How many words at 18 months

Spin off of poll How many words do your 17 to 18 month olds have? I was reading the poll on the next page and wonder if my girls are alone on not having any real words at this age. They have dadda, mama, done, up, Linda (inda) and that is about it. They understand a lot of words, but don't really say that many. They make lots of noises.

Ruth

 

Yours have way more than mine do. My girls are 17 months adjusted. Annelise says bye and what's that? Karina says nothing. I am trying to get them evaluated for speech, but so far that hasn't happened. The MN Dept. of Health website says they should have 10-20 words at 18 months. We're no where near that.

 

Our pediatrician told us that at 18 months they should have at least 20 words that they use on their own and in the correct context.

 

Don't worry! My girls had 1 or 2 words total at 18 months. Our pedi said that at 2 years if they weren't talking we would start speech therapy.

Now at 21 months they say everything. All of a sudden one day they just decided they were ready to talk and now they even put 2 to 3 words together to make small sentences. It's such a huge difference from just two months ago when they didn't speak at all.

If they are making noises I wouldn't worry.

 

My EI looks for them to have 5 - 7 words by 18 months adjusted age. Isn't it amazing how DIFFERENT all the "standards" seem to be???

 

This is true, at our 18 month appointment our pediatrician was just looking for 10 words used in the right context. My BF, her son (who is 7) did not utter a word until he was 2 and he just had a language explosion at that time. Prior to that, he could understand what you were saying and would point stuff out to you but would not speak.

 

Great thread. It's on my mind too. My girls are almost exactly 18 months and depending on how you define it, either have tons of words or almost none. They have in their lives said a lot of words in the right context. Some really surprising, like pointing out a lion at a chinese restaurant a few months ago. But can they even now say it reliably? No way. It's an almost random thing for the girls to use an English word. And pretty rare. Maybe a couple a day, if that. And encouragement doesn't seem to help.

They do understand, and they break out something good now and then. Car, shoe, cookie, etc. But where's the talking? I'm ready to interact a little more verbally. Soon? Please?

 

My boys are 2 but I'll throw in my opinion and experience.

At 18 months Jacob and Boden said no words. Not a single one. Jacob would sometimes do "moo" for the cow sound but that is it. I was worried so we went through the channels and they are now receiving speech therapy every other week. I am so glad we decided to do that. They now say dada, mama, Lella (for Ella), nigh-nigh, nana (banana), Gama (grandma), mo (for more), and will do a handful of animal sounds. It isn't amazing, but, it is SO much better than where we were.

I got a lot of flack from people for starting them on therapy at 19 months, even from our doctor. I got a lot of "my niece/brother/friend's son didn't speak until he/she was 3 years old" crap. Why would I wait until my boys were 3? I want them to be on track, not behind.

Anyway, my boys were behind where your girls are, but they are slowly catching up thanks to therapy.

 

Mine are 17 months and they know between 20-30 words and still sign for about 10 others.

 

In my book "What to expect the toddler years" it says they should be using 3 words. That's about how many mine are using.

 

My guys had no words at 18 mths...
My guys will be 2 in December and only one of them says bye...the other still has no words.
I will be bringing it up with my doc at our next appt but I am not too worried since they understand almost everything we say.

 

Thanks for posting this! My two are almost 18 months and don't really have any consistent words. DD might say cat and dog and more (but it could be mam or something for all I know!), DS doesn't say anything. They don't seem to understand that much either, but we're a bilingual family so I guess it's to be expected... Anyway, our pediatrician told us we should have them evaluated for EI. I might wait a month or two, because if EI thinks they're ok now we can't have another evaluation for 6 months so I'd rather not 'waste' it.

I do also think that expecting 20 words at this age is totally unrealistic.

 

Wow! I'm amazed some peds want 20 words by 18 months!! My ped said 5-6 words at 18 months. Sofia says a lot of words and repeats everything! Maya- not so much. But she does know a lot of signs. If she still isn't saying a few more words in a month I'm going to ask for EI.