Helping My 15 Month Old to Talk More

Your son sounds like he is on target for his age!
Children this age should have a wide range of speech sounds in their babbling and at least one or more true words (not including "mama" and "dada"). Nouns usually come first, like "baby" and "ball." Your child should also be able to understand and follow single directions ("Please give me the toy," for example).

If you were to walk into a toddler classroom at the child care center I work at, you will see that the youngest ones (13-18 months) walk around just blabbering their own little language, and occasionally repeat things back to you, and the older ones (18-24mos) are actually using words and sometimes combining two words at a time. Every child is different and develops at different rates.

Hope this helps!

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you are doing exactly what you should be doing.honestly i think it just takes boys a little longer than girls to start speaking.my son didnt start speaking until 17 months then it just came like a tidal wave in a matter of two months he has learned dada mama banana candy cup juice and about 10 more words. youre doing a good job just keep it up and he will surprise you one day and just start talking and then you will wish he would hush!

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Sounds like you are doing everything you should be doing. He is still really young to expect much speech wise. I had the same issue with my now almost 4-year-old son. He didn't really say much as a toddler and I had him evaluated at 18 months. The main tip they gave me (other than conversing with him as you are doing) was to offer him two choices for everything: do you want to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt, do you want your red cup or blue cup, etc. This really did help and he really started chatting away at about 2. My son is now the most talkative boy I know. In fact, many people have told me he talks like a much older child.

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Sounds like you have some great feedback. Relax and don't stress. No reason to get yourself worked up, Boys tend to be late talkers. My youngest is 28 months today and speech delayed due to excessive ear infections but he is still trying to catch up. He knows some of his colors(Pink, blue, red, yellow, orange, green, black, purple) he also knows his numbers(counting and visual) 1-14. When he sees 3 pears, he says 3, when he sees the number 5 he knows it's 5 but there is a lot of words that he doesn't say or can't pronounce correctly. There a lot of letters that he can pronounce as well.
All this takes time and boys are a little slower talkers than girls and all children talk at different speed.

My cousin has twin boys, now 5. They had their own little language and used to talk amongst each other where only they would only understand each other. They started talking at 3 yrs old and now one of the boys was tested and his IQ is over 130 and in the gifted and talented class.

So in that note just cause they don't talk a lot now or even at 2-2 1/2 doesn't make them less smarter than a child that started talking at 18 months.

I know they shouldn't be saying lots of words at 15 months of age, about 5 words.

I hope this helps.
M.

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It will happen when you least expect it. My son is the same age and doesnt say much at all either. He points and blabbers and when I try to engage him in conversation he gets distracted with something else. That's boys for you. :)
I know he understands me b/c he'll get the sippy cup for me when I ask him and he sits down when I tell him its time to put on his shoes. When I tell him,"lets go bye bye" he immediately stops what he's doing and follows me to the garage door.
I started speaking at 9 months but my younger sister didn't say an understandable word until she was almost 2. As adults,here I am the boring stay at home Mom while she is the hot shot investment banker who graduated from Notre Dame with honors. ;)
So I wouldn't worry just yet. I have been told many times that girls start speaking sooner than boys. As long as he understands you,his speech will soon follow. But its not a gradual thing...it seems to just happen overnight. One day he wont have uttered an understandable word and you're worried that he's behind developmentak schedule and the next day he's jabbering out 3 or 4 words... just like that. Just like with walking. One day he was crawling around pulling himself up,and the next he was walking(almost running) around the room. I didn't even have time to prepare and oh how I long for the days when he was immobile. :)

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Sounds to me like you are doing everything right! I know at my sons fifteen month appointment, he is only supposed to be using 5 words. Keep in mind that any animal sound, mama, dada, uh oh, all count as words. You can always try some basic signing. It's never too late for that. Remember, the key is communication, and as long as the two of you are communicating, relax! One day, the words will start coming, and you'll be asking how to shut him up!

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Join a Baby signs class at Gymboree or check out the Signing Time videos at your local library. I taught signs to both my kids. One has down syndrome and it DEFINITELY helped with his speech development. My daughter who is typically developing started using signs at 11months. She's 2 now and talks like a 5 year old. It's incredible. 15months is a perfect time to start! good luck!

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Hi R.,
You have gotten good encouragement here----relax. He will speak before you know it. My 18 month old just started going through a huge expressive language surge. The main thing at this point is that he will follow one step directives and receptively seems to understand language. That comes before the expressive. When you say "bring mommy the book." He should be doing some of that--however keep in mind he may start to do it and get distracted...that is normal. The fact that he would start to the book indicates he understands what you said to him. Sounds like you are doing great. Relax and just enjoy this time....be cautious about pushing too much. These lil' guys are sponges and will soak it in under positive, low stress situations. The fact that you are concerned really shows how involved you are....keep up the great work.

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Sounds like you're doing the right thing. Just keep talking to him, narrate your day, identify things in his world. He's totally normal. Many kids, especially boys, don't utter a sentence until they're 2 or so. He's just getting to where he should be able to follow simple commands ("please hand me the spoon"). For a while, that is more important than his speech. If you want to give him a way to communicate as he learns to speak, you can teach him some simple sign language.

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My 15 month old doesnt talk well either, but he babbles all the time. And, he can scream with the best of them. But, he is so focused on physical things now, that he just does not seem to care about talking. My daughters both said so much more by now, and I am not usually one to compare boys and girls, but he is far more physically advanced right now, and the dr. says that is totally normal and fine. He will follow directions sometimes, and laugh and run away from the the rest of the time!! Just keep up the good work, and know that some day you will be wishing he would stop talking so much!!! ~A.~

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Focus on teaching him the words for things that he is interested in...perhaps he loves bath time. Use the word bath before during and after bath time and he just might pick it up. It takes a lot of listening too. My 17 mo can say a lot of words but none of them correctly, so my husband and I are the only ones who can understand him. I wouldn't stress over it though. Some kids don't start talking till 2yr.

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