how many words should a 18month be saying?

Was wondering how many words a 18month should be saying / how many yours said at this time?

DS was born 8 weeks early so corrected age is 16 months, but reached all his milestones at the same rate as full termers - walking, sitting up, etc and we were told that at 12 months we could stop going by corrected age.

However is about to be 18months and he has no words, mumma and dadda maybe but never really in the right context. he babbles, has full on conversations (flying hand movements and all) but there are no words that we can understand.

He does however have fantastic comprehension. If you say can you get the ....for mum, he goes and gets it, he gets scared when watching Thomas and the trains faces look worried, if you say where is your wiggles book- will go to the playroom and find it.

I have some other mums in my ear planting the seed of doubt that maybe we arent done with specialist and he is "delayed". I want to bury my head in the sand, but to be honest have no idea if its normal or not. Getting in to see a Paed here is town would take many months, prob would be quicker to go to brisbane if needed, but with a bubba due any day, its not practical for at least a month.

any advice would be great. TIA

The only person who gets to plant any seeds of doubt with any authority is you and your DH! You know your child and it sounds as though he has great communication skills. i can't remember ages very well, it all starts to blend into itself after a year or two, but I do remember my stomach sinking when people updated facebook or told me about words that their kids could say. Then I learnt a couple of things...

1) The girl that had the most words in my mothers group NEVER SLEPT! Like Never! Of course she learnt to talk quicker. She was awake for so much longer and often in adult company, I decided sleep was more important than speedy speech development
2) Sometimes the only one's that can understand the kids wonderful vocab are the parents. And maybe DD wasn't as far behind them as I thought
3) Kids can only learn so many things at once. DD learnt to sing before she learnt to talk. She was singing Winkle winkly ittle ta, well before any sensible words and she also woudl much preder to learn to climb stairs. She has climbed to the top of the local park equipment since she was two. But now at 3, after a slow start, I can''t STOP her talking.

If your DS's communication wasn't so good, then you might have something to worry about, but if you're happy, don't listen to the other mums.
Also when bub arrives. DS might suddenly start using all the language he's been storing up to get his point across. DD's speech development accelarated when she no longer had our undivided attention and needed to speak up a bit to get her needs met.

Good luck
x

my DD was like that at 18 months. the Child Youth Health nurse at her 18 month check up said "the book says she must have ten words by now" and that freaked me out. So we started seeing a speech therapist. Bilby LOVED the games the speech therapist had, enjoyed the sessions. We did Gymbaroo too (to get both sides of the brain working). She continued to have great comprehension but was pretty mute most of the time.

Wherever we went, it seemed all her peers were talking away, singing songs that were recognisable etc. So i worried.

childcare workers told me how easy it was for them to understand her (miming what she wanted, pointing).

i toilet trained her with signs and the versions of words she could say "voo voo" and "bee bee". she trained day and night totally in a month at two and a half.

She turned three and all of a sudden, it was like a waterfall had switched on. Speech began and has not stopped. I love finally being able to hear what she is thinking.

i think it was a lesson in patience (for me).
it was a lesson in me loving her for her, not comparing her to other children her age.

despite the late start, she has caught up to other children her age (in speech).

many people told me "she'll speak when she's ready" - i didn't really believe them, but what they said came true (for us).

I don't think 18 months is that late for no words. I have had both ends of the scale. My DD is 16 months and says the occasional one off word but doesn't really have anything repeatable/understandable by anyone but us. My DS was the opposite and by 17 months he had roughly 100 words and was speaking in 2-3 word sentences. I am not worried about DD, she is certainly slower than I am used to but she seems aware enough and I am sure she will do it when she is ready. Your boy sounds like an intelligent little person, I am sure one day soon something will just click and you will have a sudden word explosion.

my DS is 18.5 months & says 8-10 words. probably 3 of these have come in the last couple of weeks. and two of them are 'oh no' and 'oh wow' so more expressions than words (but used in context so i count them!).

DS' cousin is 22 months & it's just in the last month that i've really noticed a big development in his speech/communication.

it sounds like his comprehension is fantastic so it's not a matter of not understanding anything so i reckon it'll just be a matter of time.

I was just counting DD's words this morning for her record book so this is an appropriate thread as I too was wondering what was considered the norm. DD is 19 months old and has approx 80-100 words that she speaks. She is also putting 2-3 words together eg Mama finished or Ready Set Go. Upon saying all that she DOES have an older brother and sister who she copies a lot off.

Looking back through DD1 and DS's record books at similar ages they had around 30 words each plus animal sounds.

My DS is 18 months too and has really only started to get a few 'real' words in the last few weeks and still only 8-10. I was also starting to wonder a month or so ago and then one day he said bye bye to DH out of the blue, from there he's really started expressing himself with 'no' and 'uh oh' and is trying to mimic words. So I wouldn't worry, from my experience it will just start one day and slowly develop from there.

DS had maybe 5-6 words at that age I think. We did baby sign with him so he communicated very well, just not verbally.
By 2 he was a veritable chatterbox and hasn't stopped since, so I wouldn't be too worried about it just yet.
Interestingly, he didn't sleep much in the first 2 years, so maybe you're on to something there PollyA.

I'm sure if you compare your girl to those other mums' kids you'd find things that she's very advanced in compared to them. DS' language is excellent, but his gross motor skills are well behind those of some of his peers. It's just not such a priority for him.

My DD is 22months and didn't have any 'real' words at 18months. She now has about 15-20 + a lot of animal sounds but most of this has happened over the last two weeks. I think it is more important to access communication as a whole and like you have said, his comprehension is good. My DD understands almost everything so I'm not worried that the words are coming slower for now.

Oh I didn't see this thread before I replied in your other one you started before Christmas.. I'll paste it here :)

ummm Elijah is 21 months and he doesn't speak... well he does in his own way but he pretty much only really says Ta and Pa but he communicates VERY well using his own forms of communication... which include grabbing my hand and dragging me to where he wants me to be to show me what he wants. He's a bit like MadB said and uses his own baby sign really. Also I kinda know what he wants or is after by just watching him and what he indicates... I do tell him what things are called and he points and touches things and "asks" in his own way what things are. He kinda goes "ahhhhh" but it's the way he says it. I think he's going to just start full on talking one day!

Just hang on for the "word explosion" that happens from now on in...it really is amazing how quickly their vocab increases. I wouldn't be worrying about number of words yet because in a few months your baby will surprise you with words popping out left, right & centre.

My DD is 18months and she babbles up a storm. We have NO idea what she is saying and it always seems to end in "Why"? lol She knows mom, daddy, bite, byebye, hi, uh-oh, oww, etc...

funny thing is lately she has been calling everyone mommy. lol

I wouldnt be worried

Neither of my boys had words at 18 months, DS1 had a little bit of babble and DS2 can say 'u-oh' and 'ot' (hot) now at 19 months. Both are in Speech Therapy, DS2 was just referred as his 18m developmental check concluded that he is well behind for communication and personal-social skills.

They wanted them to have 8-10 words by 18 months along with a range of babble and understanding (following instructions etc) I personally think 18 months is still a bit young to be worried about it, I only attend the Speech Groups for the social interaction for DS2. I think they should give them until closer to two, as many have pointed out they tend to have an explosion between 18m and 2yr.

At the end of the day if YOU are concerned then follow it up, don't let others convince you that you should be concerned :hug: you are doing great x

My DS2 barely had words at 18 months. Everything he said was hummed. We knew by the hums what he was saying though. He also had amazing comprehension skills. Just after he turned 3 he suddenly was talking up a storm and now speaks in full sentences and sings loads of songs. Most of his sentences today are 10 or so words.
My DD2 is the opposite of DS2 and she speaks so much. At 17 months she has around 50 words and she talks & babbles all day. Some of the words she has aren't proper words (she calls Woody from Toy Story Mee) but she has words and that is good for her as we can tell she loves to talk.

It really is amazing how much of a difference a few months can make for some children and if you are concerned, have a chat to your ECHN or GP and see where to go from here. I personally wouldn't be too concerned just yet :)