19 month language progress

F1tnessG1rl · June 2009

I know each child is different. How much does your 19 mo old talk? Does he/she say mama, daddy, etc when they see you and DH? Anybody's child just say a word, or sometimes attempt to say a word, only when asked to repeat it?? What is the norm??

JillAly · June 2009

I don't have the criteria with me (I'm at work right now) but I have it written down at home. I was worried about my ds and I spoke to a friend who actually does the testing for early intervention. She gave me the criteria and explained everything. By the way- it is a range of 18-23 months so there is nothing that must be at exactly 19 months. It's what they are expected to do by 23 months and maybe as early as 18 months. Every baby is different with walking/crawling and it's the same with language. People always talk about the 18 month words but it's 18-23 months!

There are 2 parts. The receptive part and the communicative part. It's not about the number of words. It's about the 2 parts and where they are in the general ability of each. For example, in the communicative- when you say bah, BAH, bah, do they reapeat the same number of syllables (whether or not it's an actual word or jibberish). That's all I can remember right now. I'll send you the rest when I get home.

JillAly · June 2009

Ok- I'm home. So here is what I wrote that the evaluator told me.

18-23 months-
should have 5-10 sounds (usually hard sounds like d, g, b etc)
inflection (the bah, BAH, bah thing)
if you say, show me duck, they can point to the duck
respond to commands (go get book, stop, etc)
knows some parts of body (self-awareness) i.e. points to eyes, tummy, nose, etc.

Part of that is the expressive and part is the receptive. They are most concerned about the receptive (understanding the commands, where eyes are, etc) because it goes to brain development and mental acuity. The communication part (expressive) can occur later- especially in boys.

She didn't give me a set number of words and even when I prodded, she wouldn't say that there is a set number. I said that many moms on this board claim their pedi said they should have 5, 10, 20 or more words. She said it's not the number of words per se- it's the number of sounds (g, b, d, etc) that they want to make sure they have. THey often babble but as long as those sounds are there, they're fine. She would say at 12-17 months they only look for one solid real word. ONE. That's it. But they look for up to 5 sounds. So that calmed me down a lot.

And they were right. At 18 mo, my ds would say dada, mama, cat and maybe one other word I understood. Now at 19-20 months, my ds is learning new words daily- it just happened at 19-20 months for us and not at 17 or 18 months. So they do go at different paces. My step-brother didn't say any words until he was 2 but now he doesn't stop talking!

Good luck- hoped this helps!

CMM05 · June 2009

JillAly:

Ok- I'm home. So here is what I wrote that the evaluator told me.

18-23 months-
should have 5-10 sounds (usually hard sounds like d, g, b etc)
inflection (the bah, BAH, bah thing)
if you say, show me duck, they can point to the duck
respond to commands (go get book, stop, etc)
knows some parts of body (self-awareness) i.e. points to eyes, tummy, nose, etc.

Part of that is the expressive and part is the receptive. They are most concerned about the receptive (understanding the commands, where eyes are, etc) because it goes to brain development and mental acuity. The communication part (expressive) can occur later- especially in boys.

She didn't give me a set number of words and even when I prodded, she wouldn't say that there is a set number. I said that many moms on this board claim their pedi said they should have 5, 10, 20 or more words. She said it's not the number of words per se- it's the number of sounds (g, b, d, etc) that they want to make sure they have. THey often babble but as long as those sounds are there, they're fine. She would say at 12-17 months they only look for one solid real word. ONE. That's it. But they look for up to 5 sounds. So that calmed me down a lot.

And they were right. At 18 mo, my ds would say dada, mama, cat and maybe one other word I understood. Now at 19-20 months, my ds is learning new words daily- it just happened at 19-20 months for us and not at 17 or 18 months. So they do go at different paces. My step-brother didn't say any words until he was 2 but now he doesn't stop talking!

Good luck- hoped this helps!

THANK YOU! This info is great!

FYI......my DS is 19 months. He says mama, dada, hot, cup (very occasionally) and that's it. In the past week he has started to kind of attempt to repeat words. He babbles A TON. His receptive language is very good though. He can follow all of our commands and points to lots of things in books. My pedi is not concerned.

I know its hard to compare, but I'm always reminded that boys tend to do things on the slower end. I have lots of friends with older boys and they have all said that most of their boys didn't really start talking until they are closer to 2.

F1tnessG1rl · June 2009

This is awesome! THANK YOU!!! : )

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