23 months and barely talking

minceylj · December 2013

I have a 23 month old, she barely says real words.

she says no, yes, hi, hey, baby, and lil things.

Should i be worried, shes an only child, but gets

to see a 1yr old and a 5 yr old at least once

or twice a week. Also she did start daycare a couple

weeks ago, but what else can i do?
we read to her, talk to her all the time. she mainly

just talks back but to were you cant understand

g8trkim · December 2013

You should talk to your pedi.

minceylj · December 2013

She acts like she is fine. but i see so many other babies who are younger and talk way more.

ashiscute · December 2013

What did your pedi say at her 18 mo checkup? Weren't they a little bit concerned then? My DS just had his 15 mo checkup and they were looking for 5 words. I would take the advice of others and call your pedi and get a referral for EI.

It's very encouraging that your DD is babbling. Does she use her words to communicate a need to you? Does she sign at all? Does she imitate if asked? These are all things EI will look at and help you work on. My DD has been in speech therapy since she was 17 mos and it has been a life saver for me.

Good luck!

palmbreeze · December 2013

Same boat. My 23 year old son is super smart. He knows words, he knows objects, he'll follow direction...he just doesn't want to speak. He is starting to speak his own toddler language. He says some words. I don't blame him...once you start talking people expect so much out of you lol I think kids just develop at their own pace. I plan on asking my pedi at our two year check up. We've had a lot of change in our life as well, so that may be why he is being slow.

michelle7482 · December 2013

I would call EI. It's free and they will assess your child and provide services. It can't hurt. My DD has been receiving speech instruction for two months. At 18 months she had 7-8 words, and at almost 22 mo she has about 15 I think. The EI teacher isn't necessarily teaching her to talk as she's only here once a week. But she is giving me pointers and tips in helping us communicate with her. It has been helpful and she has doubled her vocabulary. It could be simply bc she's getting older but getting EI involved can't hurt!!

minceylj · December 2013

I hate to be the dumb one here but what does El stand for? we have an appointment next month with her dc, her 2yr check up, i was hoping maybe then she would say something about it. I might call her sooner tho.

And for signing she will point at things she wants/. She does look at me at me and talk, but usually not with real words unless she telling me know. and she will act like shes reading books with her baby talk. shes pretty smart besides saying real words

buzzbee24 · December 2013

minceylj said:

I hate to be the dumb one here but what does El stand for? we have an appointment next month with her dc, her 2yr check up, i was hoping maybe then she would say something about it. I might call her sooner tho.

And for signing she will point at things she wants/. She does look at me at me and talk, but usually not with real words unless she telling me know. and she will act like shes reading books with her baby talk. shes pretty smart besides saying real words

Early Intervention. They're great for a whole host of services. My LO had torticollis and plageo. He had EI physical therapy starting at 2 months to 10 months along with childrens hospital therapy. EI worked with his other therapist and made the whole process so much easier for my family. They also do speech therapy and evaluations...for free!

ashiscute · December 2013

minceylj said:

I hate to be the dumb one here but what does El stand for? we have an appointment next month with her dc, her 2yr check up, i was hoping maybe then she would say something about it. I might call her sooner tho.

And for signing she will point at things she wants/. She does look at me at me and talk, but usually not with real words unless she telling me know. and she will act like shes reading books with her baby talk. shes pretty smart besides saying real words

I would start looking into teaching some baby sign language. We have gotten "Baby Signing Time" videos out of the library that my kids love. They teach basic signs like "all done, more, eat" things like that.

There are lots of different reasons as to why your daughter hasn't started speaking but I would get in touch with EI asap honestly. (The process is kind of slow- 2 months from the first call to our first therapy session.) It might be nothing at all but it could be something and it's definitely worth checking into it. My DD was recently diagnosed with a speech disorder that only targets expressive language. She is smart and her receptive language skills are great but she really struggles verbalizing her needs. Having a speech therapist working with us has been so HUGE.

I know a lot of people are reluctant to look into these things because all kids do develop differently but IMO it's always better to have the evaluation and find out everything is okay than to keep waiting and find out something wasn't right. Good luck!

takmjs · December 2013

My daughter is also 23 months and has very few words (mama, yeah, baby, up). She was born at 30 weeks, and our pedi suggested we get EI last year when she was 6 months old. I don't know if it's the norm in all states, but EI needed a referral/order from a doctor to get an eval for EI. Being a 30 weeker, she qualified automatically, but I don't know the other qualifications/delays they need for the pedi to refer them. She qualified for speech because of her feeding issues, but that was quickly resolved and was dismissed from EI. Then, last summer at 16-17 months, I was getting really worried because she had 0 words and wasn't walking. She qualified for both PT (physical therapy) and speech. She will be dismissed from PT next week, because she's now caught up with that. Speech is still coming twice a month and will continue to, because she isn't close to caught up yet. My daughter is very shy and won't say a peep around strangers, so she doesn't say anything when the speech therapist is here. The speech therapist has taught us a lot of signs, and my daughter is very good at using those (open, closed, on, off, more, in, out, etc.). That's been very helpful, so she can at least communicate her needs/wants to us.

Karen1024 · December 2013

My daughter is only 14 months old but she also doesn't have very good language skills compared to kids her age. (She's said mama like twice and Dad = "addy" about 4 or 5 times so I know she CAN talk but doesn't.) She seems very smart despite being shy about talking.

What really has been awesome is sign language! We got the first 4 Baby Signing Time videos from our local library and DD is signing all the freaking time! I'm sure you could just look up a few signs on line and just see what happens. We chose the most important signs for us first and just kept using them. She "says" milk, more, all done, please, baby, food/eat, night night, flower, shoes, and she can kind of say bird apple and cat maybe? Also I think she is doing "cracker." Plus she understands way more than that. It's been wonderful! She actually asks to go to bed!

The songs were really catchy and the woman who is on the video gives you really easy ways to remember all the signs. DD would ask us to put on the videos by making the sign for baby and loved the songs. Seriously she was hooked. We were on the wait list at the library for a long time for the videos but it was worth it. I am told there are like 30 more after these 4. They are done by a woman with a deaf child. I'm not sure you need to buy the videos because if you are around the TV at all you will pick them up in no time flat but I'm sure DD wouldn't mind watching them another 100 times if we'd let her.

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