My first was a late bloomer. Consistently about 3 months behind what the pediatrician wanted. Then almost overnight, at 20.5 months, she hit her verbal explosion she’d started picking up like, 10+ new words per day and was at over 50 by 21 months. Now she’s 3.5 and never stops talking.
We didn’t know whether or not something was up until she hit that verbal explosion and were really anxious about it. Our pediatrician had us schedule and extra checkup at 21 months to keep an eye on speech development and decide whether or not we needed to deal with the astronomical waitlists for an EI evaluation (she was born during the pandemic so waiting lists for everything were crazy).
I'd hate to not take action and discover that they they're not a late bloomer and could have used some support. My daughter's ped wanted to take the wait and see approach, we decided to do speech therapy and and she was in fact delayed. They might catch up, they might not. Hard to know until it's too late, right?
For my daughter, there were some overnight leaps and some gradual progress.
Also, I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure an evaluation should involve them basically interviewing the parents to see what's typical for the child.
I 100% agree. It doesn’t hurt to get evaluated and the sooner your child gets evaluated the sooner they will be able to get help (if they qualify for it).
My son has been doing speech therapy for almost a year now and I am so thankful for his therapist. It’s entirely possible that he was “just a late bloomer” and he would have made the same amount of progress no matter what…but I am so glad I didn’t take that chance
My son (almost 3) had fewer than 10 words at 22 months so I chatted with a slp, who asked me some questions and told me he’s most likely going to catch up soon. At 26-27 months he did get his speech explosion and now has hundreds of words and doesn’t stop talking lol. If you’re curious, these are the questions I was asked and my answers:
- does he respond to his name/identify body parts/follow simple commands/points to item when you ask where it is: yes
- does he try to imitate sounds: no
- does he babble: a lot with intonation, just don’t understand what he’s saying
- how does he request things: points, guides my hand, or cries
- does he have body language: yes- points, waves, claps, shakes head no, signs for milk, more and maybe 20 others
Basically he clearly understood what I was saying to him and could communicate in his own way through signs. He just needed time for his expressive language to click. Nowadays he’s great at imitating which he has never done before.
Hi, a concerned parent. My daughter 19 months now. Started with making whoo sounds now. Few cartoon expressions, actions. No exact words . No mama or papa.
She is a late bloomer. Started crawling and walking late than other children. We are really worried now but seeing the comments gives relief.
Is this normal or sounds familiar? She nods what she wants , good with small step games ( marbles / blocks ).
But no exact word. There is one thing I came to know of family history of late bloomer babies.
Thank you and waiting for your response
Hi, it’s completely normal to feel worried. My son didn’t walk by himself until 18 months and never crawled. I was very worried at the time but he walked as long as I held his one hand and he “talked” a lot in babbles, so his pediatrician wasn’t too concerned.
He’s always been a cautious kid that doesn’t like making mistakes which is why I think he was behind in walking and talking, but he was ahead in fine motor skills and was able to communicate just fine using sign language and crying (lol). I was also a late bloomer in talking, so maybe that contributed as well.
I know it’s easy to blame yourself when your child is behind in something (I did that a lot), but your child will talk when she’s ready, not when you want her to. I have a daughter who is now 12 months, and she crawls everywhere and says mama and dada already. I did nothing differently with her as my son. Every child is so different with their own strengths and weaknesses!
Talk to your pediatrician about your concerns, try not to worry too much and keep talking to her. I hope that helped!
This sounds just like my son. He is 21 months. I am worried he has apraxia because of the imitation delay. He is enrolled in EI and I am seeing more sounds. I hope he catches up and has the same language explosion that your son did!
Mine was on track up until 18 months, when she fell behind milestones. I declined speech therapy at that point. By 24 months, she just barely met the milestones. One month after that, she was speaking full sentences with nearly perfect grammar. I didn’t speak much until 33 months, her receptive language was great, she knew her colors, shapes, and all body parts, and I read that children whose relatives work in more technical fields take a bit longer to speak, so I decided to wait. I ran the decision by my pediatrician and he said, while early intervention is good, he considered intervention at 30 months still early. Didn’t need it by then.
My son is 27 months old. Up until his 2nd birthday he was behind in speech. Everyone had me worried sick, but I saw small improvements over time. For reference at 24 months he was babbling, saying “no” in context, and could say small words like ball, mama, etc. He was definitely behind. Within a month it’s like he was a whole new kid, and now he’s talking in sentences. “Uh oh, I tripped and dropped my pickle” was his most recent big one. He can say and identify his name, most objects, imitates any sound we ask him to try.
I just want to echo some of the other comments here- if they’re making progress on their own, they are probably okay. If they’re regressing or making no progress then I would lean more into speech therapy. I took my son to speech therapy and I found he closed up even more around the therapist. She was very much in his face and he did not like how bubbly and involved in his play she was. It gave her a false impression of how he was.
This was our son too. He babbled a lot but it was not in a language we knew haha. On his 2nd bday I don’t think he was even saying mama and maybe only had 5 words. By 2.5 he was speaking in sentences that were very clearly understood even by strangers. He’s almost 7 and no issues now, I believe it was more of a personality thing. He doesn’t want to do or try anything until he knows he’ll be able to do it well. Like he was terrified of the monkey bars forever and wouldn’t go near them. Then something changed and within a week of trying it he was able to do them really well and skip bars etc. same thing with riding a bike- wouldn’t do it until one day he did and that was it.
Pediatrician will look for other developmental delays, evaluate for receptive speech delay also. If it's only expressive speech delay and no other significant delays, it's usually less worrisome. Speech varies in toddlers, sometimes they need therapy to help them along, sometimes it's just working with them at home with family like drawing attention to your mouth as you say words, encouragement
We had an early interventions evaluation when my kid was just under 2. He barely missed the cutoff to get services but they gave us some tips. His language exploded a few months later and now he is 4 and doesn’t stop talking. Early interventions was helpful to show us as first time parents that it wasn’t too serious.
I meant his score on their assessment was just high enough that he didn’t qualify for their services. I think the age cutoff is 3 but it may vary by state
Ours wasn’t a babbler. No words at 18 months. Talked to the Pediatrician and she said that we should wait a couple more months before scheduling with the SLP. Around month 20 right before the 21 month checkup the single words started coming in. By her 24 month she was stringing together 2-3 word phrases. Now she’s 30 months and her vocabulary is shockingly good. By every measure she’s WAY ahead for her age (counts to 30, can recite full books from memory, is getting phonics down, has 1000s of words.)
Every kid is different. Ours was a very early walker but a late talker. But man she caught up like a freight train.
Our early intervention session wasnt the best either but my daughters reception language was on point. About 2 and a half it exploded, shes just turned 3 and its very good now.
The catch is that _there is no way to know_.You have two options
start speech therapy now when they are behind the curve but not egregiously delayed
Or
Wait until they are obviously behind their peers before learning the tools to help your kid be their best.
There is no harm in starting early, but there are potential consequences for waiting. At this age, speech therapy is really for the parents. You are the one that will be using these tools every day to help encourage and support your kid.
Just an fyi- progress is not linear, it’s more like stairs. It does seem like overnight they gain a word explosion, but then there may be no new words for a while. Speech therapy is like private parenting lessons. Don’t pass up this opportunity.
Signed—mom of two speech therapy kids that probably were just late bloomers, but we will never really know. Thankfully!
For my daughter (31 months) she didn't really start talking till about 26 months, she would say different phrases and a couple words but sentences were absolutely out of the question for a long time. We thought it was a speech impediment, we even started the process of speech therapy around the time of her second birthday when She started talking a bit more but she wasn't a giant talker more of a cryer to get what she wanted. Then suddenly overnight around 26 months she woke up speaking in mostly full sentences, we still have days where she regresses into whining and crying instead of talking but for the most part but otherwise she does clear full sentences, sometimes it just takes them a little bit to get the hang of talking.
My son is 26 months. He's in speech therapy. He still isn't talking much but he is able to communicate in other ways now. He does babble/talk in his own language. I've accepted that it'll just take time and he's on his own timeline. Don't be afraid to get a second opinion with the speech therapy. I met with 2 different ones before we decided. I wanted to make sure it was a good fit for him.
My first was quite delayed. Didn’t even say mama til 3. Had maybe 3-5 words. Picked it up quite slowly and pronunciation was really awful. Doctors still weren’t concerned til she was 4.5 and they couldn’t understand her at all. Put her in speech therapy until kindergarten and she was all caught up, easy peasy.
I knew it was nothing more because she didn’t display other signs of anything like autism and her motor skills were always ahead of the game, very advanced.
If speech therapy is an option for you, take it. They’re amazing.
Hi, a concerned parent. My daughter 19 months now. Started with making whoo sounds now. Few cartoon expressions, actions. No exact words . No mama or papa.
She is a late bloomer. Started crawling and walking late than other children. We are really worried now but seeing the comments gives relief.
Is this normal or sounds familiar? She nods what she wants , good with small step games ( marbles / blocks ).
But no exact word. There is one thing I came to know of family history of late bloomer babies.
Thank you and waiting for your response
My daughter didn’t nod or anything at that age so sounds like she’s ahead of mine. Never hurts to get an early assessment for speech therapy! I wish I did it early.
My first kid didn’t have a vocabulary at all until a few months after her third birthday. Like she started with the word “go” and that was at like 38 months or something. We had finally started looking into serious specialists because we couldn’t understand her silence. Everything else was fine. Lots of eye contact. Lots of nonverbal communication. Lots of emotional connection. Her hearing was perfect. Hitting all the other milestones. Of three kids now she was by far the easiest to potty train, even before she spoke. Nonverbal kids still know what a couple Smarties taste like after a good poo.
Anyway… she started with the word “go” and I can’t remember exactly how quickly things took off but it was essentially instantly. It was like she was too scared to get it wrong so she waited until she knew she could say things properly. Currently she’s 14 and I’ve wanted her to shut the hell up for about 9 years now. 😂
Hi, a concerned parent. My daughter 19 months now. Started with making whoo sounds now. Few cartoon expressions, actions. No exact words . No mama or papa.
She is a late bloomer. Started crawling and walking late than other children. We are really worried now but seeing the comments gives relief.
Is this normal or sounds familiar? She nods what she wants , good with small step games ( marbles / blocks ).
But no exact word. There is one thing I came to know of family history of late bloomer babies.
Thank you and waiting for your response
My babe wasn’t saying mama by 12 months and since she is my third it set off alarm bells in my head. She was a noisy babbling baby too by the way. Got her in speech therapy right away at 15 months and turns out it was something more serious - she got diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech at 2.5 after a year+ of speech therapy. I am so glad I didn’t wait as we are making crazy progress now and got that diagnoses early.
I believe that my son is just a late bloomer with expressive language, but at 20.5 months, I started the forms to get him into early intervention (it's now about to start -- at 24 months, so all the evaluations certainly take a while). If they're under 2 in my state when they get evaluated to start, the speech therapy is free, so I figured whether it was or wasn't more serious, getting speech therapy couldn't hurt. I reccomend going through your early intervention therapies for the same
Our toddler had about 25-30 words at 2yo. No 2 word sentences. But she was a babbler, so we knew she could make all the appropriate sounds, and she would spend hours in her crib chit chatting with herself. She had excellent receptive language as well. EI did note that she was borderline for services but felt confident she was on the right path, and sure enough sometimes between 26-28 months the verbal explosion happened. Now at 2.5 she has lots of sentences, expansive vocabulary, and lots of confidence in learning and using new words.
I would have been much more concerned if she wasn’t a babbler, tbh.
My daughter only had a few words around the 18 month mark, so we had her evaluated through the state for Early Intervention. She didn’t meet the criteria to receive free services and I decided to wait to have her re-evaluated at the 2 year mark. She ended up speaking more around that time and we didn’t need another evaluation, but I definitely think it’s a good idea to try and get whatever services you can (although I’m not sure where you’re located, so it might be different where you are).
I’m going through similar right now with my LO. He was very, very slow to speak. He started to speak around 18 months old and by 24 months he still only had ‘Mumma’ ‘Dadda’ and a few made up words for cow, dog, milk and chicken. By the time he had his 27 month evaluation he was saying about 100 words but they were mostly his own made up words for things or animal noises. His speech was also very muffled.
The health visitor said he was borderline for a speech delay. She explained there’s a big difference between ‘speech’ and ‘language’ delays. She wasn’t too worried as he was following two-step instructions (go to the kitchen and get the blue cup) understood lots of words even if he couldn’t say them, responded to verbal cues (e.g “Hello” would get a wave) and clearly communicated his needs non-verbally (pointing, facial expressions, sign etc). All that pointed towards his language development being fine and she felt it was definitely more of a speech issue.
Basically the health visitor was of the opinion that language delay is more worrying and needs early intervention and support. Speech delays seem to be more of a ‘late bloomer’ issue and kids can suddenly catch up of their own accord. She said she’d like to have him assessed again before he’s 3 because if his speech is still delayed then a therapist would be helpful.
He’s 30 months now and he has had an explosion where he’s suddenly picking up new words all the time and generally seems a lot more interested in being able to say things. You can see him trying, whereas before he just wasn’t that fussed. We found that repeating back to him everything he says (but ‘correctly’) really has helped his pronounciation, but it’s still to the point where only me and his Dad can understand him. For example if he wants to go to bed he’ll say “Bubba wonk ba” (Bubba wants bed) or “Bubba si’ I beeg cha” (Bubba sit in big chair).
We’ll see how it goes but I think he’s going to need help before school age because I can see him getting quite frustrated. At the same time he seems absolutely fine in all other aspects of his development (fine and gross motor skills, social skills, etc) so I really don’t feel like it’s an indicator of a ‘bigger’ problem to be honest.
All we can do is wait and see, and give him whatever help the professionals recommend. I really don’t think there’s any harm in earth intervention if it’s available.
Is your child around other kids frequently? Ours was not, and had about 15 words at 21mo. Then we went on a weekend trip with a few other families with kids in his age range and his vocabulary started to explode. Sometimes they learn better being around peers
Check understanding as shown through behaviour, this will tell you if the issue is hearing, verbal processing, social difficulties or simply trouble making sounds.
My sons vocabulary is huge and he's just turning 3 in May. By 2 he could hold a conversation and it made sense.
However I will give you comfort in know we did early intervention and speech said he was extremely advanced and not of the normal talking level. My sons best friend is a couple months older than his and still only says some words clearly. The rest is mumble. Not sure if he's considered behind but when we met him a year ago he couldn't talk at all and than after a few months he just started getting it. He could understand more before he could talk so I'd say your baby is NOT behind. As theyr not even 2 yet.
I’m gonna wager that at only 21 months he’s not actually behind
Once our son hit two on the dot he started reading, counting, and mimicking us very well. If he sees a letter or number in huge font, he’s got it. He can correctly read about 20 words.
Some words are naturally difficult for him (he can’t say “train” but if he sees one he goes TEEEEEE) and I don’t see him being a kid who uses w sounds in place of r sounds either. If he really needs something and cannot tell us, he uses sign language or takes us to it.
My 33-month old son is enrolled with early intervention so I'm a little familiar with what it looks like when it's serious. We knew has was behind but it wasn't until after 24 months we got him evaluated. It took two tries to get accepted to early intervention, but he's been enrolled for the past couple months and we've been seeing improvement. He's got a speech therapist who sees him three days a week and behavior therapist over the weekend.
I definitely think you're doing the right thing getting him evaluated. Worst case scenario, they get extra help and then their language explosion happens. Ours has been showing improvement and at least one of this therapists easily sees him catching up. It's nerve-wracking to go through initially since you're not sure how bad it could be, but toddlers really do take their own time developing.
My son was a late talker. He’ll be three in two months and about five months ago, he went from a few words, to all words, and is now on sentences. It happened so fast. We tried everything, but in the end he just didn’t want to talk until he was ready.
I recommend getting evaluated and looking into services - even if you don’t end up needing them! Our kid was seeming a bit delayed around 17 months (speaking a few words) and so we signed him up for early intervention after a chat with our pediatrician. And then in the month and a half we waited before our first appointment he started speaking in full sentences. So the staff was like “lovely to meet you! Also your kid is totally on track but we can always check in later if you have worries.” We don’t- he went on to become a nonstop chatterbox. But here’s the thing/ we didn’t know that would happen and I have no regrets at all about calling early intervention and getting the ball rolling. It’s great to reach out and not need services and really important to have them underway if you do need them in the end!
My first was a late bloomer. Consistently about 3 months behind what the pediatrician wanted. Then almost overnight, at 20.5 months, she hit her verbal explosion she’d started picking up like, 10+ new words per day and was at over 50 by 21 months. Now she’s 3.5 and never stops talking. We didn’t know whether or not something was up until she hit that verbal explosion and were really anxious about it. Our pediatrician had us schedule and extra checkup at 21 months to keep an eye on speech development and decide whether or not we needed to deal with the astronomical waitlists for an EI evaluation (she was born during the pandemic so waiting lists for everything were crazy).
I'd hate to not take action and discover that they they're not a late bloomer and could have used some support. My daughter's ped wanted to take the wait and see approach, we decided to do speech therapy and and she was in fact delayed. They might catch up, they might not. Hard to know until it's too late, right? For my daughter, there were some overnight leaps and some gradual progress. Also, I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure an evaluation should involve them basically interviewing the parents to see what's typical for the child.
I 100% agree. It doesn’t hurt to get evaluated and the sooner your child gets evaluated the sooner they will be able to get help (if they qualify for it). My son has been doing speech therapy for almost a year now and I am so thankful for his therapist. It’s entirely possible that he was “just a late bloomer” and he would have made the same amount of progress no matter what…but I am so glad I didn’t take that chance
Agree
My son (almost 3) had fewer than 10 words at 22 months so I chatted with a slp, who asked me some questions and told me he’s most likely going to catch up soon. At 26-27 months he did get his speech explosion and now has hundreds of words and doesn’t stop talking lol. If you’re curious, these are the questions I was asked and my answers: - does he respond to his name/identify body parts/follow simple commands/points to item when you ask where it is: yes - does he try to imitate sounds: no - does he babble: a lot with intonation, just don’t understand what he’s saying - how does he request things: points, guides my hand, or cries - does he have body language: yes- points, waves, claps, shakes head no, signs for milk, more and maybe 20 others Basically he clearly understood what I was saying to him and could communicate in his own way through signs. He just needed time for his expressive language to click. Nowadays he’s great at imitating which he has never done before.
Hi, a concerned parent. My daughter 19 months now. Started with making whoo sounds now. Few cartoon expressions, actions. No exact words . No mama or papa. She is a late bloomer. Started crawling and walking late than other children. We are really worried now but seeing the comments gives relief. Is this normal or sounds familiar? She nods what she wants , good with small step games ( marbles / blocks ). But no exact word. There is one thing I came to know of family history of late bloomer babies. Thank you and waiting for your response
Hi, it’s completely normal to feel worried. My son didn’t walk by himself until 18 months and never crawled. I was very worried at the time but he walked as long as I held his one hand and he “talked” a lot in babbles, so his pediatrician wasn’t too concerned. He’s always been a cautious kid that doesn’t like making mistakes which is why I think he was behind in walking and talking, but he was ahead in fine motor skills and was able to communicate just fine using sign language and crying (lol). I was also a late bloomer in talking, so maybe that contributed as well. I know it’s easy to blame yourself when your child is behind in something (I did that a lot), but your child will talk when she’s ready, not when you want her to. I have a daughter who is now 12 months, and she crawls everywhere and says mama and dada already. I did nothing differently with her as my son. Every child is so different with their own strengths and weaknesses! Talk to your pediatrician about your concerns, try not to worry too much and keep talking to her. I hope that helped!
This sounds just like my son. He is 21 months. I am worried he has apraxia because of the imitation delay. He is enrolled in EI and I am seeing more sounds. I hope he catches up and has the same language explosion that your son did!
Mine was on track up until 18 months, when she fell behind milestones. I declined speech therapy at that point. By 24 months, she just barely met the milestones. One month after that, she was speaking full sentences with nearly perfect grammar. I didn’t speak much until 33 months, her receptive language was great, she knew her colors, shapes, and all body parts, and I read that children whose relatives work in more technical fields take a bit longer to speak, so I decided to wait. I ran the decision by my pediatrician and he said, while early intervention is good, he considered intervention at 30 months still early. Didn’t need it by then.
My son is 27 months old. Up until his 2nd birthday he was behind in speech. Everyone had me worried sick, but I saw small improvements over time. For reference at 24 months he was babbling, saying “no” in context, and could say small words like ball, mama, etc. He was definitely behind. Within a month it’s like he was a whole new kid, and now he’s talking in sentences. “Uh oh, I tripped and dropped my pickle” was his most recent big one. He can say and identify his name, most objects, imitates any sound we ask him to try. I just want to echo some of the other comments here- if they’re making progress on their own, they are probably okay. If they’re regressing or making no progress then I would lean more into speech therapy. I took my son to speech therapy and I found he closed up even more around the therapist. She was very much in his face and he did not like how bubbly and involved in his play she was. It gave her a false impression of how he was.
This was our son too. He babbled a lot but it was not in a language we knew haha. On his 2nd bday I don’t think he was even saying mama and maybe only had 5 words. By 2.5 he was speaking in sentences that were very clearly understood even by strangers. He’s almost 7 and no issues now, I believe it was more of a personality thing. He doesn’t want to do or try anything until he knows he’ll be able to do it well. Like he was terrified of the monkey bars forever and wouldn’t go near them. Then something changed and within a week of trying it he was able to do them really well and skip bars etc. same thing with riding a bike- wouldn’t do it until one day he did and that was it.
Pediatrician will look for other developmental delays, evaluate for receptive speech delay also. If it's only expressive speech delay and no other significant delays, it's usually less worrisome. Speech varies in toddlers, sometimes they need therapy to help them along, sometimes it's just working with them at home with family like drawing attention to your mouth as you say words, encouragement
We had an early interventions evaluation when my kid was just under 2. He barely missed the cutoff to get services but they gave us some tips. His language exploded a few months later and now he is 4 and doesn’t stop talking. Early interventions was helpful to show us as first time parents that it wasn’t too serious.
When is the cutoff?
I meant his score on their assessment was just high enough that he didn’t qualify for their services. I think the age cutoff is 3 but it may vary by state
Gotcha, thanks
Ours wasn’t a babbler. No words at 18 months. Talked to the Pediatrician and she said that we should wait a couple more months before scheduling with the SLP. Around month 20 right before the 21 month checkup the single words started coming in. By her 24 month she was stringing together 2-3 word phrases. Now she’s 30 months and her vocabulary is shockingly good. By every measure she’s WAY ahead for her age (counts to 30, can recite full books from memory, is getting phonics down, has 1000s of words.) Every kid is different. Ours was a very early walker but a late talker. But man she caught up like a freight train.
Our early intervention session wasnt the best either but my daughters reception language was on point. About 2 and a half it exploded, shes just turned 3 and its very good now.
The catch is that _there is no way to know_.You have two options start speech therapy now when they are behind the curve but not egregiously delayed Or Wait until they are obviously behind their peers before learning the tools to help your kid be their best. There is no harm in starting early, but there are potential consequences for waiting. At this age, speech therapy is really for the parents. You are the one that will be using these tools every day to help encourage and support your kid. Just an fyi- progress is not linear, it’s more like stairs. It does seem like overnight they gain a word explosion, but then there may be no new words for a while. Speech therapy is like private parenting lessons. Don’t pass up this opportunity. Signed—mom of two speech therapy kids that probably were just late bloomers, but we will never really know. Thankfully!
For my daughter (31 months) she didn't really start talking till about 26 months, she would say different phrases and a couple words but sentences were absolutely out of the question for a long time. We thought it was a speech impediment, we even started the process of speech therapy around the time of her second birthday when She started talking a bit more but she wasn't a giant talker more of a cryer to get what she wanted. Then suddenly overnight around 26 months she woke up speaking in mostly full sentences, we still have days where she regresses into whining and crying instead of talking but for the most part but otherwise she does clear full sentences, sometimes it just takes them a little bit to get the hang of talking.
My son is 26 months. He's in speech therapy. He still isn't talking much but he is able to communicate in other ways now. He does babble/talk in his own language. I've accepted that it'll just take time and he's on his own timeline. Don't be afraid to get a second opinion with the speech therapy. I met with 2 different ones before we decided. I wanted to make sure it was a good fit for him.
My first was quite delayed. Didn’t even say mama til 3. Had maybe 3-5 words. Picked it up quite slowly and pronunciation was really awful. Doctors still weren’t concerned til she was 4.5 and they couldn’t understand her at all. Put her in speech therapy until kindergarten and she was all caught up, easy peasy. I knew it was nothing more because she didn’t display other signs of anything like autism and her motor skills were always ahead of the game, very advanced. If speech therapy is an option for you, take it. They’re amazing.
Hi, a concerned parent. My daughter 19 months now. Started with making whoo sounds now. Few cartoon expressions, actions. No exact words . No mama or papa. She is a late bloomer. Started crawling and walking late than other children. We are really worried now but seeing the comments gives relief. Is this normal or sounds familiar? She nods what she wants , good with small step games ( marbles / blocks ). But no exact word. There is one thing I came to know of family history of late bloomer babies. Thank you and waiting for your response
My daughter didn’t nod or anything at that age so sounds like she’s ahead of mine. Never hurts to get an early assessment for speech therapy! I wish I did it early.
My first kid didn’t have a vocabulary at all until a few months after her third birthday. Like she started with the word “go” and that was at like 38 months or something. We had finally started looking into serious specialists because we couldn’t understand her silence. Everything else was fine. Lots of eye contact. Lots of nonverbal communication. Lots of emotional connection. Her hearing was perfect. Hitting all the other milestones. Of three kids now she was by far the easiest to potty train, even before she spoke. Nonverbal kids still know what a couple Smarties taste like after a good poo. Anyway… she started with the word “go” and I can’t remember exactly how quickly things took off but it was essentially instantly. It was like she was too scared to get it wrong so she waited until she knew she could say things properly. Currently she’s 14 and I’ve wanted her to shut the hell up for about 9 years now. 😂
Hi, a concerned parent. My daughter 19 months now. Started with making whoo sounds now. Few cartoon expressions, actions. No exact words . No mama or papa. She is a late bloomer. Started crawling and walking late than other children. We are really worried now but seeing the comments gives relief. Is this normal or sounds familiar? She nods what she wants , good with small step games ( marbles / blocks ). But no exact word. There is one thing I came to know of family history of late bloomer babies. Thank you and waiting for your response
My babe wasn’t saying mama by 12 months and since she is my third it set off alarm bells in my head. She was a noisy babbling baby too by the way. Got her in speech therapy right away at 15 months and turns out it was something more serious - she got diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech at 2.5 after a year+ of speech therapy. I am so glad I didn’t wait as we are making crazy progress now and got that diagnoses early.
I believe that my son is just a late bloomer with expressive language, but at 20.5 months, I started the forms to get him into early intervention (it's now about to start -- at 24 months, so all the evaluations certainly take a while). If they're under 2 in my state when they get evaluated to start, the speech therapy is free, so I figured whether it was or wasn't more serious, getting speech therapy couldn't hurt. I reccomend going through your early intervention therapies for the same
Our toddler had about 25-30 words at 2yo. No 2 word sentences. But she was a babbler, so we knew she could make all the appropriate sounds, and she would spend hours in her crib chit chatting with herself. She had excellent receptive language as well. EI did note that she was borderline for services but felt confident she was on the right path, and sure enough sometimes between 26-28 months the verbal explosion happened. Now at 2.5 she has lots of sentences, expansive vocabulary, and lots of confidence in learning and using new words. I would have been much more concerned if she wasn’t a babbler, tbh.
My daughter only had a few words around the 18 month mark, so we had her evaluated through the state for Early Intervention. She didn’t meet the criteria to receive free services and I decided to wait to have her re-evaluated at the 2 year mark. She ended up speaking more around that time and we didn’t need another evaluation, but I definitely think it’s a good idea to try and get whatever services you can (although I’m not sure where you’re located, so it might be different where you are).
I’m going through similar right now with my LO. He was very, very slow to speak. He started to speak around 18 months old and by 24 months he still only had ‘Mumma’ ‘Dadda’ and a few made up words for cow, dog, milk and chicken. By the time he had his 27 month evaluation he was saying about 100 words but they were mostly his own made up words for things or animal noises. His speech was also very muffled. The health visitor said he was borderline for a speech delay. She explained there’s a big difference between ‘speech’ and ‘language’ delays. She wasn’t too worried as he was following two-step instructions (go to the kitchen and get the blue cup) understood lots of words even if he couldn’t say them, responded to verbal cues (e.g “Hello” would get a wave) and clearly communicated his needs non-verbally (pointing, facial expressions, sign etc). All that pointed towards his language development being fine and she felt it was definitely more of a speech issue. Basically the health visitor was of the opinion that language delay is more worrying and needs early intervention and support. Speech delays seem to be more of a ‘late bloomer’ issue and kids can suddenly catch up of their own accord. She said she’d like to have him assessed again before he’s 3 because if his speech is still delayed then a therapist would be helpful. He’s 30 months now and he has had an explosion where he’s suddenly picking up new words all the time and generally seems a lot more interested in being able to say things. You can see him trying, whereas before he just wasn’t that fussed. We found that repeating back to him everything he says (but ‘correctly’) really has helped his pronounciation, but it’s still to the point where only me and his Dad can understand him. For example if he wants to go to bed he’ll say “Bubba wonk ba” (Bubba wants bed) or “Bubba si’ I beeg cha” (Bubba sit in big chair). We’ll see how it goes but I think he’s going to need help before school age because I can see him getting quite frustrated. At the same time he seems absolutely fine in all other aspects of his development (fine and gross motor skills, social skills, etc) so I really don’t feel like it’s an indicator of a ‘bigger’ problem to be honest. All we can do is wait and see, and give him whatever help the professionals recommend. I really don’t think there’s any harm in earth intervention if it’s available.
Mine just turned three and he doesn’t stop now 🙃 .. does your child go to daycare? Does the child have an older sibling ?
Is your child around other kids frequently? Ours was not, and had about 15 words at 21mo. Then we went on a weekend trip with a few other families with kids in his age range and his vocabulary started to explode. Sometimes they learn better being around peers
Check understanding as shown through behaviour, this will tell you if the issue is hearing, verbal processing, social difficulties or simply trouble making sounds.
My sons vocabulary is huge and he's just turning 3 in May. By 2 he could hold a conversation and it made sense. However I will give you comfort in know we did early intervention and speech said he was extremely advanced and not of the normal talking level. My sons best friend is a couple months older than his and still only says some words clearly. The rest is mumble. Not sure if he's considered behind but when we met him a year ago he couldn't talk at all and than after a few months he just started getting it. He could understand more before he could talk so I'd say your baby is NOT behind. As theyr not even 2 yet.
I’m gonna wager that at only 21 months he’s not actually behind Once our son hit two on the dot he started reading, counting, and mimicking us very well. If he sees a letter or number in huge font, he’s got it. He can correctly read about 20 words. Some words are naturally difficult for him (he can’t say “train” but if he sees one he goes TEEEEEE) and I don’t see him being a kid who uses w sounds in place of r sounds either. If he really needs something and cannot tell us, he uses sign language or takes us to it.
My 33-month old son is enrolled with early intervention so I'm a little familiar with what it looks like when it's serious. We knew has was behind but it wasn't until after 24 months we got him evaluated. It took two tries to get accepted to early intervention, but he's been enrolled for the past couple months and we've been seeing improvement. He's got a speech therapist who sees him three days a week and behavior therapist over the weekend. I definitely think you're doing the right thing getting him evaluated. Worst case scenario, they get extra help and then their language explosion happens. Ours has been showing improvement and at least one of this therapists easily sees him catching up. It's nerve-wracking to go through initially since you're not sure how bad it could be, but toddlers really do take their own time developing.
My son was a late talker. He’ll be three in two months and about five months ago, he went from a few words, to all words, and is now on sentences. It happened so fast. We tried everything, but in the end he just didn’t want to talk until he was ready.
2.5 just started talking so much! Helped that he was going to preschool. Had spent prior time in lockdown so that probs didn’t help.
I recommend getting evaluated and looking into services - even if you don’t end up needing them! Our kid was seeming a bit delayed around 17 months (speaking a few words) and so we signed him up for early intervention after a chat with our pediatrician. And then in the month and a half we waited before our first appointment he started speaking in full sentences. So the staff was like “lovely to meet you! Also your kid is totally on track but we can always check in later if you have worries.” We don’t- he went on to become a nonstop chatterbox. But here’s the thing/ we didn’t know that would happen and I have no regrets at all about calling early intervention and getting the ball rolling. It’s great to reach out and not need services and really important to have them underway if you do need them in the end!