18mth old slow to speak?

[Lallas' Mum]

My DS2 is 18mths old and uses very little words. He says wordslike Mumma, Dadda, Mama (Grandma), Bramppa (grandpa), bapple (apple) and occassionally will mimic words said to him. He is quite vocal but when it comes to communicating he prefers to grunt,point or even push us in the direction he wants us to go. Being a SAHM I spend LOTS of time with him and can understand what he wants very well.
He has an excellent understanding of what we are saying to him as well. If we ask him to put his cup in the sink - he will. If we say it is bedtime - off he troddles to bed.

Anyhow,,,, His paediatrician is sending him to speech therapy because he hasn't hit the milestone of stringing words together yet and compared to his older brother who is 3, he is quite slow in speaking. His brother is somewhat of a chatterbox who uses words like important, absolutely and positively all in context. I don't believe he is doing too bad,I think he is just not ready but he did suffer from infantile seizures and was on medication for a while so I guess the Drs are just being cautious.

Compare to other 18 month olds out there is he really that far behind? I only have my DS1 to compare to and I think he is a little advanced in the speech department.

[jasminesmum]

It sounds to me like your older ds is doing all the talking for your younger ds.
He sounds like he communicates fine and gets what he wants by other ways.
I have a 18mth old dd. She says lots of words now but is definately slower than my eldest ds. He was alot better than her. But being the third child she only has to scream and her older brothers give her everything.

I would try not to worry. He is only 18mths old and he will get there in his own time.

Take care.

[babylover111]

In my experience second born children take a little longer to talk, especially if the first born is a big chatterbox its almost as if they speak for them!

I look after a little girl who has just turned 18 months and shes only saying one word at a time too, but understands absolutely everything said to her. I havent seen it as a real problem yet.

Just relax and find reassurement in the fact that he can understand what you're saying but also I think the speech pathologist is a good idea to give you some extra reassurement. Goodluck!

[kiwibird27]

Think u have probably answered your own questions in this post
1..... You understand him really well, meaning he doesn't need to speak clearly cause u understand him

2..... His brother is a chatterbox, hard to get a word in, his brother probably understands him well too and talks for him when needed???

3... He shows understanding - he understands but just doesn't have to talk???!!!


Wouldn't be too worried, speech therapist will probably just give you behavioural things to follow, like getting down to his level and making eye contact, and waiting for him to explain fully what he wants before he gets it, even if you understand, making sure brother doesn't talk for hiom and letting him have time to be heard.

He isn't really that far behind given the context of his environment.

[Little Gorilla]

My DS2 is 18mths old and uses very little words. He says wordslike Mumma, Dadda, Mama (Grandma), Bramppa (grandpa), bapple (apple) and occassionally will mimic words said to him. He is quite vocal but when it comes to communicating he prefers to grunt,point or even push us in the direction he wants us to go. Being a SAHM I spend LOTS of time with him and can understand what he wants very well.
He has an excellent understanding of what we are saying to him as well. If we ask him to put his cup in the sink - he will. If we say it is bedtime - off he troddles to bed.

Anyhow,,,, His paediatrician is sending him to speech therapy because he hasn't hit the milestone of stringing words together yet and compared to his older brother who is 3, he is quite slow in speaking. His brother is somewhat of a chatterbox who uses words like important, absolutely and positively all in context. I don't believe he is doing too bad,I think he is just not ready but he did suffer from infantile seizures and was on medication for a while so I guess the Drs are just being cautious.

Compare to other 18 month olds out there is he really that far behind? I only have my DS1 to compare to and I think he is a little advanced in the speech department.

I would say he is in no way far behind other 18 month olds....my son is now 21 months and was exactly the same as your son a few months ago - great understanding of what I tell him, hardly ever gets confused...however its only been in the last 6 weeks or so that he speech has really picked up.

I would say don't worry at all...he sounds totally normal.

[Lallas' Mum]

Thanks for the replies. There nothing worse than thinking all is going along fine and someone comes in and says something that just bursts your self confidence. My DH and I have decided that speech therapy could only benefit DS2 so we are going to follow the Drs recommendations.
I guess I was just needing reassurance that DS2 wasn't all that "behind" and that he was just doing things his way.

[Rainbowbrite]

All but one bub in the group i go to are talking like your DS2. MJ only says a few words & as she's saying the same as the others i'm not worried. The odd one out in our group speaks better than a 3yr old.

[SassyMummy]

DD is not 18 months, she's 15.5 months... so I'll let you know when she gets to 18 months (January).

Still, she doesn't really speak. She says "Mum" a lot, but I don't even thinks she says it when speaking about/to me. She just says it.

She also says "Gog" (Dog) and "Gat" (Cat) and "Baah-b" (Boob) and Shoe. She probably says a few extra little things here and there, but that's pretty much it.

She DOES understand me though...if she hears the phone, she goes to it. If I pick up the washing basket, she runs to the laundry. If I ask her if she wants a dinner/bath/bottle etc, she runs to the appropriate places. If I ask her to show me her head/belly button/vagina or nose (the only body parts she seems to understand) she'll show me where they are.

I'll also second hte chatterbox first child thing... I don't have 2 kids, but my brother took forever to speak...I'm the eldest. I started full-on talking sentences a bit over 12 months... so I was very chatty. My brother (18 months younger than me) didn't get a chance to speak becuase I was always talking (so he couldn't get a word in) and because I always knew what he wanted, so I'd speak FOR him.

[draught]

I recently watched a video about the birth of DD2 and what struck me was how little DD1, who was 20 months at the time, was talking. I remember discussing it at the time and being a little worried but being assured that as she understood us and obviously had comprehension, she was just doing things at her own pace. Now she is 3 3/4 and we can't keep her quiet! At 20 months she was excatly as you are describing your 18 month old, so, as the others have said, while the speech therapist might help with some exercises he certainly doesn't sound like he is behind others of the same age to me.

(And just to highlihgt how different they all are, at 20 months my second child was speaking in complete sentences and using complex words - she had learnt from her big sister!)

[Ky]

My dd was talking at 9 months and stringing 2-3 words together by 12mo. My ds on the other hand started talking (not even Mum or Dad before this!) at 2 ½ years old. We took him to speech therapy at that age and by the time we went to the 2nd appointment 2 months later he was talking better and clearer than most kids his age ... he had just been waiting until he was ready!

He is now 3 ¾ and is talking like a 5yo! He and his sister (5 ¾) both have a huge vocab and understanding of a lot of things way beyond their years and we are regularly asked if they are twins as they are intellectually both pretty bright and physically there is only a couple of cm's difference in height and not even a few grams in weight!

Kids tend to catch up to each other eventually ... I have learnt my lesson and won't worry over any future kids we may have.

[Gribel]

I look after a little girl who has just turned 18 months and shes only saying one word at a time too, but understands absolutely everything said to her. I havent seen it as a real problem yet.




Same is with my DS who's 19 months. He says a few words (also mum, oma, please up, down, bikki....) and can say mummy up or mummy please and stuff like that, but hasn't really formed any proper sentence yet.
We also speak english AND german at home, so I know it will take him a bit longer to start speaking.

He too understands absolutely everything you tell him - but he somehow doesn't hear the word NO or Naughty Boy:laughing:

As said by all the others, I wouldn't worry too much. She'll come around:rolleyes:

[pookiesossige]

Gee, I was surprised to read that your DS2 had even been referred for speach therapy, but I guess that it could only benefit... But, really, I think that he sounds perfectly normal!

My son is nearly 2.5 years old. Just in the last few months he has started pretty much mimicking whatever we say, and only occasionally strings them together- ie "in the bed" "on the chair" etc. He mostly makes one word statements like "flying!" or "Milo!" But the rate in which his speach is developing is amazing to us. I know that there are boys his age that are much more advanced with their speach but I never for a second considered Ronan to be 'behind'. So I certainly don't see your son as 'behind' either!

At the age your son is now, Ronan had only the smallest handful of words and wasn't using them all in context. I'd relax if I were you- it's hard when your first born did things so much faster. My 6 month old girl isn't really moving much at all and I keep catching myself thinking "but Ronan was crawling/rolling/etc by now!"... We need to stress less when our kids develop differently . :yes: :yes:

[Gribel]

We need to stress less when our kids develop differently . :yes: :yes:



:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[jessgray]

my ds1 is 18.5 months and he occasionlly says mummum but doesnt know what mum means he has mild hearing loss in one ear and moderate in the other.this has affected his speech development and he is on the waiting list to see a ENT specialist (we find out next week if he will go on the urgent list he is on semi-urgent atm)
i would love for him to be a chatterbox i know one day he will be a chatterbox it might not be verbally but there will be a day when i can tell him to shut up:laughing:
he communicates by babbling and baby talk and pointing at things. me and dp understand him so does most of our families. when ds1 says his 1st words he might not be saying them when other kids say them but it will be more special coz we waited so long:)
so i wouldnt worry. not all 18month olds are talking.but if you really worry get a hearing test doen to rule out a hearing problem.:hugs:

[~beckkles~]

Jess,
I noticed you are in Geelong, a friend of mine had a similar prob with the system and ENT specialist..she rang Royal Childrens and was seen within a few weeks. PM if you want to know more
Bec

[Crazyfamily]

Where I live I had the chance to go and do a "it takes two to talk course". It was the best thing I ever did. It teaches about communicating with your child and how to help them learn from you. I did it through our task (therapy and support for kids) Ithink. My chn put me in touch with them. It is very worthwhile but only new in Australia I think.