Not talking much yet

Krista - posted on 12/02/2008

Good to know there's a bunch of us in the same boat! My daughter just turned 21 months, and she doesn't say any of the typical words--she JUST started saying "Ma" about two weeks ago, but none of the other usual "firsts". I started making a list of what she can say, and it made me feel a little better. It's amazing how fast that list has grown over just a week of doing it. And I count everything! She can't say "cat" or "dog" or "duck", but she can say "meow" "ruff" and "quack". So I count those! After reading other people's responses, I think I'm just going to be patient, and check in with the doctor at her March appointment. Thanks for posting!

Helen - posted on 12/02/2008

Hi Gretchen, my son is 5 days younger than your daughter and can only speak between 5 and 7 words, again he understands everything we say and tell him to do he just doesn't seem to want to talk, it can get very frustrating so understand what your going through. I spend most days with him saying different words and when we are out and about, but doesn't want to repeat them. He just points at things most times.

Andrada - posted on 12/01/2008

I have a daughter your age. She is speaking pretty well but her brother spoke late. one thing to try is to prompt her to name a food or beverage before you give it to her. Hold her milk look at her and say milk, milk and hopefully she'll try to say something and then her reward is her milk. Also try this with signs. Say cookie, you want a cookie, then show her the sign for cookie and any attempt to mimike this is rewarded with the cookie. Good Luck.

Alisha - posted on 12/01/2008

Hey Gretchen, I have two kids that sound kind of like yours (both boys though). My first one had a huge vocabulary by 20 months and usually spoke in complete sentences. My second one, not so much. I noticed when he was about 1 that he didn't talk nearly as much as his brother. He only said a few words, and everyone that i knew told me this was totally normal for a second child. It was still frustrating though, because I didn't know what he wanted and he would just throw fits all the time. Anyways, I have no idea if this will help you, but it worked great for us. So we started teaching him some basic signs, actually we just reinforced a lot of what we said with some basic signs. Things like eat, drink, want, outside, shoes, hungry, thirsty, etc. The signs are super easy to learn and for my son I think it really helped him to start telling us what he wanted. We picked up this book online called sign with your baby when my first one was born and we used it with him before he was one, but didn't really do that with the second one. You know, you get busy and distracted, plus they are as different as night and day and I didn't really think that they would both take to it so well. Since we started signing with him about 8 months ago his vocabulary has really taken off and we even teach ourselves new signs all the time. We're totally hooked on it and will teach the next one to sign basic words as well. Good luck and I feel your frustration.

Shawna - posted on 12/01/2008

Gretchen,

I'm not going through this with my daughter who is your daighters age, but my sister has with my nephew who turned two in August. Her doctor told her the same thing and it has proven to be true. He still isn't a huge talker, but he is definintely picking up steam and like your little girl, comprehends directions, stories, TV shows, etc. My nephew is more on the shy side and likes to do things "the right way". Your little one looks adorable!

Stacy - posted on 11/30/2008

Well I have a daughter your age and I'm a speech therapist. At this stage, she should have at least 10-50 words. However, your doc is right to not worry until 2 years of age and then possibly consider speech therapy. My advice to you is to constantly talk to her about her environment and expose her to language and vocabulary-enriched books. It's mostly likely the fact that she is a second child and her older sibling speaks for her mostly. But I can only imagine how frustrating it is because of her fits without being unable to communicate. If speech therapy is needed, the earlier the intervention the better. Hope this is helpful and please let me know if you have any other questions.