Question about speech development

Leah - posted on 07/24/2011

I'm a little late to the conversation but I have kind of the same concern...to be honest it isn't my concern, more my boyfriends and him getting irritated that my 20 month old doesn't communicate using his words, more grunts and his own gibberish. He knows a handful of words, which from what I have read is right on target for his age. My boyfriend is convinced that by this age he should be speaking full sentences and communicating like an adult. It's frustrating to me, these false and elaborated wishes. My son knows how to comminicate, he listens very well and can understand what I'm saying, I'm sure the speech factor will come with time. He talks in his own language and I respond back using words. Reading this thread made me feel a lot better, that I am not the only one concerned about my LO's speech development. Good luck to all.

Jenny - posted on 07/18/2011

When we were at the group, my daughter was signing to me milk & banana (it was snack time) I even asked the other mothers if their kids could tell them what they wanted and they all said no, and I was like, how is that selfish to be able to let my child be able to tell me what she wants. They were obviously not people I wanted to be around. That was the last time we went to that play group because I even told them that they were putting my whole family down and they didn't seem to care, we found a more accepting group to go to after that. We get stares all the time when people see my family signing away and not talking, but I think we are all used to it.

Angela - posted on 07/18/2011

I had a weird reaction too once...We just entered a restaurant, and my son saw a family seating at a table: mom dad and two kids...He gets very excited when he sees another child, he points to a child and says, "lyalya" which means baby in russian. He did exactly that at a restaurant. I felt embarrassed, for some reason, and translated that my child is saying baby. Then we sat down and I hear, behind my back, a husband is asking his wife "Is that child speaking gibberish or just another language?" I had to get up and tell them, that he is speaking another language...When we are at a playground, I sometimes speak english to him too....because I get weird looks from other children and adults....they are probably thinking I am saying bad stuff about them.... :-)

Vicki - posted on 07/18/2011

so sorry you;re worried about her hearing. at least if she does have hearing issues she was obviously born into a family that gets it and knows how to handle it. and good for you for wanting her to speak with all her family. same reason why I'm happy my husband speaks italian with our kids. I don't want them to come to Italy and not be able to communicate fully with their family. also woudln't be natural for my hsuband to not speak Italian with them as he grew up in Italy and moved to Canada only about 7 years ago.

I find that such an odd reaction from the play date moms. really ignorant to say selfish of you. I think its the oppostie and very thoughtful of you to want her to have more than one language as well as taking into consideration that she needs to talk to your family and not pick and choose for her. nevermind how your non-hearing family would feel if they were dissed that way.

people just really need to mind their own business sometimes. just wait til your daughter is crying and can sign to you what hurts her or why she is upset. maybe they'll change their tunes. probably not though.

and btw...in teh big scheme of things...what is so wrong with delayed speech development?! keyword: DELAYED.

Jenny - posted on 07/18/2011

That's what I try to tell the people who laugh at us when we consider ASL a language. It has been used in my family due to my family 's hearing issues, but even if a family member didn't have an issue everyone got taught ASL since birth because it is such an amazing language and it enables everyone to be able to communicate with each other. I have had a few moms (from a play date group) tell me that I was pushing my daughter and that I was selfish for teaching her 2 languages knowing it could delay speech development but i want her to be able to speak to all her relatives, hearing or not. And she did fail her first hearing test and only got 50% at 6 months, she has to have another test done at 2 or 3 but there was concern that her hearing was effected from birth and that too could be delaying her speech as well.

Vicki - posted on 07/18/2011

well there yo go than to all the moms that say how great their children are speaking when someone writes a thread about being concerned about language and their child haha you're child may not be saying much but damn he'll have great teeth :)

jenny I think that is awesome you guys speak asl with your kids. I wish I knew it and sure I too consider it a proper language. why not? millions of people use it to talk with each other so I'd say it is! I wish I knew asl or even was able to have baby signed with mine. I wanted to so badly but was (still am) so overwhelmed with the regular stuff that goes with twins I just didn't have it in me. even got a great book from library and was all set...til reality kicked in. you are so fortunate to have learned it at such a young age. and there we have it...you spoke it til 2 or 3 and it obviously didn't effect your english.

oh and btw...my 20 month twins...their language development is fabulous! they are already reading shakepeare. sadly they aren't speaking it but just ripping apart the pages.

Angela - posted on 07/18/2011

Thank you to all who replied. I especially appreciate the input from multilingual families :-) My husband and I use proper words when we speak to our son. So if he says NaNee for moon, I say, "Yes, it is a moon" The fact that he understands everything calms me down a bit, I am just hoping that the speaking part will come up soon. I have also noticed, that there are words he would say only few times and then stop. For instance, he would say ba-na-na, then regressed to just nana or bana and won't say the whole word anymore. He recently started to say "Hi there" but only in response to his toy (you open a door and it says "hi there") He won't say hi there to us when we tell him :-)
Vickie, I also thought that late teeth equals strong teeth. For the longest time I thought it was an old-wife's tale. But then our pediatric dentist confirmed it to be true.

Jenny - posted on 07/18/2011

My daughter is 19 months old and she is in a bilingual home (if you consider ASL a second, we do)I and my family use ASL and english, and my husband just the english. My daughter signed before she talked and even if she knew both the sign and word for something she usually picks either to sign or speak. she now will sign one word and pair it with a vocal word. we have always vocalized what we are signing but she still prefers to sign most days. my sister and I signed only until we were 2-3 so we warn't worried. Our doctor isn't worried because if you count the signs and words she knows, he thinks it is okay. he told us from the beginning that because we sign and speak to her her speech would most likely be delayed a bit.

Vicki - posted on 07/18/2011

that's great lorraine. any words of encouragement so the OP'er doesn't feel like shit?

Lorraine - posted on 07/17/2011

my son is 20 months on the 25th and has wonderful speech and even says proper sentences. some things he learns by copying and others he just come out with of his own accord. i guess we are just lucky really. we have always made sure to read with him and speak to him as though to a grown up rather than baby talk.

Sarah - posted on 07/16/2011

my son is a bit the same except he has a full mouth of teeth and only speaks english.ive been told by his health nurse that hes a little slower but only because its impossible to keep him still. I was told that now hes in kindy full time (hes now 20 months old) that his speech should improve

Amanda - posted on 07/16/2011

My daughter will b 20 mons on the 19th and talks all the time we can understand her for the most part but i think she speaks so clear bc of our oldest daughter and we dont let our family talk baby talk to her..

Elizabeth - posted on 07/16/2011

my son will be 20 mo on the 26th. we are not a bilingual family (unless you consider southern a language, and no...i do not...). my son has said upwards of 20 words...however, he will say the word for maybe 2 days, and then he stops. yesterday, though, he said 2 words (new ones at that) and i was thrilled! he understands everything...you can tell him to close the door and he will...you can ask if he wants dinner, and he'll go to his chair if he does. etc...i was a late talker (not til i was 2 did i say anything), so i'm figuring that has something to do with it. my son does a lot of "jibber-jabber)...once he starts talking, i think we won't be able to stop him. we'll see...i wish he would start because then i would know what he wants.

Vicki - posted on 07/16/2011

I speak english, my husband speaks italian and right now we are in italy and they are getting a bit of sardinian (sardo). my daughter (twins) has always been a bit ahead of my son with language. BUT both fully comprehend eveything hat is said to them. and what they don't they grasp quickly. I\ve also worked in an english school it italy. yes, they say when they learn more than one language at a time they're brains are so busy absorbing both that they may speak a bit later. some do some don't. same for only one language. I would so not worry. the saying they are all different s so true. of course as parents we can't help but compare and want them to be reciting the periodic table of the elements at this age (joke of course not) but even making up words is on track now. my daughter has been saying two words together for awhile. my son is starting to. they both have different words for things that we as mommies know what they are saying. 'motherese.' jsut keep on speaking and naming things for him and remember that giving him bilingualism is such a great gift for his future. I agree with other poster...when he points to something and says his made up word affirm and yes that is a ____. and once the language really starts...boom! they can't stop. really the comprehension is amazing so if he's got that going I'd say he's doing really well

sidenote although don't know if true I've heard many people say that late teeth make for healthier permanent teeth. again, don't know if true but food for thought.

Colleen - posted on 07/13/2011

My daughter is almost 20 mos also, is not bilingual and still only says about a handful of words. She seems to understand everything, and once in a while, I catch her trying to sound something out. She thinks about everything first. She understands everything we say, knows and identifies very well.

Maria - posted on 07/13/2011

my son will be 20 months on the 24th and right now he says maybe a handful of words, hes been working with a speech therapist for about 4 months now. making up words is very common, its called jargon. right now (esp since it is a bilangual enviornment) as long as he is using the same made up word and getting his point across it is fine. what you should do is say "look! the moon" and he'll say "NaNee" and you should say "yes, moon!" emphisize each syllable in the word and just agree and reasure him when he uses his jargon. if you feel concerned then you can ask your pedi for a referal to get his speech evaluated by an SLP to see where is delay is or if he needs therapy for it. personally, we where teaching my son 2 languages (english and spanish) but stopped with the spanish until he gets a hold on english better, children that are raised in bilangual homes have a higher chance of speech delay.
Not only am i in the last yr of studying to be a speech language pathologist but having my son in speech therapy has helped me learn alot! if you ever have any questions dont hesitate to ask! :)

Angela - posted on 07/13/2011

Hi Noora, thank for your reply. I am glad to hear from another multilingual family. Yes, the two languages spoken in our household are very different: I am Russian and my husband is American/English speaking. Just like your son, our son understands everything we say in both languages. Does your son ever mix two/three languages in the sentence? Our son doesn't make sentences yet.

Noora - posted on 07/12/2011

My son doesn't talk that much either and he is trilingual. Well, I speak Finnish, my husband and his whole family Spanish and he watches his TV in English and gets everything. He understands more than well absolutely everything we talk to him but he still doesn't say many things. He says Bibi (his bottle), Papá (Dad), Bye bye, Äiti (mom), Diabla (our dog, means she devil haha), Atshiu (when someone sneezes, isn't really word but still...) wau wau (means dog), popó (poo) and pica pica (verb picar in spanish, means that a food is spicy). And.... I think that is it. That is his active vocabulary at the moment. Then there are many words he has repeated once or perhaps twice accidentally but are not part of his active vocabulary. If you are really worried you should see a person specialized in bilingual children's speech development. It is very normal that they start talking later but I think you need to be an expert to know how much later is still "normal". I also think that if the two languages are very close to each other the delay is not as bad as if the two languages are very different (have no idea if this is a fact, but I assume so!) and judging by your name the two languages your daughter is learning are just about as close to each other than Spanish and Finnish ;) And what comes to making up words, every single child I have ever known has had atleast one self invented word in their vocabulary and every single one are very much normal and well spoken now that they are older....