Mum" as oppossed to mummum (or more likely Dad *sigh*), and "other" clear, new words?

Whend did your LO really start to talk?

[Cally]

We don't have any talking here and we are just over 17 months. Although I think she said yes the other day. We still have a lot of babbling and she understands absolutely everything we say so I'm not too concerned at this stage. If there is nothing by 2 then I will be pushing for her to be checked out, but in the meantime I think I am doing OK. I figure a few of other baby buddies aren't talking yet either so that helps too!!

[The[cookie]Doctor]

We have just babble too Vic.
DS has been saying Dadadada for about two months but other than that it is just babble.
He has recently started to enunciate thingfs we say, obviously not forming the words, but his communication is getting better because of it.
For instance, he can't say mamamama, but he can enunciate hello, i love you & water.

Didn't really help did I? LOL!

[Karina]

Claire didnt really say much at all until she was about 16-17 months. She sort of babbled a bit from about 11-12 months on, but it was babble, not actually words. And even when she did start saying actual words, it was really just "mummy", "daddy", "bye", "more", "shoes" and "poo".

Then, all of a sudden when she was about 19 months old, she just just started saying a bunch of new words. She's 2 in two weeks now, and seems to be learning new words every week. I reckon she can probably say about 70-80 differnt words now, and honestly, it was so quick. One day she couldnt say much at all, and just a couple of weeks later she could say quite a few words. She's getting really good at using her words and asking for things, and most of the time she says them quite clearly.



I've been reading to her a lot lately and I think that helps. We have both story books and those books where it will have a bunch of pictures of objects (say, a shoe, door, flower, dog, duck etc) and we look at those and I talk about the shoe, bird, door etc. She can now point at them and say quite clearly what they are.

[Nelle]

Riv is almost 2 and a half and he still doesn't. They're all different. I think girls tend to talk sooner than boys, so hopefully she'll be chatting before 2.5 .

[*Ang*]

Then, all of a sudden when she was about 19 months old, she just just started saying a bunch of new words. She's 2 in two weeks now, and seems to be learning new words every week. I reckon she can probably say about 70-80 differnt words now, and honestly, it was so quick. One day she couldnt say much at all, and just a couple of weeks later she could say quite a few words.

Thats Alex all over...we were getting concerned around the 17-18 month mark but now, you cant get him to stop talking! In fact for his age he has amazing conversation skills which everyone comments on (proud mum talking here!).

DD also seemed to all of a sudden around the 18-19 month increase her vocab substantially.

I wouldnt be concerned until around 2 years of age and only then if they seem to be stuck on the same old new words, not learning any new ones IYKWIM?

My nephew is 2.5 and truthfully is a grunter, barely talks at all. Now that is a child who both DH and I believe has a speech problem but that is another topic all together.

[bridee]

My DD is 18mths and while she says the sound mumma it is not directed at me. At our 18mth check up with MCHN she said its not till 2 that we would do anything about it ie. speech therapy. She just said give her another 6mths and see what happens. DD fully comprehends and has developed her own sign language to get her point across. So I would definitely not be concerned at this stage. They all talk in there own time. I didn't talk till I was 3 which i have read there can be a heredity component to when speech starts.

[QueenMab]

Thanks so much everyone, I wonder if my mum can remember when I started talking...? Will have to enquire.

I knew there was nothing to worry about! *off to smack DP about the head*

[MantaRay]

QM, they are all different and she certainly is too young for you to be worried. But over the next few months it would be a good idea to watch for her comprehension level. By 18 months - 2 years she should be able to understand and obey a simple two part instruction - for example please go to your bedroom and bring me your pajamas. By 2 - 21/2 she should have a vocab of around 50 words and able to put 2 words together. If she is not reaching these milestones or you are otherwise worried, get a referral to a speech therapist. It still doesn't mean anything is wrong, but early intervention makes a huge, huge different with speech delays.

[JordieC]

I'm watching this thread iwth interest just to see where the other are at! DD is 17 months and says the usualy mama, dada, nana, and a few clear sounds that mean things like du for duck. She can say hi and sometimes ta and just this week can say hello. I have noticed though in just a few days her babble has even become more understandable so I think she's about to take off. It's like anything they do - when they're ready they just will but like the others said if there was no improvements at around 2 years I would get her checked then.

[Lisa]

Harrison just turned 2 on Feb 4 and he has a very, very limited vocabulary. He says probably 10-15 words in total... and they are very rarely repeated. His most repeated words are Mum, Ouch, Ball, Nan, Bubble, No, Go & Uh Oh.
He can hum and grunt "Smoke on the water" and he says "Hey Ho" whenever I say Let's Go (he loves The Ramones! lol)

The ECHN's aren't worried about his speech and neither are the speech therapists. He can say words, and he has brilliant comprehension... so for the moment I have been told to "Give it another 6 months"
I do admit that he has been coming out with new words a lot recently... we're just trying to encourage him to repeat them

I don't think you have anything to worry about hun... it sounds like your little Punky is doing brilliantly

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Found a great website last night - Concerned about your child's language development?

Babies develop language at different rates. Even so, before their first birthday most babies will:

Enjoy watching your face
Show delight when you reply to their chatter
Love you imitating them
Notice familiar sounds and voices
Enjoy books and music
Play with sounds
Understand their name, basic commands such as "no", and the names of familiar objects
Understand daily routines, such as bath and bed times
Try to join in with action songs
Attempt some real words
Sound as though they are speaking your language
Most babies will say their first words between 12 and 18 months. They will have a burst of language development before they turn two, and begin to join words together by two and a
half years.

HTH and that website is a really interesting read! I guess I just like it because it says DS is advanced LOL (eta - he has over 200 words on his second birthday and more and more and more every day!). But your baby is perfectly normal if not slightly advanced too.

[min]

sounds perfectly normal to me. My 2nd son Leo is 20 months and he now has around 40 words, but he didn't really start coming out with the more meaningful words until about 16 months. He does have an older brother though, which always seems to make them progress a bit faster.

My Big boy Jackson is almost 4 and he has aspergers, so we have dealt with speech delays and I think the real milestones from memory are they should be putting 2 words together by 2 and should be putting simple meaningul sentences together by the time they are 3 - so there is a long way to go until then, and lots of practice for your bubs in the meantime!

[Trillian]

OK, so now you're aware that yeah, maybe I should keep an eye on this, but take it from a mum who's 3rd child didn't really talk much more than what your DD is at 2yo and is now in intensive speech therapy and hoping that come next year when she starts school that the teachers will be able to understand her, that you cannot just pass it off as nothing to worry about all the time. Speech is something that really needs to be dealt with ASAP, because there are such long waiting lists that by the time a problem really starts to be an issue, you could still have a 12mth wait for an assessment, let alone actually seeing a speechie and by then the problem is that bit worse again and any therapy is going to be more intensive than if you got onto it earlier.

I had two early talkers - they were speaking sentences by 20mths and could hold a conversation at 2 and then I had my 3rd and she was a little slower to start and could not speak a sentence at 2.5yr (but she could by 3 but was very very hard to understand) becuase everyone kept telling me she was fine, she was just different to the other two and that she'd catch up in time. Well she didn't., Her hearing and comprehension is outstanding and in fact on her last assessment at 4y3mths it showed that she would more than adequately handle going to school this year even, that's how high her score was, but she can't form the sounds well enough to be understood. She has improved out of sight, and her speech is a lot clearer, but she has a long way to go.

But that said, she may just be slow to start and in time she will be up there with all the other kids, but if she isn't much better by 2, I would be getting her assessed.

[Ezz]

DS is 14 months & says "Dad", "mum" (but not only to us), "sa" (Saffy - our cat), "ameg" (amen, at the end of prayers), "no" (no no no no no no no), "ummy" (tummy), "appy" (happy), "ba-ba" (bye-bye). Most of this has developed in the last month or so.

MCHN said they should have about 6 words by 18 months - so I wouldn't worry about your DD yet. Trillian is right about the importance of speech though - the kids in kindy with speech problems also tend to have problems with reading and writing (because they can't hear the sounds in words to read/write them). Keep an eye on it

[Artechim]

I think at around 13 months DS had about 10 words/animal sounds. At 16 months he seemed to hit a crazy language explosion, in the last six weeks he has started talking constantly. I lost count at around 50 words but that was a few weeks ago and I would estimate that at 17.5 months he has about 100 words and can use them in 2 word sentences.

[min]

Definately agree with Trillian, I would be having her evaluated at 2 if she hasn't progressed. Also you need to trust your insincts. With Jackson I was concerned he was a little different at around 18months and had him evaluated a few times, MCHN basically told me I was being ridiculous and that all of his behaviour (including hand flapping and walking on his toes!!) was completely normal for his age?!?!? As his mother I knew something was not right and had appointment after appointment with various professionals until finally someone bothered to listen to me and dig a bit deeper and then he was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism which has recently been re-diagnosed to Aspergers.