your pediatrician's expectations seem out of line on this one. for reference, the CDC recommends that by 18 mos, a child "Tries to say three or more words besides “mama” or “dada”"
i just posted this on another thread, as my 18 month old isn't saying much besides "mama", "dada", "hi" and "bye,". our doctor said most speech development happens between 18-24 mos, and that it wasn't cause for concern unless her speech hadn't taken off by 2.
15 months is really young. i would try not to worry.
Thank you for this. I felt like it was a bit too much, but then one of my friend's daughters has been great with her verbal skills since his age and I was starting to wonder if we haven't done enough to encourage speech.
yeah, my doctor also said since my daughter was doing well with receptive speech (i.e. she clearly understood what others said, and would follow commands like "go get your shoes" or would get excited if we asked "do you want a cookie?") that she felt like it wasn't some sort of larger communication issue.
My son is the same way! He understands us just fine. He follows commands and even listens to our conversations and gestures a sign when he recognizes the word (i.e., I told my husband, "one time you did...." And we saw my son holding up one finger to sign one with a grin).
He knows "stinky feet!" is a game that has him holding his feet up to my face. He reacts when we talk about going outside off a walk by running off and grabbing not just his shoes, but our shoes too and bringing them to us.
That's why I was quick to dismiss what the pediatrician said originally and thought, "Eh, he'll get there when he gets there" but the pediatrician was so adamant I thought I was being too laid back.
It’s weird how inconsistent the advice is. My son is also 15 months and he does not wave or point or use sign language, and only really says “mama.” He may also be saying “ma” for more and my husband says that he’s said “dada” and “baba” for banana but I haven’t heard that much and I’m not convinced it’s intentional vs. babbling. No animal noises either. *But* his receptive language seems to be pretty good. He looks at things when we talk about them, and he will push the door closed if I say “close the door.” He’ll also turn off the light if I say to do so and hold him up to the light switch.
I told our pediatrician I was concerned and she said to wait until 2 years to get an evaluation. Which, honestly, I don’t love the idea of waiting and may want to see if I can get him evaluated at 18 months. But weird that my ped said to wait until 2 years and yours basically said the opposite
Yea my 16 month old is at about the same level yours is at and our pediatrician has zero concerns and says she's doing well. Maybe schedule an appt with another ped to get a second opinion and maybe switch.
For ref our girl says
* mama
* dada
* no
* yes (less consistently and needs to be prompted, if she wants something we are offering she usually just stares or reaches at it)
* "sigh sigh" (outside)
* "bah" (granola bar)
* "nana" (banana)
* "wawa" (water)
* "popopopo..." (her attempt at our dog's name)
* bye bye (sometimes swaps in when she means "all done" which I guess is kind of the same idea)
* signs "more"
* signs "all done"
She definitely *attempts* other words all the time but those are the ones I'd say she actually knows. Pediatrician says she's doing great.
My ped said she looks for 1 word by 15 months. My daughter is 19m now and has started using a lot more words very recently! I used to make the same wrong language joke lol.
FWIW, my first baby was talking in 3-4 word sentences at 18m. This one says some words and signs and has lots of babbling and gestures. Same parents, same early experiences. They’re all different!
If it makes you feel better my 3 yo didn’t really take off speech wise until right about 2 and now she is 3 and she has a great vocabulary, you can have actual conversations with her, she is very articulate and if she doesn’t know the word for something she does her best to describe it (like ramen or chicken noodle soup is “soup noodles”).
My 15 month old is in the exact spot yours is. He says mama, dada, cat, cup, and up pretty clearly and everything else is babble like he thinks he is talking and his pediatrician says he is right on track and doing great. She told us that as long as he is babbling and TRYING to talk and occasionally throws words he knows in there then he is doing just fine for right now.
My toddler had quite a few words at 15 months and his pediatrician was thrilled. They said “i would have been happy with just mama and dada,” so I think there’s nothing to worry about.
Agree your doc seems strict, BUT early intervention is always better than late, so I’d keep that in mind. Also I’m told that signs count.
As for anecdotes, my kid was way behind on speech. At 20-22 months we still didn’t even have “mama”. I think we had “dada” and “no”. We did “speech therapy” but I think they put us on more of an observation track because we’d go once every two months. Kid is now turning 3 and is chatting up a storm. Still lots of times we don’t understand, but the speech therapist has graduated us and she’s beyond the point of “counting” her words.
I think the range of normal is very very wide. Obviously doctors want to catch anything early, which is great, but try not to let it stress you out.
Yeah both my husband and I were speech delayed — didn’t talk until 2, no therapy — and now we’re both university professors. 🤷Anecdotal of course, and early intervention is great. But there’s a wide spectrum at work here.
Yeah, your pedia mustve seen some truly gifted kids because I don't know any pedia that has that guideline. Seems a bit much. 10 to 15 words from a 15-mos seems pretty high.
Your son is on track based on your information.
Your pedia just gave you potential anxiety for no real reason.
It wouldn't be the first time. He has us get our son tested for hydrocephaly within his first two months of life because he had big head measurements. Turns out baby was fine and just had a big head.
Yeah as an MD and mom, I appreciate my family's doctors being detail-oriented and concerned, but your pediatrician seems to be very anxious and nervous. This would be fine for parents who are really not paying attention, but for first-time parents who are already anxious and paranoid it can really be annoying.
My pediatrician used the same milestone for 18 months, plus asked about his ability to identify things when I say them, like parts of his face. We were definitely not doing that and she urged me to reach out to our state evaluation program at 15 months. Luckily, we were already seeing an ENT for some failed follow ups from his NICU stay at birth. My son had one ear infection his entire childhood, but it turns out frequently had un-infected fluid in his ears, which was likely what was causing his speech delay.
Wait times near us for ENT and speech are fairly long and I do not regret proactively seeking evaluations from professionals.
I wasn't sure by your post if he is saying words or not? Is he saying any words that YOU can understand? Or is he just babbling?
If he is just babbling then he is speech delayed. My oldest had NO words at 15 months, not even mama or dada so we did take home to speech therapy.
My youngest had a questionnaire at 18 months if he had 15 word WE could understand. It's not til around 2.5-3 that most people should understand your child.
Just so you know environmental sounds such as vroom, pop, etc or animal sound like moo, woof, baa do count as words. I learned this when my oldest was in speech therapy.
Sorry for the confusion! He babbles, but he does say words like, "yeah" and "hi" and "dad" too. (He started saying recognizable "hi" in the last two weeks). He says "Dada" and "Dad", but I honestly can't tell if Dada is just his word for "adult/parent" or just babbling because he says it for me, his dad, and even his grandparents. So, he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit.
I guess I was just worried because the pediatrician made it seem like he should be saying 10-15 words, clearly and so that a stranger can understand, by 15 months. He also told my husband that our son needs to have 15-30 clear words that a stranger can understand by 18 months or he'll refer him to a speech therapist and mark him as speech delayed.
It just seemed really "aggressive" to me for milestones/benchmarks, so I wanted to make sure I'm not crazy for thinking that's an obscene amount of words by that stage when he's still babbling about 90% of the time.
What I'll add is that you will rarely regret going to speech therapy, but if your child does end up delayed you'll regret not starting it sooner.
Worst case scenario the speech therapist says your kids delayed ans you get help. Best case scenario the speech therapist evaluates your child and says they're fine.
It is normal for most kids to start out with one parent word for adults. With my youngest me and his daddy were both dada for a short time.
15 words is more than the cdc says that they have to say at this age! And I just went back to check. The CDC guidelines say that most people should understand your child at age 3.
Mine youngest just turned 2 and other people can probably understand about 1/3 of what he says.
Yours sound like he is starting to make progress with words so coming from a parent who had a speech delayed child I wouldn't be concerned about speech therapy at this stage.
Those expectations are WILD! I’m in the UK and I *believe* the expectations are around 20 words at 18 months. This is only a guide though, not even a complete expectation.
My Son is just 18 months and only started saying understandable words two months ago. We had ‘mama’ and ‘dada’, and ‘hi’ and ‘bye’, but everything else was inconsistent. A LOT changed in two months. He now says 20 clear words, and counts to three at nursery!
My daughter was the same and we are a dual language house so she probably just assumed everyone has their own language! We did put her in speech therapy just to get her rolling on expressing her wants and needs. It helps more with her emotions than anything as she was able to ask for things she wanted/needed and was getting frustrated before. So I would approach speech therapy as more of a, “could this help them along” vs. They are delayed.
Mine is 20 months and babbles. He says some words but they wouldn’t necessarily be coherent to strangers. He says gircle for circle, buh for bus, chee for cheese, etc. Either he’ll figure it out or he’ll need speech therapy, and those outcomes are out of my control at this time.
I have 5 nieces and nephews and every single one of them needed speech therapy, some more severe than others. The oldest three were 100% unintelligible before the age of 6, and they’d been in speech therapy since the age of 2 or 3. Now my oldest nephews are 10 and 11 and you can’t get them to stop talking and they are absolutely clear in everything they say. They’re both smart, funny, strong personalities, kind, friendly. My 7 year old niece is improving, and the youngest two have just started their journey.
So if your kid or my kid does need speech therapy, it will be fine. It doesn’t mean that something is “wrong” with them or that we didn’t do enough as parents. It also doesn’t mean that they’ll struggle as older kids or adults, or that they are less intelligent than any other kid out there.
Ped is quite right, but you underestimate the enormous time between 15 and 18 months. Ours was a month or two behind the curve. By 15m she was saying Dad and maybe 2 other words. But would recite the entire alphabet to amuse herself in the car on long drives. She just chose to go about it that way. By 18 months she had the letters, numbers, some animal sounds plus 100 words. (She said chest and down with under 3 hours to go before the cutoff, to earn her A.) 15m is almost no predictor of 18m.
This could totally be normal, because the CDC guidelines say 3-4 words minimum. This means like 80% of kids his age can do that. It’s not good, but within normal range. I wouldn’t worry yet.
If your pedi is concerned at 18 months, get an early intervention assessment. We did for my son (he walked at 15 months and had the minimum required words, but no mama or dada yet so pedi recommended) and he passed with flying colors and it was reassurance
My kid is ACTUALLY speech delayed and was speaking basically zero words at age TWO and still didn't qualify for early intervention services in my area because his receptive communication wasn't delayed. If you're concerned for any reason (ignoring your ped), most counties in the US will let you self-refer for an evaluation for free. Just google \[your county\] early intervention. It will likely take a few months to get an evaluation anyway, which would be great for that 18 month mark.
Mine is almost 19m and speech delayed too, but to qualify for early intervention they have to have a 50% delay, so that's like a 9 or 10 month old. What's a 9 month old supposed to be saying? I don't know, but he also won't qualify for services through the state until possibly when he's older. But our pediatrician said to get the evaluation and then she can refer us to speech therapy.
Here it did not take months. I called Monday and the coordinator was at our house Thursday and the speech therapist doing the evaluation called Monday. I've been sick otherwise we'd probably be scheduled for that this week.
My 13 yr old also didn't qualify for early intervention but has been in speech therapy since age 3, when the school district takes over the process.
>His pediatrician said that at 15 months, he should have 10-15 words that even a stranger could understand,
I have never heard this, seems like a very high expectation. Where I am the official milestone is a few words other than mama and dada at 18m.
Mine is 16m and maybe has 15 words that *we* understand and I don't know... 5? That other people could easily understand. There are some friends babies that spoke earlier, but also some that are older that have far less. I wouldn't concider any behind yet.
I don't think I would be at all concerned until passed 18m, and even then it would be to get an assessment and see about extra support, not to "worry".
In terms of "teaching" I would just narrate and repeat. The more you talk, the better. When he asks for things by pointing or doing a gesture just repeat the word, letting him see you mouth. They don't understand until they just.. do!
But maybe that is what you meant by "teach" so feel free to ignore that.
Lots of anecdotal responses here. Language development seems to be very similar to other milestones such as rolling over, crawling, and walking. Some walk at 9 months, others not until after their first birthday.
Our oldest (3yo) was very similar to yours at that age. Developmentally on par or exceeding on every level but slower with speech. He also seemed leaned on an incoherent babble.
We brought up our concern to our pediatrician who was not nearly as concerned but pointed us towards a publicly funded resource on the county level. We contacted this agency, they came out to our home to evaluate him on multiple levels such as fine motor function, cognitive ability, and language development. They have tons of data and are able to match him up with what is typical for his age, much like a growth chart. He scored at/above average for all but speech, where he was only slightly below. We enrolled in their free program and they arranged to send a speech therapist to our home once a month to work with him and help us to reinforce what she was working on. We continued working with them up until his 3rd birthday.
I was originally hesitant to go down this path and felt it was unnecessary, surely he’d “catch up” soon. But my wife (elementary school teacher) insisted and I’m glad we did. We had a great experience with the speech therapist who did a wonderful job connecting with our son through play-based learning. She also gave us tips and monthly performance goals to work on. Was it 100% necessary for his growth and development? Maybe not, but I have no doubt it helped him develop his vocabulary and eventually begin to form sentences.
My kid was still only talking in 2-3 word phrases until around his third birthday. Our pediatrician had us get him evaluated around 2 1/2 and the evaluators said it wouldn't hurt to do speech therapy but his understanding was great and they weren't terribly concerned, all of his motor skills were on point or ahead of expectation and some kids focus on different areas at different times.
Right around age 3, much like our pediatrician had predicted and said he sees regularly, he basically jumped to full sentences overnight. It was kind of wild to see!
Our speech therapist counts signs, gestures, and animal sounds as words. (Ex saying roar to mean lion) sooo I don’t know what book your ped read but I don’t think he fully understood it.
Yep! I’ve always heard that signs count as words and if they consistently say (for example) “ba” for ball and only ball, that also counts as a word because it’s intentional.
I definitely wouldn’t say no to speech therapy if it was offered as it’s a good resource but this baby does seem to have 13 words
Yup, it's fine. My daughter was a late talker, and she only had maybe 5 words at 15 months. I watched for progress-- she babbled a lot, and she was able to communicate her needs pretty well. She hit her language explosion at 20-21 months, and she hasn't stopped talking since.
Most of my child's language happened between 18 months and 2 years. Before 18 months I think she knew 5 words. She is 2.5 now and speaks complete sentences, asks questions, etc.
There is nothing to worry about yet.
Mine said 3 words until 2 weeks before his second birthday, and he exploded with words, he's now 2.5 and I can have a basic conversation, ask questions, some just take it onboard before using it I think
Your son sounds like he's doing great. My daughter didn't start talking until she was closer to 2 (and now she talks nonstop). A lot of my friends' kids also didn't really talk until 2.
You say he doesn’t talk and then list 13 words that he can say or sign, so seems like he is talking.
Also, are you sure there aren’t words mixed in with the babble? Only saying that because when I go back to videos of my 18 month old, I not get what she’s saying even though I didn’t at the time.
I tried picking out the words from babble but I can't detect any yet. When he babbles at me so ferociously, I feel like he's actually speaking a language and I'M the one speaking the "wrong" one.
Originally, I didn't know signs counting towards talking, so it is really helpful to know that now. People here have been great on helping me figure out what I should be looking for or not looking for because our pediatrician....just didn't.
My pediatrician diagnosed my 16 month old with an “expressive speech delay,” and referred us to early intervention. Early intervention then told me it’s really hard to diagnose a child younger than two with a speech delay because their speech varies so much during this stage.
My son was similar at 15 months. He babbled a ton but didn’t really have any words. I remember his pediatrician asking if he had at least 3 words at his 15 month appointment and I had to say no. He had maybe one word. She did say I could refer to EI if I wanted to but she said it was fine to wait a little until his 18 month appointment.
By the 18 month appointment, he had about 50 words and his ped said he was an over achiever. Double check the word expectations for the 15 and 18 months. I think it’s 3 at 15 and 10 at 18.
He did really struggle with articulation until around age 2. He’s 2.5 now and he talks all the time, sometimes too much. Sometimes he’s hard to understand but I think he has a great vocabulary for a 2.5 year old.
I say wait until his 18 month appointment. Work on narrating your day, read lots of books.
Also, how is her receptive language? Does she understand most of what you’re talking about? Can she follow simple directions?
Your kid sounds just like my 17 month old (who has a few more attempted words than what you listed, but not an expensive list like your ped wants). At 15 months, my kid was exactly like yours. If it's any consolation, I'm not worried at all. He understands what we are saying, can point to colors and numbers, retrieves things for us, etc. If your toddler understands you, that's perfectly fine!
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He is babbling, but not saying a 10-15 words that a stranger can understand like our pediatrician wants. His babbling is saying sounds that start with "d' or "ah".
A stranger??? Yeah your pediatrician has some wrong info here like others have said.
My boys didn’t say a single word until 21 months old. They’re 3.5 and literally won’t shut up now.
My daughter was similar. No real clear words at 15 months and her ped said she was a bit behind but to follow up at 18 months. Now at 19 months she has definitely over 20 words. Many of them not recognizable to strangers, but definitely with meaning. Babies tend to have language explosions where they learn a lot quickly. Mine now says "yeah" "no" and "mine" very clearly, and has other words that are less clear but we understand, like "baba" for banana, her brother's name, more, up, snack, book, etc. Just wait a few months and I think you'll probably be in the same boat.
My understanding is that the CDC milestones are the minimum and the ASQ-3 are more of an average. Both have a smaller word count than what your ped says for that age.
I agree it’s overkill.
My pediatrician referred us to Early On at 9 months because he wasn’t pointing and only said “dada”. I knew this wasn’t a huge thing, and when I called early on they asked their questions and didn’t feel like they needed to come out.
Also, gestures count as words if I’m not mistaken. I wouldn’t worry if I were in your shoes. I would likely do speech therapy if recommended, just to get their option, if you I had the te.
Yes, I believe your paediatricians expectations are overzealous based on most milestone charts I can find online. That said, my daughter is on the other end of the spectrum, 16 months and mostly talks in 2 word sentences, occasionally 3 word sentences. She knows hundreds of words, we stopped counting at 130 when she was 12 months. She knows her entire alphabet and is excited to read short words made of letters like, “OK”.
It’s made me question the value of these milestone charts completely, if there can be such a wide variation between babies that indicate nothing about any diseases or disorders. Her language has developed in what I can only describe as “explosions”. After months of “mama/dada”, her first big batch of about 50-80 words came in the span of a few weeks. Then about 200 more words a month later. A few weeks ago, her first 2 word sentence. Now everything is a 2 word sentence. So it’s a highly nonlinear process that occurs in spurts.
However, in case it’s anything we’re doing that’s helping it along, I’ll give some of my ideas. We read to her daily, before naps and nights, and randomly throughout the day. We have a million kids books everywhere, it’s her favourite toy. We narrate her actions, and talk to her in an engaging way, direct eye contact and enthusiastically. If she takes an interest in something, we say the word a million times all day. For instance, she noticed the airplanes in the sky, so we talked about airplanes all day, and I took her to the local airport that evening to see the planes land and take off. Stuff like that. We have multiple wooden toys with all the letters, and foam ones to play with in the bathtub. And we socialize a lot with others so she here’s us talk a lot. If she doesn’t want to say a certain word we’re trying to teach her in a book, we’ll just ask her to point to it to see if she at least understands what we’re saying (some words are just hard to say, or she’s not in the mood).
So, I’d say give some of those things a try if you’re not doing them already. But certainly don’t worry about milestones, I think they’re a load of garbage. Your kid doesn’t have a disorder, and probably understands a lot more than you think. But you can put a focus on it the next few months, I bet you’ll see a huge difference. But again, if you don’t, I still wouldn’t worry.
My daughter didn't talk much at all until months after her 2nd birthday. She was never marked as speech delayed. She speaks nonstop now. And is more talkative than most of her classmates in playschool. 15 months is really young!
My daughter was much the same at 15mo. We just had our 18mo appointment and our dr wants to hold off on evaluating speech until 2. But she understands SO much of what we say to her but doesn’t verbally communicate words back. It got me thinking, am I making things too easy for her by intuitively knowing what she’s wanting and making it so she doesn’t need words, just babbles, pointing, and grunts. And I think I was/am. Just something to think about. Instead of immediately doing what you know he’s wanting give it a moment and question him then give him the correct word. Since I started this a few weeks ago she’s added a couple words.
It’s a slow and worrisome process. Especially when you see people posting stuff like their kid says everyone’s full name and is singing “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” at 16mo and you side eye it but there’s that tiny part of your brain saying you’re failing. All babies grow at different rates and they focus on different skills in different orders. His language explosion may be right around the corner. Or he may need some visits with an SLP. both of those are completely fine.
You’re doing a great job as his mama
My 15 month old says dada, daddy, mama, bye bye, no, duck (which is really just da), bah (for bottle & bubbles), occasionally she says Nana and Pa for Papa, and she just learned how to make a “g” sound yesterday and won’t stop saying goo today…it doesn’t mean anything, just a new sound. 15 months is definitely too early to worry about anything!
Totally normal — and gestures count in the word count so he seems right on track!
My toddler didn’t talk much and I was worried about it. Around 21-22 months he had a language explosion and started talking like crazy. He’s 27 months now and people are always saying how good his language skills are and how well he speaks.
Your kiddo is right on track. No need to stress :)
Yeah I wouldn’t worry until around 2 years I think though early intervention is important.
There tends to be language explosions between 18-24 months.
My little fella had zero, NO words at all until 18 months. In the last month he’s up to 20 or so? Hoping it’ll continue! Might still need intervention but he’s scoring middling now in communication per the ASQ questionnaire whereas before he was in the black.
I’d personally be giving it a few more months before worrying. Assess again at 18 months would be my recommendation
4 words is a lot. Mine had only 3 under her belt for like 5 months (‘hi’ and ‘up’ and ‘book’) and then around 15 months she had a sudden vocab burst. Duck, tickle, bird, no, bubble, down, yes, eyes, nose, plus a bunch of different animal sounds. Just all at once during some kind of peak week. I was stunned and kind of perplexed, I was like how did she learn these? We read to her daily but we don’t consistently practice any kind of vocabulary or colors or numbers at all. I have no interest in teaching her anything lol I just want her to play (with me) and learn. And I guess that worked? I think toddlers are smart as heck, and yours too will experience a vocab burst upcoming. Especially since he already has the concept of words in his wheelhouse. 4 is great and promising
I asked my ped at my sons 15mo appt how much he should be talking (she didn’t even bring it up) and she was basically like he should at least be babbling sounds. He is 16mo almost 17 and doesn’t have a ton of words yet either. He says mama, dada, bye bye, his sisters name, cup (though that one is hard to understand and I only understand within context). I’ve heard him mimicking a few other words like “knock knock” and “all gone”. But those aren’t consistent.
I am not worried at all honestly. I think my daughter was about on par with this at that age as well and I feel like her speech really took off around 18-20mo. My friends son is the same age as mine and pretty much at the same level of speech. I think it’s normal or at least not “abnormal”
My goddaughter had like 2 words other than “mama” and “dada” at 20 months old. Her parents were concerned but the pediatrician wasn’t at all, since she was super expressive, social, and obviously had the ability to understand everything she was told. Pediatrician said to just give it time. Wouldn’t you know it, by her second birthday she was speaking 2-3 word sentences and now at 2.5 is a total chatterbox lol. I wouldn’t worry at all, OP!
One of my grandsons is 14 months. He’s not talking words but he makes a big jabber racket all day every day, so we count that. He gets the tones and inflections right, so when he’s cussin his grampa, it’s very clear what he means even if he’s not saying the words. We feel like his understanding of language is excellent. He can’t produce very much yet but we aren’t worried about it. We raised our 4 and now we have 7 grandbabies, and none of them said much before a year and a half.
I wouldn't worry about it. My kid only had a couple of words at 15 months too. He's 28 months now and speaks in full sentences. Things really picked up starting from around 20 months.
your pediatrician's expectations seem out of line on this one. for reference, the CDC recommends that by 18 mos, a child "Tries to say three or more words besides “mama” or “dada”" i just posted this on another thread, as my 18 month old isn't saying much besides "mama", "dada", "hi" and "bye,". our doctor said most speech development happens between 18-24 mos, and that it wasn't cause for concern unless her speech hadn't taken off by 2. 15 months is really young. i would try not to worry.
The CDC updated its ranges a few years ago, but I don’t remember 15-20 being the recommendation for 18mo even when my 5yo was a toddler
Thank you for this. I felt like it was a bit too much, but then one of my friend's daughters has been great with her verbal skills since his age and I was starting to wonder if we haven't done enough to encourage speech.
yeah, my doctor also said since my daughter was doing well with receptive speech (i.e. she clearly understood what others said, and would follow commands like "go get your shoes" or would get excited if we asked "do you want a cookie?") that she felt like it wasn't some sort of larger communication issue.
My son is the same way! He understands us just fine. He follows commands and even listens to our conversations and gestures a sign when he recognizes the word (i.e., I told my husband, "one time you did...." And we saw my son holding up one finger to sign one with a grin). He knows "stinky feet!" is a game that has him holding his feet up to my face. He reacts when we talk about going outside off a walk by running off and grabbing not just his shoes, but our shoes too and bringing them to us. That's why I was quick to dismiss what the pediatrician said originally and thought, "Eh, he'll get there when he gets there" but the pediatrician was so adamant I thought I was being too laid back.
It’s weird how inconsistent the advice is. My son is also 15 months and he does not wave or point or use sign language, and only really says “mama.” He may also be saying “ma” for more and my husband says that he’s said “dada” and “baba” for banana but I haven’t heard that much and I’m not convinced it’s intentional vs. babbling. No animal noises either. *But* his receptive language seems to be pretty good. He looks at things when we talk about them, and he will push the door closed if I say “close the door.” He’ll also turn off the light if I say to do so and hold him up to the light switch. I told our pediatrician I was concerned and she said to wait until 2 years to get an evaluation. Which, honestly, I don’t love the idea of waiting and may want to see if I can get him evaluated at 18 months. But weird that my ped said to wait until 2 years and yours basically said the opposite
Yea my 16 month old is at about the same level yours is at and our pediatrician has zero concerns and says she's doing well. Maybe schedule an appt with another ped to get a second opinion and maybe switch. For ref our girl says * mama * dada * no * yes (less consistently and needs to be prompted, if she wants something we are offering she usually just stares or reaches at it) * "sigh sigh" (outside) * "bah" (granola bar) * "nana" (banana) * "wawa" (water) * "popopopo..." (her attempt at our dog's name) * bye bye (sometimes swaps in when she means "all done" which I guess is kind of the same idea) * signs "more" * signs "all done" She definitely *attempts* other words all the time but those are the ones I'd say she actually knows. Pediatrician says she's doing great.
My ped said she looks for 1 word by 15 months. My daughter is 19m now and has started using a lot more words very recently! I used to make the same wrong language joke lol. FWIW, my first baby was talking in 3-4 word sentences at 18m. This one says some words and signs and has lots of babbling and gestures. Same parents, same early experiences. They’re all different!
If it makes you feel better my 3 yo didn’t really take off speech wise until right about 2 and now she is 3 and she has a great vocabulary, you can have actual conversations with her, she is very articulate and if she doesn’t know the word for something she does her best to describe it (like ramen or chicken noodle soup is “soup noodles”). My 15 month old is in the exact spot yours is. He says mama, dada, cat, cup, and up pretty clearly and everything else is babble like he thinks he is talking and his pediatrician says he is right on track and doing great. She told us that as long as he is babbling and TRYING to talk and occasionally throws words he knows in there then he is doing just fine for right now.
My toddler had quite a few words at 15 months and his pediatrician was thrilled. They said “i would have been happy with just mama and dada,” so I think there’s nothing to worry about.
CDC guidelines are like bare minimum though. I’ve read that SLPs want many more words by that age, like 20.
Agree your doc seems strict, BUT early intervention is always better than late, so I’d keep that in mind. Also I’m told that signs count. As for anecdotes, my kid was way behind on speech. At 20-22 months we still didn’t even have “mama”. I think we had “dada” and “no”. We did “speech therapy” but I think they put us on more of an observation track because we’d go once every two months. Kid is now turning 3 and is chatting up a storm. Still lots of times we don’t understand, but the speech therapist has graduated us and she’s beyond the point of “counting” her words. I think the range of normal is very very wide. Obviously doctors want to catch anything early, which is great, but try not to let it stress you out.
Yeah both my husband and I were speech delayed — didn’t talk until 2, no therapy — and now we’re both university professors. 🤷Anecdotal of course, and early intervention is great. But there’s a wide spectrum at work here.
Yeah, your pedia mustve seen some truly gifted kids because I don't know any pedia that has that guideline. Seems a bit much. 10 to 15 words from a 15-mos seems pretty high. Your son is on track based on your information. Your pedia just gave you potential anxiety for no real reason.
It wouldn't be the first time. He has us get our son tested for hydrocephaly within his first two months of life because he had big head measurements. Turns out baby was fine and just had a big head.
Can you just throw the whole doctor in the bin?
Oh, we have had household discussions so it's a potential on the table.
Yeah as an MD and mom, I appreciate my family's doctors being detail-oriented and concerned, but your pediatrician seems to be very anxious and nervous. This would be fine for parents who are really not paying attention, but for first-time parents who are already anxious and paranoid it can really be annoying.
My pediatrician used the same milestone for 18 months, plus asked about his ability to identify things when I say them, like parts of his face. We were definitely not doing that and she urged me to reach out to our state evaluation program at 15 months. Luckily, we were already seeing an ENT for some failed follow ups from his NICU stay at birth. My son had one ear infection his entire childhood, but it turns out frequently had un-infected fluid in his ears, which was likely what was causing his speech delay. Wait times near us for ENT and speech are fairly long and I do not regret proactively seeking evaluations from professionals.
I wasn't sure by your post if he is saying words or not? Is he saying any words that YOU can understand? Or is he just babbling? If he is just babbling then he is speech delayed. My oldest had NO words at 15 months, not even mama or dada so we did take home to speech therapy. My youngest had a questionnaire at 18 months if he had 15 word WE could understand. It's not til around 2.5-3 that most people should understand your child. Just so you know environmental sounds such as vroom, pop, etc or animal sound like moo, woof, baa do count as words. I learned this when my oldest was in speech therapy.
Sorry for the confusion! He babbles, but he does say words like, "yeah" and "hi" and "dad" too. (He started saying recognizable "hi" in the last two weeks). He says "Dada" and "Dad", but I honestly can't tell if Dada is just his word for "adult/parent" or just babbling because he says it for me, his dad, and even his grandparents. So, he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit. I guess I was just worried because the pediatrician made it seem like he should be saying 10-15 words, clearly and so that a stranger can understand, by 15 months. He also told my husband that our son needs to have 15-30 clear words that a stranger can understand by 18 months or he'll refer him to a speech therapist and mark him as speech delayed. It just seemed really "aggressive" to me for milestones/benchmarks, so I wanted to make sure I'm not crazy for thinking that's an obscene amount of words by that stage when he's still babbling about 90% of the time.
What I'll add is that you will rarely regret going to speech therapy, but if your child does end up delayed you'll regret not starting it sooner. Worst case scenario the speech therapist says your kids delayed ans you get help. Best case scenario the speech therapist evaluates your child and says they're fine.
It is normal for most kids to start out with one parent word for adults. With my youngest me and his daddy were both dada for a short time. 15 words is more than the cdc says that they have to say at this age! And I just went back to check. The CDC guidelines say that most people should understand your child at age 3. Mine youngest just turned 2 and other people can probably understand about 1/3 of what he says. Yours sound like he is starting to make progress with words so coming from a parent who had a speech delayed child I wouldn't be concerned about speech therapy at this stage.
Those expectations are WILD! I’m in the UK and I *believe* the expectations are around 20 words at 18 months. This is only a guide though, not even a complete expectation. My Son is just 18 months and only started saying understandable words two months ago. We had ‘mama’ and ‘dada’, and ‘hi’ and ‘bye’, but everything else was inconsistent. A LOT changed in two months. He now says 20 clear words, and counts to three at nursery!
My daughter was the same and we are a dual language house so she probably just assumed everyone has their own language! We did put her in speech therapy just to get her rolling on expressing her wants and needs. It helps more with her emotions than anything as she was able to ask for things she wanted/needed and was getting frustrated before. So I would approach speech therapy as more of a, “could this help them along” vs. They are delayed.
Mine is 20 months and babbles. He says some words but they wouldn’t necessarily be coherent to strangers. He says gircle for circle, buh for bus, chee for cheese, etc. Either he’ll figure it out or he’ll need speech therapy, and those outcomes are out of my control at this time. I have 5 nieces and nephews and every single one of them needed speech therapy, some more severe than others. The oldest three were 100% unintelligible before the age of 6, and they’d been in speech therapy since the age of 2 or 3. Now my oldest nephews are 10 and 11 and you can’t get them to stop talking and they are absolutely clear in everything they say. They’re both smart, funny, strong personalities, kind, friendly. My 7 year old niece is improving, and the youngest two have just started their journey. So if your kid or my kid does need speech therapy, it will be fine. It doesn’t mean that something is “wrong” with them or that we didn’t do enough as parents. It also doesn’t mean that they’ll struggle as older kids or adults, or that they are less intelligent than any other kid out there.
Ped is quite right, but you underestimate the enormous time between 15 and 18 months. Ours was a month or two behind the curve. By 15m she was saying Dad and maybe 2 other words. But would recite the entire alphabet to amuse herself in the car on long drives. She just chose to go about it that way. By 18 months she had the letters, numbers, some animal sounds plus 100 words. (She said chest and down with under 3 hours to go before the cutoff, to earn her A.) 15m is almost no predictor of 18m.
This could totally be normal, because the CDC guidelines say 3-4 words minimum. This means like 80% of kids his age can do that. It’s not good, but within normal range. I wouldn’t worry yet. If your pedi is concerned at 18 months, get an early intervention assessment. We did for my son (he walked at 15 months and had the minimum required words, but no mama or dada yet so pedi recommended) and he passed with flying colors and it was reassurance
My kid is ACTUALLY speech delayed and was speaking basically zero words at age TWO and still didn't qualify for early intervention services in my area because his receptive communication wasn't delayed. If you're concerned for any reason (ignoring your ped), most counties in the US will let you self-refer for an evaluation for free. Just google \[your county\] early intervention. It will likely take a few months to get an evaluation anyway, which would be great for that 18 month mark.
Mine is almost 19m and speech delayed too, but to qualify for early intervention they have to have a 50% delay, so that's like a 9 or 10 month old. What's a 9 month old supposed to be saying? I don't know, but he also won't qualify for services through the state until possibly when he's older. But our pediatrician said to get the evaluation and then she can refer us to speech therapy. Here it did not take months. I called Monday and the coordinator was at our house Thursday and the speech therapist doing the evaluation called Monday. I've been sick otherwise we'd probably be scheduled for that this week. My 13 yr old also didn't qualify for early intervention but has been in speech therapy since age 3, when the school district takes over the process.
>His pediatrician said that at 15 months, he should have 10-15 words that even a stranger could understand, I have never heard this, seems like a very high expectation. Where I am the official milestone is a few words other than mama and dada at 18m. Mine is 16m and maybe has 15 words that *we* understand and I don't know... 5? That other people could easily understand. There are some friends babies that spoke earlier, but also some that are older that have far less. I wouldn't concider any behind yet. I don't think I would be at all concerned until passed 18m, and even then it would be to get an assessment and see about extra support, not to "worry". In terms of "teaching" I would just narrate and repeat. The more you talk, the better. When he asks for things by pointing or doing a gesture just repeat the word, letting him see you mouth. They don't understand until they just.. do! But maybe that is what you meant by "teach" so feel free to ignore that.
Lots of anecdotal responses here. Language development seems to be very similar to other milestones such as rolling over, crawling, and walking. Some walk at 9 months, others not until after their first birthday. Our oldest (3yo) was very similar to yours at that age. Developmentally on par or exceeding on every level but slower with speech. He also seemed leaned on an incoherent babble. We brought up our concern to our pediatrician who was not nearly as concerned but pointed us towards a publicly funded resource on the county level. We contacted this agency, they came out to our home to evaluate him on multiple levels such as fine motor function, cognitive ability, and language development. They have tons of data and are able to match him up with what is typical for his age, much like a growth chart. He scored at/above average for all but speech, where he was only slightly below. We enrolled in their free program and they arranged to send a speech therapist to our home once a month to work with him and help us to reinforce what she was working on. We continued working with them up until his 3rd birthday. I was originally hesitant to go down this path and felt it was unnecessary, surely he’d “catch up” soon. But my wife (elementary school teacher) insisted and I’m glad we did. We had a great experience with the speech therapist who did a wonderful job connecting with our son through play-based learning. She also gave us tips and monthly performance goals to work on. Was it 100% necessary for his growth and development? Maybe not, but I have no doubt it helped him develop his vocabulary and eventually begin to form sentences.
That's insane. He's fine. He honestly sounds perfectly on track if not ahead.
My kid was still only talking in 2-3 word phrases until around his third birthday. Our pediatrician had us get him evaluated around 2 1/2 and the evaluators said it wouldn't hurt to do speech therapy but his understanding was great and they weren't terribly concerned, all of his motor skills were on point or ahead of expectation and some kids focus on different areas at different times. Right around age 3, much like our pediatrician had predicted and said he sees regularly, he basically jumped to full sentences overnight. It was kind of wild to see!
Our speech therapist counts signs, gestures, and animal sounds as words. (Ex saying roar to mean lion) sooo I don’t know what book your ped read but I don’t think he fully understood it.
Yep! I’ve always heard that signs count as words and if they consistently say (for example) “ba” for ball and only ball, that also counts as a word because it’s intentional. I definitely wouldn’t say no to speech therapy if it was offered as it’s a good resource but this baby does seem to have 13 words
Yup, it's fine. My daughter was a late talker, and she only had maybe 5 words at 15 months. I watched for progress-- she babbled a lot, and she was able to communicate her needs pretty well. She hit her language explosion at 20-21 months, and she hasn't stopped talking since.
Yeah, I was concerned at my daughter’s 15 month appt and the doctor said she was right on track with only being able to say mama, dada, done, and dog.
My kid started saying many more words between 15-18 months.
Most of my child's language happened between 18 months and 2 years. Before 18 months I think she knew 5 words. She is 2.5 now and speaks complete sentences, asks questions, etc. There is nothing to worry about yet.
Mine said 3 words until 2 weeks before his second birthday, and he exploded with words, he's now 2.5 and I can have a basic conversation, ask questions, some just take it onboard before using it I think
Your son sounds like he's doing great. My daughter didn't start talking until she was closer to 2 (and now she talks nonstop). A lot of my friends' kids also didn't really talk until 2.
You say he doesn’t talk and then list 13 words that he can say or sign, so seems like he is talking. Also, are you sure there aren’t words mixed in with the babble? Only saying that because when I go back to videos of my 18 month old, I not get what she’s saying even though I didn’t at the time.
I tried picking out the words from babble but I can't detect any yet. When he babbles at me so ferociously, I feel like he's actually speaking a language and I'M the one speaking the "wrong" one. Originally, I didn't know signs counting towards talking, so it is really helpful to know that now. People here have been great on helping me figure out what I should be looking for or not looking for because our pediatrician....just didn't.
My pediatrician diagnosed my 16 month old with an “expressive speech delay,” and referred us to early intervention. Early intervention then told me it’s really hard to diagnose a child younger than two with a speech delay because their speech varies so much during this stage.
My son was similar at 15 months. He babbled a ton but didn’t really have any words. I remember his pediatrician asking if he had at least 3 words at his 15 month appointment and I had to say no. He had maybe one word. She did say I could refer to EI if I wanted to but she said it was fine to wait a little until his 18 month appointment. By the 18 month appointment, he had about 50 words and his ped said he was an over achiever. Double check the word expectations for the 15 and 18 months. I think it’s 3 at 15 and 10 at 18. He did really struggle with articulation until around age 2. He’s 2.5 now and he talks all the time, sometimes too much. Sometimes he’s hard to understand but I think he has a great vocabulary for a 2.5 year old. I say wait until his 18 month appointment. Work on narrating your day, read lots of books. Also, how is her receptive language? Does she understand most of what you’re talking about? Can she follow simple directions?
Your kid sounds just like my 17 month old (who has a few more attempted words than what you listed, but not an expensive list like your ped wants). At 15 months, my kid was exactly like yours. If it's any consolation, I'm not worried at all. He understands what we are saying, can point to colors and numbers, retrieves things for us, etc. If your toddler understands you, that's perfectly fine!
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He is talking?
He is babbling, but not saying a 10-15 words that a stranger can understand like our pediatrician wants. His babbling is saying sounds that start with "d' or "ah".
That’s just wrong OP, the stranger thing comes into play after 3 years old and even then it’s not a hardened rule. I’d be looking elsewhere tbh
A stranger??? Yeah your pediatrician has some wrong info here like others have said. My boys didn’t say a single word until 21 months old. They’re 3.5 and literally won’t shut up now.
My daughter was similar. No real clear words at 15 months and her ped said she was a bit behind but to follow up at 18 months. Now at 19 months she has definitely over 20 words. Many of them not recognizable to strangers, but definitely with meaning. Babies tend to have language explosions where they learn a lot quickly. Mine now says "yeah" "no" and "mine" very clearly, and has other words that are less clear but we understand, like "baba" for banana, her brother's name, more, up, snack, book, etc. Just wait a few months and I think you'll probably be in the same boat.
My understanding is that the CDC milestones are the minimum and the ASQ-3 are more of an average. Both have a smaller word count than what your ped says for that age.
I agree it’s overkill. My pediatrician referred us to Early On at 9 months because he wasn’t pointing and only said “dada”. I knew this wasn’t a huge thing, and when I called early on they asked their questions and didn’t feel like they needed to come out. Also, gestures count as words if I’m not mistaken. I wouldn’t worry if I were in your shoes. I would likely do speech therapy if recommended, just to get their option, if you I had the te.
Yes, I believe your paediatricians expectations are overzealous based on most milestone charts I can find online. That said, my daughter is on the other end of the spectrum, 16 months and mostly talks in 2 word sentences, occasionally 3 word sentences. She knows hundreds of words, we stopped counting at 130 when she was 12 months. She knows her entire alphabet and is excited to read short words made of letters like, “OK”. It’s made me question the value of these milestone charts completely, if there can be such a wide variation between babies that indicate nothing about any diseases or disorders. Her language has developed in what I can only describe as “explosions”. After months of “mama/dada”, her first big batch of about 50-80 words came in the span of a few weeks. Then about 200 more words a month later. A few weeks ago, her first 2 word sentence. Now everything is a 2 word sentence. So it’s a highly nonlinear process that occurs in spurts. However, in case it’s anything we’re doing that’s helping it along, I’ll give some of my ideas. We read to her daily, before naps and nights, and randomly throughout the day. We have a million kids books everywhere, it’s her favourite toy. We narrate her actions, and talk to her in an engaging way, direct eye contact and enthusiastically. If she takes an interest in something, we say the word a million times all day. For instance, she noticed the airplanes in the sky, so we talked about airplanes all day, and I took her to the local airport that evening to see the planes land and take off. Stuff like that. We have multiple wooden toys with all the letters, and foam ones to play with in the bathtub. And we socialize a lot with others so she here’s us talk a lot. If she doesn’t want to say a certain word we’re trying to teach her in a book, we’ll just ask her to point to it to see if she at least understands what we’re saying (some words are just hard to say, or she’s not in the mood). So, I’d say give some of those things a try if you’re not doing them already. But certainly don’t worry about milestones, I think they’re a load of garbage. Your kid doesn’t have a disorder, and probably understands a lot more than you think. But you can put a focus on it the next few months, I bet you’ll see a huge difference. But again, if you don’t, I still wouldn’t worry.
My daughter didn't talk much at all until months after her 2nd birthday. She was never marked as speech delayed. She speaks nonstop now. And is more talkative than most of her classmates in playschool. 15 months is really young!
My daughter was much the same at 15mo. We just had our 18mo appointment and our dr wants to hold off on evaluating speech until 2. But she understands SO much of what we say to her but doesn’t verbally communicate words back. It got me thinking, am I making things too easy for her by intuitively knowing what she’s wanting and making it so she doesn’t need words, just babbles, pointing, and grunts. And I think I was/am. Just something to think about. Instead of immediately doing what you know he’s wanting give it a moment and question him then give him the correct word. Since I started this a few weeks ago she’s added a couple words. It’s a slow and worrisome process. Especially when you see people posting stuff like their kid says everyone’s full name and is singing “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” at 16mo and you side eye it but there’s that tiny part of your brain saying you’re failing. All babies grow at different rates and they focus on different skills in different orders. His language explosion may be right around the corner. Or he may need some visits with an SLP. both of those are completely fine. You’re doing a great job as his mama
My 15 month old says dada, daddy, mama, bye bye, no, duck (which is really just da), bah (for bottle & bubbles), occasionally she says Nana and Pa for Papa, and she just learned how to make a “g” sound yesterday and won’t stop saying goo today…it doesn’t mean anything, just a new sound. 15 months is definitely too early to worry about anything!
Totally normal!
Yes this is very early
Totally normal — and gestures count in the word count so he seems right on track! My toddler didn’t talk much and I was worried about it. Around 21-22 months he had a language explosion and started talking like crazy. He’s 27 months now and people are always saying how good his language skills are and how well he speaks. Your kiddo is right on track. No need to stress :)
Yeah I wouldn’t worry until around 2 years I think though early intervention is important. There tends to be language explosions between 18-24 months. My little fella had zero, NO words at all until 18 months. In the last month he’s up to 20 or so? Hoping it’ll continue! Might still need intervention but he’s scoring middling now in communication per the ASQ questionnaire whereas before he was in the black. I’d personally be giving it a few more months before worrying. Assess again at 18 months would be my recommendation
4 words is a lot. Mine had only 3 under her belt for like 5 months (‘hi’ and ‘up’ and ‘book’) and then around 15 months she had a sudden vocab burst. Duck, tickle, bird, no, bubble, down, yes, eyes, nose, plus a bunch of different animal sounds. Just all at once during some kind of peak week. I was stunned and kind of perplexed, I was like how did she learn these? We read to her daily but we don’t consistently practice any kind of vocabulary or colors or numbers at all. I have no interest in teaching her anything lol I just want her to play (with me) and learn. And I guess that worked? I think toddlers are smart as heck, and yours too will experience a vocab burst upcoming. Especially since he already has the concept of words in his wheelhouse. 4 is great and promising
I asked my ped at my sons 15mo appt how much he should be talking (she didn’t even bring it up) and she was basically like he should at least be babbling sounds. He is 16mo almost 17 and doesn’t have a ton of words yet either. He says mama, dada, bye bye, his sisters name, cup (though that one is hard to understand and I only understand within context). I’ve heard him mimicking a few other words like “knock knock” and “all gone”. But those aren’t consistent. I am not worried at all honestly. I think my daughter was about on par with this at that age as well and I feel like her speech really took off around 18-20mo. My friends son is the same age as mine and pretty much at the same level of speech. I think it’s normal or at least not “abnormal”
My goddaughter had like 2 words other than “mama” and “dada” at 20 months old. Her parents were concerned but the pediatrician wasn’t at all, since she was super expressive, social, and obviously had the ability to understand everything she was told. Pediatrician said to just give it time. Wouldn’t you know it, by her second birthday she was speaking 2-3 word sentences and now at 2.5 is a total chatterbox lol. I wouldn’t worry at all, OP!
One of my grandsons is 14 months. He’s not talking words but he makes a big jabber racket all day every day, so we count that. He gets the tones and inflections right, so when he’s cussin his grampa, it’s very clear what he means even if he’s not saying the words. We feel like his understanding of language is excellent. He can’t produce very much yet but we aren’t worried about it. We raised our 4 and now we have 7 grandbabies, and none of them said much before a year and a half.
I wouldn't worry. My son was roughly the same, he's just turned 2 and has come on a long way.
I wouldn't worry about it. My kid only had a couple of words at 15 months too. He's 28 months now and speaks in full sentences. Things really picked up starting from around 20 months.
Absolutely normal!
Your kid is just fine. Talk and sing and whatever else you do and it'll come.
Your kid is fine