1yo speech - whats normal and not?

Soooooo Im a teeny bit concerned about my 1yo and his speech. Never had any issues with my eldest as he had an extensive vocab and speech from a very early age. This no-words world is new to me.

He makes grunting sounds and likes to screech so I know it isnt hearing related but he just doesnt say anything other than mum, dad or 'du' (duck). Its getting a bit tiring playing Guess what I want while I grunt, and I try and teach him words on a daily basis but he just flatly refuses to involve himself and usually just screeches at me til I give up :wall:

What can I do to help him learn words? Should I be concerned or should I just let it go? When do you get concerned about delayed speech development?

At one year of age he is still very much a baby. Most developmental specialists would not even look at him until he is around 4 as until then you can't really say its a developmental issue or not. I say just let him go and keep talking to him. Chances are he understands a fair bit of what your saying but just doesn't feel the need to respond using full words yet.

Hi Anna,

My ds is exactly the same. He says mama, dada, nana, and tries for hello and dodie but that's it :dunno:

I don't think you need to be concernced. My mchn said that between 12-18 months they may learn and use only 3 or 4 words, but between 18 months- 2 years that jumps to between 50 and 200 :o So msybe he is just on the edge of a big verbal spout ;)

Anna i really wouldnt be concerned. Jesse never even said mum until he was 16 months old and until then all he said was dad or hello. It wasnt until he actually turned 2 that hes actually really increased his vocab. Its like one day he went to bed and woke up and could talk.

Kellxx you just reminded me- a friend was saying today that her sister didn't talk she was three- but her first words were "That was funny Daddy, do it again!" So maybe he is just saving up for when he has something really important to say ;)

My DD is almost 14 months old and doesn't say even Mumm or Dadda - I'm not worried though, It'll come.

I get called 'car' all the time...and he was loads of screaming, grunting and oh did i mention screaming.

Id be more worried if he was 3 and not communicating hun..dont forget every child is different in their developement and he probably doesnt need to talk as much as he has a big brother who probably talks for him ;)

Sounds absolutley normal for a 1yr old. Maybe your expectations are too high b/c your first son had advanced language skills. At 12 months DD could say mamamamamama dadadadada and that's about it. Now, at 15 months she has a few more words and sounds but nothing too amazing. As far as i can tell she is about average for all the kids she hangs out with. He'll get there, but i certainly hear ya on the grunting and frustration. Just say what you want already!!!! :lol:

I really wouldn't be worried. I remember the little boy I nannied back in 2001/2002 wasn't saying anything when I took him on (he was 15 months at the time) he did the grunting & a strange thing with his mouth closed almost like he was talking in his mouth but kept his mouth closed LOL it was very bizzare but by the time he was 2 he had an awful lot to say!!! His sister who was 13 months younger (yes 5 weeks old when I took them on) started saying words before she was one. Every child is different & they usually all catch up & equal out eventually.

One year old is still a baby though so I honestly wouldn't worry at all. Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job!!!

ETA I just re-read my post & thought its terrible that I didnt say anything about my own DD LOL The reason I mentioned the boy I nannied & not DD is because Matthew (nannied boy) did the grunting aswell. DD had quite a large vocabulary of words at one, some just pick up words earlier than others, DS may do the grunting thing too, we'll have to wait & see!

Try not stress I would say.
It was my understanding that cognitive and physical development is such an individual thing at this age, that one may not develop as quick as the other, but that is ok. By the time he is 18 months he may have been listening to you for so long that he just all of a sudden starts speaking like a 3 year old, iykwim?
Charlotte says some words, but still most of her commnication is (albeit very clear) signs and noises. Drinking sounds and movements, pointing etc.
Perhaps others will know better, but I wouldnt be concerned he is still so little!

Hi AnnaT, I wouldn't stress about it..my DS is nearly 2 1/2 and he only started speaking at 2 before that he only said mumma, daddy and up. I was stressed as well because all the other bubs his age at playgroup were chattering away (i know i shouldn't compare but at the time i was pretty worried) we even made an appointment with a speech pathologist (which we're still waiting on :rolleyes:) but now ds is putting two words together and learning new words all the time. He's still not overly clear but at least he's trying. Ds has also always been really good with the physical stuff.. rolling, crawling, standing, walking etc and did those fairly early so i guess he mastered the physical stuff first and now he's concentrating on talking.
The screeching and whinging is horrible though isn't it? It used to drive me nuts and i too had to do the whole 'guess what he wants before he screams' thing :wall:

Don't stress i'm sure your ds will talk soon enough, just keep reading him books and encouraging him.

HTH

I wouldn't stress, its hard when your subsequent children are not as advanced though isn't it? I worry about DS because he is nowhere near as well spoken as his sisters but I have had to realise that all kids are different.

I wouldn't worry about it (although it's easier said than done, right!). My DS is the same, he grunts alot, and babbles nonsense, and says mum and dad (occasionally in context but more often not in context). He doesn't point to things to show recognition or use any recognisable signs (or perhaps he does and I'm just rubbish at reading them LOL), although he often grabs my nipples and tweaks them when he wants a feed.

But even though he isn't using any specific communication himself, I know that he understands certain requests, including 'please', 'putting away' (yes, I'm impressed with that one too) and 'arms up'. Whether or not he chooses to respond to the requests depends on how he feels on the day LOL, but I know that he understands them.

I'm sure that he'll start using words when he's good and ready to.

I'm not going to add anything original, just going to say 'me too". At 16 months my DS really didn't have any words, even his 'Mum" was a bit of a stretch, but something clicked at about 17 months & the words started to come out, and at nearly 18 months there are new ones almost everyday.
The MCHN book says that for the 18 month check they're looking for 5-10 words, which by the time you've covered things like mum, dad, bye, hi, and maybe duck, you're there.
And just think, while he can't actually talk, it also means he can't argue back, so you always get the last word;)

He's only 1, still a little baby. He will talk when he's ready. My niece is 2.5yrs old and didn't start talking (stringing words together) until she was 2. Me on the other hand as a baby starting talking at 11mths. Every child is different. Instead of fighting the fact that he isn't talking try and accept it and it will probably start getting allot easier for you to understand him. :D

DD wasn't even saying Mum and Dad in context at 1yo, LOL. She could say, 'Bye!' and that was IT!
I was very frustrated as it seemed that the kids at playgroup were all talking when she couldn't. However she has been doing really well over the last 6-ish months.
One thing I found with her (and you kind of mentioned a similar thing with your DS) was that I felt she was too shy or something to have a go at new words. I would often repeat things for her but she'd never attempt them. It is only in the last 6 months that she's started to mimick, and indeed her confidence has increased in lots of areas over this time.
I still feel your frustration over the grunting. DD often communicates what she wants by saying, 'No no no no no' in a half-assed tantrum. :rolleyes: I am quite desperate for the day when she can just say it to me calmly.

I agree Anna, don't worry. I found myself thinking the exact same thing a few months ago and then he just took off - now he says 'mum' and 'dad' instead of 'mama' and 'dada' (which I hate btw, I much prefer mama) 'more', 'bye' can ask for a drink by saying 'dink' or 'mik' when he wants a b'feed or drink of milk in a cup (these two sound similar, you really have to listen for the difference), says 'stick' when he wants a fruit stick (:redface:), says 'turtle', 'dog, 'bird' when he sees pictures of them, etc etc. He understands when I ask him to go and get his drink or his shoe or whatever, he toddles off and brings it back to me. It all just took off within a few weeks and now I actually think he's a bit more advanced than his sister at this age. BUT he still loves to grunt and scream at me!

My favourite at the moment is when he drops something or there's a sudden noise or something he says 'oh oh' and opens his eyes really wide LOL!

He'll get there, they're all just very different and develop in their own time.

Ahhh how I wish that DS wasnt' a good talker... now we get "mummy.. SHOOSHHH"

Very embarrassing when in public :rolleyes:

I'd say he sounds pretty much normal babe!

He sounds pretty normal when I think of what Claire was like at that age. When Claire was 12 months old she could say mama, dada, bye and yeah. She did alot of grunting as well. She didnt really start saying many words till she was almost 18 months.

Only in the last 3 or so months (she is 22 months now) she has just had a bit of a word explosion and now can say stacks of words and now seems to be learning more words all the time. I've just been making sure I talk to her lots (she must be so sick of my voice by now!), tell her what I'm doing, I've been playing a game with her where we name her body parts and she has learned the names of quite a few of her body parts now, when she wants something and just points to it I tell her what it is called and after a few times she remembers and uses the word instead of grunting. Unfortunately she has recently learned "no" and knows how to use it... I have no idea where she got it from as we dont use no in our house.

I was 4 or 5 by the time I started talking! I had to go to speech therapy, and I got there in the end. Now you can't shut me up :D
He sounds completely normal, like everyone has already told you.
Soon enough he'll start talking, and you'll wish he never opened his mouth!

Not many words here at all (mumm/mumma, da, and a few other letter sounds.. very few used as words tho I think).. but the baby signing is going great guns.. only have to show her a couple of times the sign for something and she'll try it. So technically she's "saying" bird, please, more, book, ball, light, fan, drink, eat... :)

If he has good comprehension of what you're saying, I wouldn't worry at this age about speech. But if you want to get communication going, I totally recommend baby signing. We did it with DS, and we had very little frustration from him, and then at around 18/19 months his vocab just took off and many people were saying how advanced his speech was! I'm assuming something similar may happen with DD.

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Kellxx you just reminded me- a friend was saying today that her sister didn't talk she was three- but her first words were "That was funny Daddy, do it again!" So maybe he is just saving up for when he has something really important to say ;)

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:lol: Yeah, it'll be "I wish I was an only child!"