Any Speech Therapists?

I'm not a speech therapist, but I used to work with them as a early intervention specialist. If you have concerns about your child's speech development, get an evaluation from your local early childhood intervention program. It is provided as a government program and will be free to you.
All children are different. My oldest spoken in sentences at 13 months. My youngest didn't speak clearly until he was 3 years old. Now he is kicking his older brother's butt in college!

Hi,
My son also had a speech problem. I wish I follow my gut early and not listened to my family and friends that I was comparing kids. In a nutshell I folowed my gut, and found out I was correct, he had a definate delay. The State of CT has a free program called birth to three. They came right to my home, evaluated him, and started working with him 3 times a week. As soon as he reach 3 they placed him in the pre-k school system and they took over. Amazing is all I can say!!! He's 5 now and I have to say he talks nonstop..what a wonderful thing!! I don't know what state your in, but call..google..do whatever you can immediately to make his future in home, school the easiest as possible. Good luck...Hugs...

Kids normally drop the last part of a word when learning. At that age, my son wasn't saying a whole lot either. Most kids burst with words all of a sudden at a certain stage of development, and some kind of lag. My son was 2 1/2 when I had to call our state to get involved with getting our son help with speech therapy, as he was only saying maybe 10 words. Speech therapy, and Developmental Preschool really blossomed him with his speech! :-D Children often at 15 mos will say words their own way...like your son with 'ga' for 'ball'. It's ok. He's trying, so I would consider it a word since at his age, he cannot pronounce words correctly anyway, and it's perfectly normal. Keep working with him, slow your speech down when you talk to him, and only say two to three word sentences to him. This is what our therapist told us to do with our son. Don't talk fast to him either or he'll just get a mumble of sounds from you. Slow, clear, and get down to his eye level when speaking to him. This will help him a lot. Hope this helps you. If by the age of 2 he still hasn't improved, call your school district and see about getting some help with a speech therapist. Over here in AZ, if your child qualifies after evaluation for therapy, it's free, and then when they turn 3 years old, they are put in developmental preschool to further their learning. :-)

Totally normal. Not a speech therapist, but I am a school psychologist and early childhood specialist. From a developmental standpoint, though, the "adjusted age" thing doesn't really mean much with respect to language development. Unless you child has a neurologically-based language disorder (doesn't sound like it), language is learned through exposure and interpersonal interactions. The premature birth tends to impact more notably in the area of physical development and motor control.

If your son doesn't hit the "language explosion" around age 2, then bring it up to your pediatrician. Otherwise, all children develop language at drastically different rates. Boys tend to develop language more slowly, but may mature with respect to motor skills more rapidly. The "benchmark" is really taken at age 2, but not of concern (requiring an assessment) until closer to 30 months.

Encourage him to use words by "forcing" him to use them. If he point, make him say the word (even if it doesn't sound like the item) in order to obtain the item. You, as mommy, will often predict what he wants and get it ahead of time (think water or juice with a meal b/c you know that's what he likes), but have him ask for it!

We also taught my son simple sign language starting at this age to reduce his frustration and increase his communication. He's 4.5 now and still signs (along with talking) "please", "thank you", "more" and some of the others he knows.

No worries, mommy. He's doing just fine!

I think at 15 months he sounds very on track. Continue to talk to him all the time, explain what you are doing, don't use baby talk, etc. Reinforce what he's doing "Yes this is a ball and we are rolling it," etc. and he'll catch on and be saying more and more words!!! My daughter said "I Like CHEESE!" at 16 months but my son didn't say that until he was almost 2 (a three word sentence). Every child is different - my friend's daughter didn't say A WORD until 2 years old!!!