20 months but not talking yet

maltaballa · October 2013

Ok so my son will be 20 months next week.. .he was a late walker but has been cruising around since 10 months.
He walks around saying dadadadada alllll dayyyy longgggg but that's it. He will say MOM but he won't look at my husband and say DaDa...
Anyone else having this issue?
Should I be worried?
When I asked the dr at our last visit she said we will talk about it when he is 2...

HELP!

Jmcmahon21 · October 2013

DS hasn't been saying very many words and just turned 22 months today. We started speech therapy a couple months ago and think it's been helping. You can check with early childhood education in your area to see if he qualifies. They'll come to your house and do an assessment and see where he's at development wise. It's also free so it's worth looking into. I would continue to narrate what you're doing throughout the day, read lot's of books and work on animal sounds. Boys are usually late talkers I've read too since they usually concentrate more on their gross motor skills. Hope that helps!

MsMommy2012 · October 2013

My little one is almost 21 months and doesn't really talk. He babbles and follows directions. No animal noises. We are multilingual so that's probably why.

maltaballa · October 2013

First off - thank you!!!!
yes, he understands EVERYTHING I say to him... EVERYTHING... he does what he is told most of the time. We read daily, I talk to him, never at him... we use words not baby talk, never have.
he does not make animal sounds but when I do when I'm reading he laughs. He cleans up when I tell him, sits, stands, puts his jacket on, claps hands, wave bye bye, give kisses... he understands me but won't move those little lips...

He is an only child so I now bring him to a babysitter 1 day a week and he spends the day with the 6 other kids there and I already see a difference in him playing with them. We also do Gymboree several times a week to keep him active and around kids his age and nothing...
ugh.

Thank you.

blushingbride_08 · October 2013

Someone told me to give my LO a chance to ask for things. I usually don't allow him to ask because I just give him what he needs immediately. When I have a second child I'm sure that will stop since his attention will be divided.

dufferoo · October 2013

I think this can totally be normal. Listen to your instincts!! My best friend's son didn't start talking until he was about 2 and everybody was worried about him except her. She just felt like he would talk when he was ready. And he did. And he's totally caught up now.

maltaballa · October 2013

Thanks again... I was not worried but then people ask my husband all the time and I see it's concerning him which affects me apparently.

I think he is fine and when he is ready I'm sure I'll be wishing for this time again.

Have a wonderful night all.

ktpaladino · October 2013

My 18 month old is only saying mama, dada, ugh-oh, and a few animal sounds. I talked to his doctor about his verbal development the other day and he was not concerned. His opinion was that speech evaluations and therapy are not really necessary until 2 years of age. He said a lot of times if you call early intervention, they will come do an evaluation at your home and if there are no MAJOR issues, they will just say let's re-evaluate again at 2 years. He said the important part is that they have good comprehension skills and can understand most of what you are trying to communicate to them at this age. I do have a few friends that started speech therapy around 21-22 months and think it's helping, so it's really up to you and what you feel is best for your LO. However, boys are usually later talkers and if your doctor is not concerned I would trust their opinion and revisit the issue a little later if you don't see any improvement.

ALHickok1 · October 2013

As long as your LO is understanding what you and DH are saying, I wouldn't worry too much. He's comprehending, he just can't vocalize yet. This being said though, DS was the same way. He's almost two now, just a few more weeks. A few months ago I told DH that I was starting to worry and thought that speech therapy may be needed. He clearly understood what we were saying, could follow two step directions, and always found a way to tell us what he wanted/needed. He only had a few words though. I actually ended up counting all of his words that I could think of that he had said, there were a bunch, but he only ever said them very sparingly, so I didn't really count them. We decided that we were going to give it just a few more weeks until we called someone. Over those two weeks DS started talking and boy did he have words. Now about two months later he's talking in age appropriate 2-3 sentences, and he tells us what he wants/needs, and can hold a small conversation. With LOs this age they will all develop very differently, especially verbally. You can either give it a little more time, and try to implement more vocal activities, reading books, naming animals and their sounds, foods, etc... you get the point, and try and help yourself. Or you can completely look into speech therapy, not because I'm saying LO needs it, I'm not a doctor, nor do I know your LO, but because you're mama and you know what's best for LO.

ashiscute · October 2013

I'm going to have to disagree with people a bit. Early Intervention is there for a reason. The earlier they get help the better chances they have at catching up to their peers. My DD was not vocal at her 15 month check up. She babbled dada like sounds but her vocab had not really evolved and she was not referring to my DH. We pushed it and got her evaluated and she barely qualified because her receptive skills are fine. Now my DD is 33 months and has been diagnosed with a motor disorder that makes it difficult with her to make correct sounds for words. She is still quite delayed but we work very hard to help her. I am not trying to say your DS has this issue but please understand that just because they have good receptive skills does not mean that there cannot be an issue with expressive language. I'd recommend calling EI for an evaluation and seeing if he qualifies. It can't hurt.

ec0983 · October 2013

ashiscute said:

I'm going to have to disagree with people a bit. Early Intervention is there for a reason. The earlier they get help the better chances they have at catching up to their peers. My DD was not vocal at her 15 month check up. She babbled dada like sounds but her vocab had not really evolved and she was not referring to my DH. We pushed it and got her evaluated and she barely qualified because her receptive skills are fine. Now my DD is 33 months and has been diagnosed with a motor disorder that makes it difficult with her to make correct sounds for words. She is still quite delayed but we work very hard to help her. I am not trying to say your DS has this issue but please understand that just because they have good receptive skills does not mean that there cannot be an issue with expressive language. I'd recommend calling EI for an evaluation and seeing if he qualifies. It can't hurt.

i agree with this. as an early childhood educator, i'm a huge proponent of early intervention and would rather parents get their kids evaluated when not necessary than skip an evaluation when it is. chances are, from everything you said about him, your kiddo is totally fine and one day he's just gonna bust out with all kinds of words and you'll be wishing for peace and quiet. but, early intervention is an amazing, free resource that will not in any way harm your child. the worst thing that will happen is they'll tell you he doesn't qualify and you're out a few hours of your time. the best thing is that he will qualify and he'll get some awesome services that will put your mind at ease.

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