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.

[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.