Todder Not Talking Yet

Hi,

My daughter is 19 months old and only says like 5 words and she goes to daycare 3 times a week. I have her in a birth to 3 program to try to help her along a little. Her doc says it is nothing to worry about yet. So I would not worry too much yet.

Minnesota has really neat early childhood programs called ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) and ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education). They offer classes for kids, classes for parents, and even in home tutors for free! Families can pay for classes what they can afford. You may not be worried, but these programs may give him the nudge he needs to begin talking. The earlier an intervention takes place for a concern, the better and quicker the outcome.
Best of luck!
M. (former St. Paul Public school teacher)

if you are really worried- wisconsin offers a birth to 3 program thru the county. calll them and they will come to your home and evaluate your child and if services are needed they will come to your home. i had to use that program and they were great and did wonders for my son!!!!

R.,

My daughter turned 2 in feb and just started talking. I heard that 2 year olds should have between 25-50 words that other people can understand. Most of my friends two year olds did not do this either. Usually the words start right after they turn two and they seems to learn new ones everyday. My daughter still does not have this many words and the ones she does say only my husband and I can understand. My peditrician told me this is common. We have decided to get her evaluated at Childrens speech dept. and have an appt later this week. I would talk to your peditrican. My guess is that he/she will have you wait until after he is two. I do have friends that got speech therapy through the school district but I know the kids have to be pretty far behind to qulify for help there. I would not worry to much at this point. A good dvd on sign language is called "baby signing time". She loves it and it has helped us a lot.

K.

I wouldn't worry. Is he veyr physical, met his physical milestones like crawling and walking early? Is he coordinated with his hands, has good eye/hand coordination? If so, then he is just using 'that side' of his brain more, and he will start talking soon. My oldest was the same, met all hsi physical milestones very early, was extremely coordinated and had, still has, the most amazing hand/eye coordination. He didn't so much as grunt at us until he was about 2 1/2, and then literally started speaking full sentences, and now at almost 5 he is very clear, extremely smart, and talks non-stop.

My youngest is 18 months and he started talking 2-3 word sentences around 10 months, but he is not nearly as physical as his brother, he is a klutz and not coordinated at all. He just uses the other side of his brain. :)

All kids develop differently, and I'm sure your son is doing well in other areas, and fine tuning other skills instead.

You could talk to the Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) in your area. They have programs and teachers that specialize in this. I am in a class for kids 18 mon- 2.5years old and we have a couple of kids that are being seeing because the arent talking. I've seen this happen with a few kids. He could just be a late talker but it doesnt hurt to check with someone who knows more.

My son will be 3 in july and didnt start talking until he was about 2 or so..I wouldnt worry about it and if you are worried I would see if there are any programs through your school district or county..

R.

Hi,

I have heard wonderful things about Baby Babble dvd/videos and Baby BumbleBee Bee Smart Baby. Check out ebay or google it and it will be easy to find. Your husband could have him watch them during the day while your at work. These dvd's help to build vocabulary and wish I had known about them when my son was little. They will help!

Have you had his hearing tested or his speech evaluated? I would rather be safe than sorry later on. Like someone said, taking him for speech can't hurt, and he would be with other kids his age.
Now that it's spring, get him out to the parks more and get exposure to other kids.

I'm a speech pathologist who has worked in birth to three and in the schools. My son is almost 2 1/2, and just started really saying a lot of words in the last 2 months. Is your child babbling and making lots of sounds? Does he make animal noises or truck noises? I would be more worried if he wasn't making any kind of noises at all. You might want to try some simple signs with him like "more, all done, please, eat, drink" just so that he will be less frustrated, and able to make some of his needs met. If you are concerns, contact your local birth to three center, they can do an evaluation and let you know where he falls developmentally. Good luck.

My niece, who is now almost 7, hardly talked at all for a couple years. She is intelligent and bright as can be. Don't worry too much about it. You know that your child understands you.

Your child is probably just highly intelligent and introspective. ALL babies develop at different rates. My 11 y/o son didn't get his first tooth until he was 13 months old, yet he was walking at 9 months. If anybody gives you guff about it just tell them that Albert Einstein did not start to speak until he was 3 years old and your child will speak when he has something important enough to say. My own husband who has a very high IQ barely spoke a word until he was old enough to speak in full sentances.

To learn to talk early like that, they need to be around other little kids(especially boys do), because they will have little conversations that we don't even understand. I do daycare and have noticed that. I will ask a child that can speak clearly what the other said and they know word for word. It greatly encourages language development. It's not like he isn't going to talk, but it may take longer just communicating with adults, because WE DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM, not the other way around!

Hi R..

My son didn't really start speaking in short sentences until he was 2-ish (maybe slightly older) and now at 3 he is a jabber-fest, but still a bit hard to understand and he has no developmental problems. As long as you're sure that he hears and understands you; and he can respond to commands (ie: Please put the ball by the chair) - I wouldn't worry. They all develop at their own pace and boys tend to take longer to talk.

Certain people would try to make me worry that he wasn't talking yet, but my husband and I decided to set a deadline for ourselves (2-1/2 years old, for example) and that if our son wasn't making any progress, then we would take him to a speech therapist. We never had to take him after all.

We just talked about language development in my ECFE class this morning. The big language explosion for most kids starts between 18 and 24 months. At 16 months most kids may have a few words, but are not really talking yet. I wouldn't worry, but you may be interested in signing up for an ECFE class in your school district. It's a great program and Mom's and Dad's bring their kids. I stay home and look forward to it as much as my son does!

Good luck, and don't worry!

J., SAHM to 2 year old Charlie and 4 month old Joey.

My son had maybe a 6 word vocabulary until he was almost 3, we started doing baby signs so I could at least get him to "say" please and thankyou. It was opposite for me, I was the worried one and all my friends said that he would talk when he is ready, nothing is wrong but I still fretted. Sure enough at about 3 he got his voice and then we couldn't get him to shut up:) He is now almost 8 and in the gifted program so obviously I had nothing to worry about and I wasted so much energy being concerned. It sounds like you know him well, that you believe he can hear, he is making sounds and he understands you. If you haven't already maybe check into a baby sign class as both of you knowing some signs just makes it easier for him to communicate somehow, its nice to know once in awhile what he actually wants instead of having to guess all the time. It helps with our toddlers and when my oldest was young anyways.
K. H

My son was a late talker too. Our pediatrician was worried about this later development, but, like you, my husband and I weren't worried. He understood everything we said and had a few words, so we knew that he was going to get there. He did start going to Montessori school at 18 months and that seemed to help get his talking going more. He's now 2-1/2 and has very complex sentences and is clearly doing just fine. So, hopefully your situation will be like ours and it will all work out okay. I'd say to trust your instincts!

Hi R.!

My son stays at Grandma's house for daycare and he is the oldest one in the group. So, he turned 2 and he wasn't speaking. I took him to his Dr and she said he was fine. He turned 3 and still not much coming out. I had him take the school's screening and sure enough he didn't pass and needed to attend a special learning program, instead of being placed in a regular pre-k class. He started in Jan (of this year) and now he talks SO much! He sings the alphabet song, twinkle twinkle, etc. Because of his age, he goes 3 times a week for 2 hours or so, but he has learned a lot.
Sometimes they just need that new person to listen to; since we're the parents they know they can ignore us if they want to :}

Good luck!

Hi R.,

Google "ECSE MN", or ECSE and the city you live in and you should see a contact name and number. Call them and they will come out to do an assessment to see if your child might qualify for services through your school district. The birth to 3 services program (Early Intervention) is about keeping our kids on track developmentally. If they feel he would benefit from their services, they will offer services free of charge. It's a great program and you should take advantage of it, if this is a concern - they are really great people who care about kids!

Our own son benefited from services from age 4 months to 3 years as he was born with hearing loss. Not that your son has hearing loss - there are many different reasons a child may take longer to speak, but if an Audiologist hasn't tested his hearing, maybe check into that, too. I've heard horror stories about pediatrician's "testing" a child's hearing and saying there isn't a problem and then at age 3 when the child still isn't speaking, they refer to an Audiologist and the hearing loss is diagnosed. The earlier services are started, the better our children do!

Good Luck!
M.

I wouldn't be concerned at that age based on what you say. By 2 if nothing I would talk to your doctor-possible speech evaluation. They can be very helpful in giving parents info on how to help with speech. Talking really varies in age. I bet between 18-20 months you will hear some words.

Shelley

My son was the same way. Never attended daycare, didn't talk, and me and his father were'nt concerned. Finally at 2 years I contacted birth to 3 and found out that he did have speech delay. Within 2 months he began to gain vocab. He recently turned 3 and has vocab, but still can not produce all sounds and is not consistant and is ateending speech 2 times per week at GB public schools. I would recomend seeking out a birth to 3, just to be safe. What's the worst that could happen, he doesn't need speech?

My daughter was the same way and not in daycare, she really didn't talk until she was close to 2 years old. Now we can't get her to stop talking! :) It will come, give it some time. If you are really concerned I would consult your pediatrian.