Not Talking (15-16 months)

Girls,

I know this has been asked many times but I am upset.

Mine are:

15 months 3 weeks (adjusted)
or
16 months and 2 weeks

Every one I speak to, their kids same age have or had "new word each day" at this age and mine are still at "mamma" only and that's it.

Should I consult someone?

 

I can relate to you. My girls will turn 16 mos in 2 days and we've only got momma and daaa (for dad). When we went to our 15 mos appt (which was like 2 weeks ago, we were late) he said that he wouldn't worry yet. He did get us the info for the Early Intervention program for our area but said don't call yet, wait it out and see what happens... Well, we've been really trying to pay attention to their babbles and it seems like they may be saying more than we think and we just can't understand their talk yet. He said that twins sometimes get their own language (mine do for sure, they babble to each other a lot) and they think that is okay. No need to worry, but talk to your pedi about the Early Intervention if you feel like it's really necessary. It's hard not to compare to other infants.

 

If my math is right, you are saying they were 37 weeks. There is really no adjusting for 37 weeks. Term is term whether it is 37 or 41. Even 34-36 weeks, docs adjust early on for weight and feeding readiness, but don't adjust for milestones.

That being said, there is a large range for speech at this age. The real question is not whether they have perfectly intelligible words but if they have attempts at language. Do they point at things and make a sound? Mine do a lot of "da" for everything they point at. Do they babble a lot? We began to realize that sounds were actually attempts at words: "ba" is bunny, "duh" could be dog or duck, etc. If they are babbling and pointing, then just keep talking to them a lot, pointing to pictures in books, etc and they will pick it up. If they are not pointing and making no attempts to communicate, then I might have them evaluated.

 

My situation's a little different from yours - DD has lots of words, but DS has none. I'd say when they were your LOs' age, she probably only had 15 words or so, but DS still had none, of course. He's just now starting to get a few words.

Just wanted to chime in - my cousin didn't have any real words (just babbles) until he was almost 3. His mom was so worried, and now he talks fine - absolutely nothing wrong with him. I think some kids (especially boys, in my experience) are just slower to talk. I told my pedi that my boy didn't have any words at his 18-mo check up, and he wasn't concerned at all.

My kids are very expressive with their hands and faces, and I know they understand what I say. He nods and shakes his head appropriately, and makes his needs known by pointing or other gestures.

How do your kids communicate non-verbally? Does it seem that they understand you and they try to communicate with you somewhat? As long as they are responsive, I wouldn't worry...

Looks like slugrad had similar comments and she came up before I hit "Post". Sorry for any repeats.

 

ours were a bit slow - or at least when compared to other friend's babies... we maybe had 3 words at 15 mo... but maybe not many more at 18 mo. I remember at 20 months my ds had about 20 words and my dd had 7. a big difference. definitely bring it up to ease your concern, but there is a big age range. we barely even had mama and dada by 15 mo! now at 30 mo. they are talking up a storm and saying all sorts of things. I have to listen hard to understand still.. but they are communicating.

we used a bit of sign language and they really communicated well with that. especially "please" and "more". maybe introducing a few simple signs would help them to communicate even before they can verbalize it.

 

oh btw.. a new word a day? haha!! ours maybe started that at 2 yrs or later... I do like the Signing Times DVDs in that she gives them lots of vocabulary words and shows the signs.

 

Thanks girls,

Yes they definately communicate and "talk" a lot it's just I don understand anything of the speech part. They do point along with that and definately understand what I say and respond appropriately.

I guess just over this week I spoke to about 4-5 friends and some have twins and all were surprised mine don't say much as their kids had a word a day at this age so when I compared, I got really upset.

I will check with the pedi as well and will try to spend more time teaching them.

 

My boys are about the same age as your babes and say some words but most of them we understand b/c we're w them all the time, I'm not sure anyone else would know them. I also babysit a 16mo who has about the same amount of words as the boys. I wouldn't say they have a new word a day at all!

I find if they pick something up I'll repeat to them what it is.. so say they have their Shoes, I'll repeat shoe and then they'll eventually mimic the sound. They seem to remember it. Maybe something to try!

 

I felt like you at that stage and still do to a point. My ped kept telling me that the girls were fine, but I just felt like they were not where they should be. SO I called early intervetnion and had them evaluated, and I was right. They are both very delayed on receptive and expressive language. We just started speech therapy, and each one gets an hour a week. If you feel like something is not right I say call early intervention in your area, and have them evaluated. If nothing is wrong then you will know, and if there is a delay then you can go ahead and start working on it. Good Luck.

 

I wouldn't panic just yet, but keep an eye on it for the next 3-6 months. According to this link, you want to see 8-10 words by 18 months:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/infant-development/AN01026

My son had a minor speech delay -- minor enough that early intervention and the school district said he didn't qualify for therapy through their agencies. We did end up paying for speech therapy privately for about 6 months, and quit when it seemed like he was always just a little bit ahead of the therapist (for instance she'd still be working on "ing" words when he had clearly mastered them.)

Here was his progression:

6 months -- babbling
14 mo -- said "mom-mom" and "da-da". He'd occasionally say a new word and then not use it again.
15 mo -- was using "tnkyu" (thank-you) as an all-purpose word that meant everything ("I want that", "look", etc.)
18 mo -- about 10 words
23 mo -- 25 words
24 mo -- evaluated as "watch and wait". I was sent to a parent class on helping your kid to talk.
25 mo -- 50 words, started doing 2 word combinations
31 mo -- evaluated and turned down for therapy
32 mo -- started private speech therapy, started 3 word combinations
33 mo -- 3, 4, 5 word combos
34-36 mo -- finally had the "speech explosion". Mastered -ed, -ing, his/hers
37 mo -- discontinued speech therapy
5 years -- back to therapy for social communication issues (ie appropriate speech volume, recognizing non-verbal cues, saying "Can I play", etc.)

A great book for getting from the initial sounds to two-word combos is "It Takes Two to Talk". http://www.amazon.com/Takes-Two-Talk-Practical-Children/dp/0921145195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290124433&sr=8-1

 

Are they pretty physically adept? Often kids who are very physical are a little slower to talk, and vice versa. That's been the case with most of my kids, but was especially noticeable with my twins because they were so opposite... Sabrina didn't walk until almost 18 months, but was talking up a storm; Sydney could keep up with all her bigger siblings in almost every physical way, but just grunted forever (drove me nuts).

The exceptions with my children: Sage didn't talk until very late. At 19-20 months old, she still wasn't. I took her in and insisted on having her hearing checked. It was very bad. She'd had chronic ear infections, and that was the thing that pushed us to get tubes. About 2 weeks after tubes, words exploded out of her, and a week later she was at or above normal on every aspect of her testing by a speech therapist. Adam was super verbal and very physical. He's just one of those kids who's good at about everything. He spoke before a year old and was speaking in full paragraphs by 2. He also signed a lot more than my other kids. My husband was taking ASL classes at the time (and it was my language in university) so we signed a lot. I don't know if that helped Adam or just was one more thing that came easy, but it really seemed to correspond to his excellent language development.