Is it true that girls start speaking before boys?

Hi mommies,

I often hear around that baby girls start to speak before baby boys. Is that true?

Also starting what age your LOs started speaking.

Thanks in advance.

 

I think typically, boys tend to do the physical things first and girls tend to be more verbal.

I must say my kids were the opposite. my ds was doing 7/8 word sentences before 2 y/o and my youngest ds practically came out talking and hasn't stopped. My youngest dd was quite slow talking and was significantly behind her twin brother in speech.

 

I've heard that, but since I only have boys I can't tell you if it's true or not! I have pretty early talkers; Nate said his first word (besides mama/dada) at about 11 months and hasn't come up for air yet. :lol: Jack was later (maybe 13 months for his first word?), but he's made huge strides recently and has really caught up to his brother.

 

If it's not true, there's enough coincedence that even our pediatrician says so....

but keep in mind, that in addition to boys, in general speaking later than girls, twins also have a very good chance of having speech delay and/or disorders. if your kids talk late.... get help for them ASAP... just because it's common]for twins doesn't mean they don't need help.

I'm still concerned about our boys speech... 17 months old, 1 says 7-10 words (including mama, dada) the other says 5-7 words (including mama, dada). No mama/dada CORRECTLY until 13-14 months old, only started saying words consistently (saying a word correctly more than once) at 15-16 months. If a word isn't said 'consistently' it's not considered a word.


Develpmental pediatrician @ 16 months iwasn't concerned but I don't want them to struggle if they are too far behind so we'll see what he and their regular ped. says at 18 months.

 

That has been our experience but I don't know if it's normal.
My ds at 18 months had maybe 5 words, but he had a huge word explosion in the last month! I'm sure speech therapy has helped but I heard a lot of kids have that happen around this age.
My dd on the other hand has a ton of words and mimics everything we say. She started really talking around 15-16 months.

 

My DD talked before my DS...she probably started on her first words around 9-10 months and my DS was around a year. Language did not take off for her until 15-16 months and my DS was around 18-19 months.

 

My son spoke way before my girls did. I actually almost had my girls evaluated because they took so long to speak. However, when they did start to talk, their vocabulary has developed much faster than my son's did at this age.

 

Oh…. And if you really want to know I’d check with your pediatrician, but it’s at least that much of what people believe to be “common knowledge” that the “parent tutorial” at the end of the video “Baby Babble” states that boys tend to start speaking a little later than girls.




http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Babble-Speech-Enhancing-Babies-Toddlers/dp/B00027OI1I

 

One of my closest friends runs our state's speech and development program through the University hospital. She says that study after study shows that girls don't actually talk earlier than boys (in general). It's a common myth, but not proven through research. Also, she says that there is no evidence to prove that term twins are more likely to have speech problems. Children born early are more likely, though, so if your twins were preemies, they have the same increased probability of speech delays that preemie singletons will have.

 

My oldest DD started talking very early (full sentences by 18 mths eek) so I figured it must be true! Howvere with my b/g twins, my son says a lot more than my daughter does so go figure :search:

 

DS1 started talking at 8 mos, and was always quite advanced in speech. He was my only early talker.

DS2 had 3 words at 22 months, but exploded into speech shortly after that.

The girls had no words at 2 yrs, but started speaking at 25 and 27 months and within a couple of months had surpassed age expectations. Late talkers run on both sides of my family. My girls were not preemies.

This is just my experience, and of course is not large enough to be a statistical sample.

 

I've heard the same, girls seem to start talking earlier as boys tend to be more into the physical end of it, the exploring. I've had EI coming since they are about 3 mos old. and have had the Speach Therapist coming as well, she was here this morning and said that now that my boys are 17 mos old, this is the ages between 17 and 19 months when they will have their WORD EXPLOSION, she is looking forward to it, as well as I am

My one said says anywhere between 5 - 10 words, but not daily, and that includes Mom and Dad, my other son probably about 4 words including Mom and Dad, as well as not daily. but they sure do alot of toddler babble....that is daily!

If really concerned, contact your local Early Intervention center and ask them for an evaulation.

 

not with us... my ds has had more words to start with and still even at 23 mo. he is much more vocal. around 21 months I tried to write down all the words they said, and ds was over 20 and my dd was closer to 7 for the whole day! we still don't have many two word combinations... only one in fact... "oh no" which is so cute to hear.

good luck, I would just say that "in general"... probably means more than 50% of the time, but not 100% of the time... I'd say every child and every environment will be different.

 

Reading all this has been encouraging. For those of you with late talkers it really is nice to hear how well they are doing. My boys have just started speech therapy. They have maybe 5 approximations at this point and they are not consistent. Even though I was told to expect delays (because as I was warned they have three strikes...boys,twins,+premature) I still find myself excessively worrying. :cry:

 

Idril, that's interesting. It's odd because it's even been in parenting magazines (http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/06/17/harder.to.raise/index.html) (but I don't discount that it's just a myth, I DON'T trust the News, and magazines, they tend to sensationalize)

Does she say that there isn't evidence to prove that term twins are more likely to have speech delays, or evidence that they don't have a delay? I'd be really interested in any studies she may have read or research she relies on. I've looked a lot (but don't have access to biologist or doctor journals, boo) and the only I can at all that was done was by the University of Queensland Nov. 14 1996 . That study is definitely not new! so I'd be interested if there is more current research. According to that study, 79% of all twins and 73% of all triplets have at least a mild speech delay (and 80% of all twins are not premature) and twins had a higher percentage of disordered speech development than triplets. The article suggests this is environmental (less individual time with parents, re-enforcing eachothers' speech mistakes. http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=506

Regardless of whether twins do have delay or not, I *don't* think that means parents of boys or twins should "wait it out" if there's a delay. But I would really like to know (for myself) if science has proven anything one way or the other re: twins and speech development.

 

My boys are 17 months and only say dada. they say mum when they cry but thats it. Im really started to worry myself. They were born at 32 weeks so I know it could be an issue. Doc says to read to them but nothing has changed.

 

my 17 month olds do a lot of grunting in the back of their throats but dontopen their mouths. just grunting noises. Is this normal?

 

It does sound normal to me ardon: They are learning all the different sounds that their mouths can make.
If you're concerned about the lack of speech or the noises then you can also call their ped and always ask for a free EI evaluation. GL.

 

Denise, are you located in the UK or England (curious because you said they say ‘mum’). If so, do they have early intervention programs where you live?



First, what I’ve been told from a developmental pediatrician is MOST of the time he sees a speech delay it is NOT due to any disability but due to a speech delay and nothing else and most of these kids would end up catching up on their own. But because it CAN be a sign of a disability, disorder, or problamatic delay it is very important to get your kids assessed if they fall behind the average as to what is expected. At 17-18 months they can tell a few disabilities, but can’t tell what kids wouldn’t end up needing help, or what kids might turn out to have other disabilities or disorders so it is important to get an assessment to see if based on development observed help is recommended (and they try to help all kids who might need it, even though most of these kids might not, because the benefit to those kids who do need the help is so great).



So, in my opinion I’d take your boys to get assessed by a developmental pediatrician or speech pathologist if you can get a referral. If you have early intervention services where you live, great, try that too. (Not sure how it works where you live)? I’d start on this now because even where I am it can take months for referrals to go through.



The state and county where I live, pediatricians tell me after a year they do not consider being a preemie to affect when kids talk, but the EI program DOES consider it relevant for kids born under 40 weeks. So if your twins are born at 32 weeks and are 17 months old, they would assess based on development for a151/2 month old.



Since your boys are behind what is average on the curve I think it’s important you get an assessment for them. They may need help. This does not mean something is wrong, just that they might need some help.



Regarding grunting, do your twins point? From what I’ve read, this is actually a good sign. I’ve read toddlers that grunt are less likely to end up having a delay that causes them long term difficulties than toddlers than don’t.



Good luck!

 

I think it is environmental and genetic. All 4 of my boys talked early and these two arent slowing down! They talk and babble A LOT and I think its because there are so many of us (6) around that there is all sorts of language happening. I really hate the whole "girls develop faster" business because my boys have all been ahead of the girls in my family. I think its just who they are independently.

 

Back when my boys were 3 months or so, their pedi told me to keep talk to them and sing them songs since this encourages early speech. That what I did. Now at 1 year and a half, one of my sons says "nana" whenever he's hungry and papa i.e. dad and from time to time mama. my other son says "mama" "papa" and that's it. I am very curious to see how their speech will evolve in the next 6 month.

On the other hand, they like a lot Disney playhouse and I am very interested to read your experience whether television might be beneficial to learn words or the contrary.

Thank you.

 

I still think its environmental. Like I posted, there are 6 of us in the home and there is always a tv, radio, or video game going on as well. My two are NON stop babblers. They know several words too: dada, momma, Chris, Ryan (brothers names), Austin (thats one of them) hot, apple, papa, up, grandmama, sit down, jackson, doggy, no no, baba, more (their word for food), awe...and I think thats it. I am so tired of hearing that its a girl or boy thing. All my kids talked around the same age so I think it is also genetic. they will all talk when they want to. in fact, sometimes I wish Austin didnt talk so much, because he is a non stop babbler! I dont think there is a right or wrong age (unless there is a hearing problem that I am sure would have already been detected by now)

 

Studies show that any TV is counter-intuitive to learning to speech development. Yes, even learning videos like Baby Einstein. Not in a large part, but it is. The theories as to why is that it has to do with environmental… instead of interacting with their environment and parents and other people they’re watching TV… lack of interaction hinders language development. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070808082039.htm




That said, even though I’m concerned about speech and I *know* it’s not good for them we let ours watch a little TV. I personally like the baby babble CDs…. Our boys really like them, and one of them says a few words during the video which is I guess self-gratification for us as parents (after watching it a few times a week for MONTHS). So… I KNOW it’s not supposed to be helping them but at least one of our boys gets excited enough by it to say some words during the video. There is a parent tutorial at the end re: sign language and ways to encourage speech and talk to kids at different ages… so who knows maybe ME watching the parent tutorial encouraged these few words one of our boys is saying not them watching the video? In any case, we let them watch this occasionally and, I’m embarrassed to say, mostly when we need a break (extreme high energy or meltdown). We also let them watch the sprout “Thomas” episodes because they like it.

 

Thanks "Desolation_Anonymous" for your input. At first like you I wasn't for the idea to let my kids watch educational DVD until they are 2 years old. However, I refrained from that and started letting them watch few baby Einstein shows when they were 6 months old. They are really so fond of Baby Einstein and baby Genius. Besides now I let them watch Disney Playhouse.

Maybe scientific studies don't approve that, however I know lots of kids here who learned foreign language just by watching cartoons in that language. So now, they speak fluently this foreign language while their parents barely talk to them in this language!!

On the other hand, regarding whether girls speak before boys, just today I saw a mother of two at the mall, she told me by herself that at one year 3 month her son used to talk few words and reply to her when she calls him, while her daughter who's now at the same age that is one year 3 month barely talk or reply to her name. So I think there's no general rule! Each case is different. :unsure: