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Babies: 9 - 12 Months
Moms of 1+ Yr Olds: How many words should they say?
Is there a better place to post this? I can't remember where 1+ baby questions are supposed to go.
My son is 16mo old and I'm worried that he isn't speaking as well as he should. He usually grunts and points to get what he wants, instead of trying to sound out words. He can't say no, ball, dog, bye bye, mine or many other common ones. He knows mom and dad well, and has said three other words (hot, tree, and ice), but only one time.
On a daily basis, we do lots of object labeling, reading books, work on flash cards, etc. I feel like we work harder on these tasks more than most parents I know, but get less results. I'm really trying not to keep comparing him to others, but I'm curious how common this is.
Before age 1, he watched zero TV, but now we watch Your Baby Can Read once per day. He can definitely "read" some of the words and will perform the action before it's spoken, but has never attempted to say them.
He's an only child and I'm a SAHM, so he doesn't have much interaction with other children (just play dates 1-2/per week and church nursery on Sun).
I've been told that he has more patience and a longer attention span than most other kids his age. He can easily get most knob puzzles, so I don't think he is "slow", just not interested in speaking.
TIA for commenting... I've really been worried about this and plan to discuss with the Dr. at our 18mo checkup.
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Re: Moms of 1+ Yr Olds: How many words should they say?
I would give a call to your pedi at this point, rather than waiting another 2 months. It sounds like you've done a lot of work with him and it seems like it may be time for a speech therapist to get a look at him. It is a good sign that he appears to have a good attention span and patience, but he may need some extra support. Even if he doesn't qualify for Early Intervention, a speech therapist could give you a ton of great suggestions and recommendations for how to enhance his expressive vocabulary.
Another thing you could do for him is enroll him in a music class. Singing, dancing, and word play would be exposure, as well as the opportunity for appropriate peer models. I just took my LO to a my gym class (like gymboree) over the weekend, and they did alot of singing/stories/puppet shows, too, which your LO may benefit from as well.
I won't go into this, but I have to caution you to really look into "Your baby can read." I'm a school psychologist...I have to say I have serious questions about the appropriateness of that program. I don't know if the central tenants are askew from what it really does (i.e., misleading marketing) or if it really pretends to teach babies to read. You want kids to learn the phonemic qualities of words, rather than sight words, and children under 4 at the earliest just do not have the cognitive capacity to understand phonemic awareness.
Good luck!
I did some quick googling and it doesn't seem like your baby is behind.
https://www.babycenter.com/0_developmental-milestone-talking_6573.bc
https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/language_development.shtml
If they only average 5-20 words by 18 months then your LO is right on track. I also wouldn't stress or push too much - from what I've seen with the girls if we push or really work at something they don't do it, then if we back off a few days later they'll do it out of the blue. And we let them watch TV but at this age I think it's more about entertainment and enjoying the music then anything else.
Thanks for your suggestions. He does love music and does the motions for many songs, so maybe we'll continue that route and see if it helps.
I'm curious about your YBCR comment. Do you know of any good resources (book or online) in regards to this? I enjoy reading books on baby/toddler learning, but it's hard to find good, reputable sources that don't have biases or motives. I've read Nuture Shock, Bright From the Start, What's going on in there?", Superbaby and a few others. The only YBCR info I find online is parent reviews, not much interesting there.
I do think the marketing of YBCR is bad... you aren't teaching a child how to sound out words (at least not in the first 3 videos we've seen). There is definite memorization at this point, but watching the children preform actions has certainly helped him learn to point, put his arms up and recognize animals.
I wouldn't recommend that anyone purchase YBCR (I borrowed it from a friend and made my own flash cards), but I guess I didn't feel like him watching it could do any harm. Again though, I'd love to read more, if you have other suggestions. I'm going to do some more online searching.
The old saying used to be Walk at One, Talk at Two. I think your son sounds just fine! I have a nephew who didn't speak even simple words until right at Age 2. He is the smartest kid in his class now at age 10! I have other friends who have boys and girls, and their boys were noticeably later than their girls in verbal skills.
I have a girl and a boy, too. My daughter had a vocabulary of about 10 simple words when she was 1 (Ma, Dad, Ba-ba, Dog, etc.). My son says Ma and Da, that's it, and he just turned one.
Honestly, I wouldn't be concerned at all at this age, but that's just me!
I remember DD at 16 months hardly saying "dada" and "moooorrr" (more) and that's it! I was concerned and my Ped emphasized that if she babbles and doesn't loose words she is normal! I wouldn't give her something until she attempted to say words "can you say more" and even f she mouthed the m and attempted I gave h more and so on.
Her language explosion was 2-2.5 and now speaks conversation (her articulation is a little messy but that will come). The all grow at different rates.....
DS has his sister and at 18 months speaks clearly and strings 3 words together (I see you, go mama car...) but he is not the norm. They have very different strengths and different interests but they all talk, walk, read...at some point and its not a race.
I can't wait for this!
It is amazing to watch them learn at this age... I'm loving every minute of it.
Thanks everyone, for your responses. I might give my pedi a call just to make myself feel like I've covered every base, but it's nice to hear that he is probably still in the normal range. I am concerned about the "losing words" thing, because I have heard that before and the words he's spoken have only been once... over 2-3 months ago. Hopefully it's no big deal though!
This is about where DD was at 16 months. At 18 months she regularly said three words: baby (weirdly self-referential), ball, and cup; I don't think she even called us mama and dada yet, or at least not frequently. Her receptive language was great - she clearly understood most of what we said and could follow simple instructions - but she didn't say a whole lot, or at least nothing comprehensible (she babbled a lot). DH and I are both very verbally oriented, so we were somewhat concerned. I brought it up with her pedi at her 18 month appointment and she said kids often have a verbal explosion between 18 months and 2 years; she wasn't worried because DD was fine developmentally in every other respect. And she was right. The explosion happened around 20 months. At her two year appt. her pedi asked how many words she knew, and at that point I couldn't even count. (And she hasn't stopped talking since!)
Ask your parents and your DH's when you started talking and if your family has a history of late talkers. After DD started talking (naturally we didn't think of it before), we asked our parents and they said we were both late talkers.
Also, you're working hard on vocabulary; if he understands all these words when you say them, even if he's not saying them himself, that's a good sign. The words are in his head and will come out when he's ready.
DS is almost a year old and isn't recognizably saying any words. I know some kids do at this point. Within reasonable guidelines, there is a lot of variation and you will drive yourself crazy comparing your kid to others.
I'm not trying to be dismissive if there's a real issue, and definitely bring it up with your pediatrician at his next appointment, but more than likely your DS is just fine and will be talking more than you can imagine in a few months.