18 month speech question

My DS is 18 1/2 months and I'm having a few concerns about his speech, and I'm not sure if they are warranted or not. He babbles all day and has a few words, however they are mostly words that start with "b" because "ba" and "da" are the main sounds he makes. He has great receptive language, can use at least 10 signs, points to all his body parts as well as pictures in books. All of that gives me hope that he will talk one day! However, my concern is that there are a number of consonant sounds that he just doesn't make. Mostly hard sounds such as "c", "g", "k", "p," t". Is this normal at this age?? I asked my pedi and he wasn't concerned, but my mind is still not at ease so I thought I would see what some of you thought. Also, any suggestions on things I can do to help him with those sounds would be great!

 

That is exactly what Sarah did, and she turned out to have a speech delay (though normal in all other ways, including receptive language). It is normal for kids not to be able to make some sounds at that age. But I'd keep an eye on it and if he's not making progress (maybe not making ALL the sounds, but at least adding a couple) by 20 months or so, you might want to have him evaluated.

As far as what you can do, what I've been told is that all you can really do is speak slowly and clearly to him, and try to let him see your face when you're talking to him.

 

I don't have an answer for you, I can't remember what my DD was doing at that age. However, my 3 1/2 year old just started speech therapy yesterday because she has problems pronoucing some letters. I will tell you from all the research I've done in the last few months, it is a lot easier for you to get help if your child is younger. A lot of insurance plans will not cover therapy and it's expensive. Our county would have helped my DD in their early intervention program, but the cut-off was 3. Our city school system won't help until she starts Kindergarten which means another 2 years for us. So my thought is if you are worried, start looking into it. I also remember talking to my ped about it a few years ago and she said not to worry. Looking back I should have pursued it earlier since my ped only talks to me DD for a few mins each visit. Within a month of my DD starting preschool this year, the teachers were commenting that she was hard to understand.

 

I would not stress too much at 18 months. If the receptive language is good and you use signs then give it some more time. Each kid has there own time table. I do have 2 in Speech therapy....one was tongue tied and the other was bron with a cleft lip & palate.

K & G are later sounds. d & t are made the same way one is just voice on and the other is voice off.

The best thing yo can do for any child is read to them. Let them hear as much language as possible. You can look for books that repeat sounds...like Hop on Pop from Dr Seuss for "p". Also in Speech we did games where we stomp, pop. clap the bubbles to Pop them working on the P sound. Also look for songs that target the sounds like patty cake for P, T and K. Just encourage good speech and demonstrate it. Then if by age 2 there are still issues then check with your dr.

Cindy

 

Hi
I was having some concerns about H&J's speech and I was a early childhood special education teacher and the speech pathogists always used the asha web site and they have milestones for children for their speech development. Its www.asha.org/public/speech/development/12.htm That takes you to speech for children 1-2 years they don't have an area for 18 months. If you want to look at other ages look under How does your child hear and talk. Its just above the article and not on the tabs on the left. I felt better after looking at this site. I totallly agree with what Cindy said about the sounds and the reading. GL Tracy

 

http://isd742.org/ecassessment/assets/Spee...opmentChart.pdf

Here is a link to a chart that might help give you general guidelines for when certain sounds are produced. Keep in mind these are "developmental ranges" and not every child masters the sounds when indicated on the chart.