How many words did your little ones say at 18 months?

I know we've been here before.., but curious to know from those with LOs at or over 18 months how many CONSISTANT words your LOs said at 18 months? (Not just said once or twice, or repeating, but on a relatively regular basis?)

Still think ours have speech delay, will check in with their ped. where they're at in their 18 month appt. in a few weeks.

Anyone know if sounds count? I know animal noises do, but do noises like 'brrrrr' (for a car), 'chug chug' (for car or train) or mmmm (when eating somthing yummy count?)

Do the words count if they're not clear?

Additional questions:
1) How many consistent words@18 months?
2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks?
3) Gender?
4) Was he/she a multiple?
5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped?
6) Anything that helped language development?

Just curious to hear what others have/are going through with their kids... so I know what's going on in the real world... thanks!

 

Additional questions:
1) How many consistent words@18 months?
My ds had 5. hi, bye, num num, oof (dog barking), dada
My dd had at least 15-20
2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks?
37.5 weeks
3) Gender?
b/g
4) Was he/she a multiple?
yep
5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped?
At 18 months he was enrolled into speech therapy, my dd has no delays. His therapy has helped a ton and he's now almost at his "normal age" development wise.
6) Anything that helped language development?
flash cards, signing, singing and therapy of course.


For us all sounds that went with a certain animal were counted. Also even if he said boo boo for cat but said that everytime the cat came in and that was "his" word for cat then it counted. Yes the words count if they are not clear. My ds has problems with using the back of his mouth for speech and they still count words that he only speaks out of the front of his mouth. They sound weird but that's just what he does. They of course are working on this and he is getting better when his mouth is stimulated before speech therapy (using a whistle or a vibrating thing) but it does count at that age.
I can say that at 22-24 months his speech exploded and he really started talking more. I have no idea if it was due to therapy or just his age but it was really funny how it just happened all at once.
My dd on the other hand has always been a great talker and can say basically anything.
My 14 month old has 2 words dada and woof. He's in therapy due to vision but they aren't concerned at all about his speech.
GL.

 

0 words for my guy, turned 18 months a few days ago.
Not premature.
Male
Singleton
No language delay and none suspect (just youngest child in a big family syndrome, lol)
Mattie consistantly shows us that he can hear and understand and he babbles away incoherently, so right now we have no reason to worry.

 

My boys just started therapy. The only have mama dada, and sometimes nigh nigh for bedtime. The have a few approximations ("B" for ball etc.) Their receptive language was not as delayed as their expressive..but they definitely qualified for speech. I have read boy/boy twins take the longest to develop language. Mine were born at 34 weeks.

 

Mine just turned 18 months:

Additional questions:
1) How many consistent words@18 months?
Maybe around 6 each (mama, dada or dad, cat, bird, one says hey the other says bye, ball). They repeat several others, but don't throw them out often.
2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks?
little over 8 weeks early
3) Gender?
b/g
4) Was he/she a multiple?
Yes
5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped?
We just went to their 18 month checkup and I asked about speach therapy because they don't say much and she said she wouldn't consider it until they were 2. She said she likes to see 6 words and they have that. If they aren't better at 2, she said she may send them. She did tell me to get rid of their pacis :cry: I've tried taking them some during the day and it really does make a difference. They just are so attached though!!
6) Anything that helped language development?
We look through books a lot and I just try to point things out and hope they repeat. They understand and can go get or point to tons of things. I'm just trying to not worry about it.

 

Rachel started speaking at around 19 months. Before that she made a few sounds but was mostly quiet. Ellie on the other hand has somewhere between 120-150 words right now. This doesn't include words that she can repeat after us. My girls were not premature.

 

I don't necessarily have it documented where I could easily find it... but at 17 mo. our two said 3 to 4 words. That was it. I know I was sort of worried, but not really.

At that age I don't think they said any animals noises... but if they do, I count them! I know when they were about 21 months old, I counted the words for an entire day... my ds said over 20 words and my dd only 7. She definitely still doesn't speak as much as my ds.

I totally count words that aren't clear. If I didn't we'd only have "no" and sometimes "mommy" and "daddy".

Additional questions:
1) About 5 consistent words
2) Born at 39 wks.
3) Boy and Girl
4) Twins
5) Not suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder
6) Anything that helped language development? Mainly for ours just time. I try to explain things and they really seem to catch on... even if they aren't speaking.

p.s. ours seem to really have exploded since 21 months... I keep meaning to spend a day counting! Not sure if they are at 50 or 100 or what? they know a lot...

 

Additional questions:
1) How many consistent words@18 months?
Mark had about 35; Eli had about 40. Many of the words were not clear to people besides DH and I, but the doctor said they count.

2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks? No

3) Gender? Male/Male
4) Was he/she a multiple? Yes

5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped? No

6) Anything that helped language development?
I have been a real stickler for the cognitive development of my kids, and I got some good advice from my Mom who has been a reading teacher. The main things we did were to constantly talk directly to the kids. I also started reading to them and giving them flashcards almost every day from about 2-3 months until recently. Now I read less, but that's because I'm 9 months pregnant and tired. What I found interesting was that like others suggested my boys experienced a language explosion, from about 18-20 months. In that short time frame, their cognitive and language development was immense--they learned all of their letters, number from 1-10, all of the major shapes, and hundreds of words.

I don't think you need to worry yet. I have a good friend whose daughter barely spoke until 2, and she started speaking very clearly and said tons of words. What I found interesting was that my friend's daughter had great receptive language, but just didn't verbalize it.

 

1) How many consistent words@18 months?
at 18 months dd had none. Just about 2 weeks ago she started saying and signing "dada". She says "do" (dog w/out the g) and can do the sign-but I'm not sure if she actually knows what it means or is just repeating, and she can say mama.
ds had probably 15 words though at 18 months-I think quite a few were words only we could understand though.
2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks?
born at 36 weeks
3) Gender?
b/g twins
4) Was he/she a multiple?
yup
5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped?
yes, she gets speech therapy once a week.
6) Anything that helped language development?
I think time is a big thing-I dont know if the speech has helped or if she just would have started doing this on her own, I will never know. But in speech the therapist basically does a lot of what we do at home-reading, repeat repeat repeat, constantly talk to her and name object. Our ST has focused on signing-we got the Baby Signing Time dvd and she really likes it.

 

1. DD had about 40 words...probably at least 10 unclear at 18 months...DS had less words, around 25..probably 7-8 unclear
2. No, born at 38 weeks
3. b/g
4. yes
5. No
6. I constantly talk to my kids. I narrate my day and their day to them. I read to them, point out words, letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. They had a language explosion between 18-20 months and they both seem to have been going through another one since 24 months. It just seems to me that since they turned 2, their language & cognitive development has grown by leaps and bounds.

It cannot hurt to mention your concerns to your pedi. Prior to the 18 month visit, I wrote down all the words both kids could say and even the sounds that we were not sure counted as words. My pedi said she would have been happy if they were at least saying 5-10 words. Good luck!

 

My boys will be 18 months next week. Here's their stats! :ibiggrin:

Additional questions:
1) How many consistent words@18 months?
DS1: 10 - 15 words, a few unclear words that I know what it means
DS2: 10 - 12 words, ""
2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks? no - 37.5 wks
3) Gender? m/m
4) Was he/she a multiple? yes
5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped? Not at this time.
6) Anything that helped language development? Just constantly working with them by reading and talking to them directly. I ask them to use their words instead of letting them ask for things by whining or "grunting" for something.

edited for spelling

 

1) How many consistent words@18 months? Each of my girls had over 100. They were early talkers.

2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks? Yes, at 34 weeks

3) Gender? Girls

4) Was he/she a multiple? Yes

5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? No

6) Anything that helped language development? DH and I talk to our girls constantly. We don't watch TV, so we did a lot of narrating the day and having "conversations" with the girls even before they could talk. We also started reading to them when they were tiny and continue to read together regularly. But all that said, so much of this has to be genetics. I can't pretend that just talking to my girls a lot made them such early talkers.

Per your other questions, I've been told that sounds count as words, but only if they refer to something. So 'chug-chug' for train would count, but probably not 'yum' when eating.

You've written a few times that you're worried about language delay. And if it's worrying you... no matter whether your kids are on schedule or not, why not give EI a call and see if they can come out and evaluate your boys? If nothing else it would give you peace of mind.

 

1) How many consistent words@18 months? About 40 each

2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks? Born at almost 38weeks.

3) Gender? Girls

4) Was he/she a multiple? yes

5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped? No.

6) Anything that helped language development? I did a lot of what the PP's have done and narrate the day, talk to them constantly. I would sit with picture books with them as well as the books with the buttons they could press that repeat the word in the picture. I think my girls are just early talkers. We are fortunate as it makes it so much easier to understand their needs.

Now at almost 22 months they have 100's of words. I think just like walking, crawling etc, they all do it in their own time, it seemed like overnight they just had all these words, it was incredible.

 

I just wanted to say that I was extremely worried at their 18 month appointment - they had the requisite 6 words, but they didn't have any new words and seemed to be behind. Now, at almost 20 months it has completely changed and they just had a vocabulary exlosion practically overnight! I can't even count how many words they have now! Animal sounds, noises of other things like trucks and trains, and unclear words that they say repeatedly for the same thing (like my two say doodoo for cookie for some reason) count according to my pediatrican. He said that things like uh oh and oh no didn't count so I think yummy might be questionable officially but to me is a really good sign that they are starting to get it!

Answers:

1) How many consistent words @18 months? 6-10 for each of them, but now it is way more than that in just a little less than two months.

2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks? My two were born at 34 weeks, 5 days and have been considered by the pediatrician to be about a month delayed up until now.

3) Gender? Boy/Girl

4) Was he/she a multiple? Yes, and I don't see much difference in their language acquisition - ds has more official words but actually talks less and dd is chattier but I can't understand as much of what she says.

5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped? I suspected it and we were scheduled for a hearing test that we ended up cancelling and now I think they are fine.

6) Anything that helped language development? My kids love, love playing with the first words flashcards and they have learned a lot from those. Just in the last month or so I finally feel rewarded for reading to them because they can point out all sorts of things in the books that I never imagined they knew so I say keep reading and it will have benefits! I have found that my dd has started picking up a lot of my phrases - when we get in the car she says "Alright, Go", and she says "uh huh, yeah" a lot which I think comes from what pp mentioned - lots of narrating everything we are doing and trying to actively listen and engage with them.

Good Luck!

 

Anyone know if sounds count? At my 18 month well-baby check up, the nurse-practictioner said that sounds count.

Do the words count if they're not clear? Yes.

Additional questions:
1) How many consistent words@18 months? My boy has many. He says amen, bus, truck, duck, baby, Josh, Jess, more, hi, bye, ball, that, banana, bird, mama, dad and more. Some sound very similar ie. the b words and some aren't whole words - banana is more like nan. My daughter only has a few words. She says truck, bird, more, mama, dada, duck. She does make more sounds such as mmm, shhh.
2) was he/she born prematurely? If so, at how many weeks? No, born at 38.5 weeks.
3) Gender? Boy/Girl
4) Was he/she a multiple? Yes
5) Any suspected of confirmed language delay or disorder? If so, what treatment and has it helped? I felt my daughter was behind when I took her to her well-baby appointment but my doctor said he had no concerns and that after 21 months we could re-assess.
6) Anything that helped language development? Reading and repetition. I work on a certain word for a week or more and she starts to say it.