Non-verbal 18 month old?

[BlsdMama]

I'm curious. We've never had a non-verbal toddler before.

 

Daniella has spent most of her life delayed and then catching up.

 

When she was born she lost a huge amount of weight and had to be hospitalized and was (mis)diagnosed with a metabolic disorder. In the end, she was fine. We don't know WHY all of this happened to her. It took her almost two months to achieve birth weight. She had very weak muscle tone and couldn't really lift her head as well as a newborn until 2-3 months. She crawled later than my others, walked later than my others, but technically was still within the realm of "normal" development.

 

Now she's 18 months and completely physically normal. She can run, climb, and is generally one of my most physically active, adventurous children ever. :D It just took a little longer.

 

Yesterday was her 18 month old well-baby visit. It went well but she is obviously speech delayed. This wasn't a surprise to us.

 

She doesn't really babble. She does make sounds like she is trying to say a word - a single word, and usually it sounds like "dirt."

 

She has just learned to say and use mama.

 

She shakes her head for no. She can name her body parts. She waves bye-bye, points to each sibling as you name them, sniffs her nose when she wants her diaper changed or she goes the bathroom. So, we know the vocabulary is there - she will retrieve her cup, give a kiss, pick up toys, etc., when asked so she understands many, many words. She just can't speak.

 

Hearing is fine, no problems there at all. Language rich environment and she's very interactive.

 

So I'm curious if anyone has had a child who is non-verbal at 18 months? This is a unique experience for us. My instinct is to just give her time and keep doing what we're doing. I don't think there is an underlying problem here, just that she is delayed and will do this in Ella time as she has everything else.

[twoforjoy]

Was your ped concerned?

 

My DD is a lot less verbal than my DS was. My DS had a dozen or more words by the time he was 8 months, and he was using sentences at a year. My DD is just not like that. She babbles a lot, but even at 16 months, she's only got a few words.

 

In her case, I think she just has less to communicate to us than our DS did. He was a really, really "high-need" child, so I think he had a lot of incentive to talk, so he could make us aware of what he wanted. DD is so laid-back most of the time, I think she just doesn't have the motivation or reason to talk as much or as early.

[sgo95]

My first child made 2-3 babbling sounds (total! I was never separated from her and I paid very close attention to her behavior) until she was around 23 mos old and she said her full name (not a simple name, btw), perfectly pronounced. She's incredibly bright and a perfectionist by nature so I like to think that she was just observing and absorbing until she felt she could speak perfectly. So for us, not being verbal turned out just fine.

[4kiddies]

My son was pretty much non-verbal at 18 months, and by 2 he really only said mama. He was however, very receptive to speech and could do all the things you listed so we knew that mentally he was okay. In his case he has verbal apraxia and has needed years of speech therapy. My advice would be to see if you can get your child involved in early intervention speech now rather than later. We waited too long to get speech and it led to a lot of frustration on his part that we could have avoided if we started speech earlier.

 

good luck!

[MeaganS]

That sounds a lot like my almost 3 year old DD, including weight issues (almost exactly the same) and being delayed in everything else. Except that she was even more delayed with walking and crawling, didn't even roll over until 9 months old, etc. She didn't start talking until she was 2. I was very worried (still am a bit), and everyone told me that once she started talking she would catch up very quickly, but it wasn't true. She still is very behind in language, but she's progressing! I think when babies struggle so much for the first few months, it really throws them off, because instead of developing, they are just trying to stay alive. They just get behind everyone else.

 

My daughter still struggles, but she's getting better every day. It sounds like your daughter will be just fine, she just needs a little more time to catch up.

[Elizabeth in WA]

Yes, and he went through years and years of speech therapy. This child also has Asperger's but the expressive language delays are a separate issue. I would caution against using receptive language skills (pointing to body parts, siblings) as evidence of normal language development. My son also was able to communicate via gestures and had better than age appropriate receptive language skills. Nevertheless getting him speaking, and then speaking intelligibly was a long, involved, and expensive prospect. I would address language skills sooner rather than later if possible.

 

One of my younger children has also been through extensive speech therapy, but his issues are only articulation and are made worse by his excellent expressive language skills; misarticulating big words in long, involved sentences makes you even more difficult to understand than misarticulating smaller, simpler words in short, simple sentences. :glare: He spoke early, however.

[gingersmom]

Early intervention is free and they will come to your house. There is no shame in getting an evaluation. At 18 months any delay can be remedied very easily. Maybe you should chat with the people online here who waited and now regret it.

 

My chatterbox had 8 years of speech therapy so this is a subject I have lots of experience with.

[sbgrace]

The good thing is her nonverbal and receptive language aspects seem to be in place. If they weren't that would be concerning. Is she communicative with her nonverbals? If she wants something does she look at you to get your attention, point to it, look to see if you see it? A child at that age (and younger) who is typically developing but nonverbal will be a proficient nonverbal communicator. If she is that's reassuring.

 

The speech piece is missing. She could indeed just be late with speech just like her motor skills. It could also be along the lines of apraxia (assuming nonverbal communication is great). You might look a little about apraxia and see if it fits. If she's making appropriate babbling sounds, has appropriate motor mouth movements and skills, etc. it's less likely.

 

That said, if you're in the US (I can't see now that I'm replying) Early Intervention assessment/therapy is usually free or low cost. It can't hurt if a child doesn't need it and can help a lot if a child does. If you did an assessment she would undoubtedly qualify for help. You may do therapy and then find out it's not needed. But you might wait to see if she's just a late talker and find out it's actually something like apraxia. At that point it would have been better to start now. There is no harm with uneeded therapy but there is potential harm in waiting to see. So I'd pursue an early intervention evaluation. Has her hearing been tested or do you assume it's fine because she responds appropriately to sound? I'd do a hearing test with a nonverbal 18 month old just to make sure she's not missing some range of hearing. She could be very bright and compensate well.

 

I find it really interesting that she had all those tone issues and the like and then spontaneously recovered. My son's signs of metabolic issues were attributed to other things until he was finally diagnosed at 3.5.

Edited July 15, 2011 by sbgrace

[wapiti]

The rule of thumb (IME) is 5 words by 18 months. If not, get an evaluation from Early Intervention.

 

My three older kids were all speech delayed - two of them had zero words until 3 y.o. One of those is still in speech therapy at 8 y.o. My three younger kids all squeaked in just under the wire, starting to talk right around 18 months (ped was on my case due to the family history but I'm a procrastinator and I got lucky).

[Pretty in Pink]

Early Intervention should be free or low cost. I would pursue an evaluation.

[Melinda]

Jared was a late talker. At 27 months old he had 3 or 4 words. From what I remember, they were ball, milk, mama, and that may have been it. Mostly he just pointed at things. I was concerned because of his lack of speech, so I called the early intervention people. They came and evaluated him and said that he was speech delayed (but not enough for services) and ahead in everything else. The next week when he hit 28 months, he started speaking in paragraphs (seriously). A month or two later, he was doing things like sounding out words on the page. He just turned 8 and is doing Singapore 5A and reads on an adult level. He did have a tongue tie that we didn't realize was an issue for speech at that point.

 

I would get her evaluated and see what they say, but speech delay does not always indicate a bigger issue. Good luck with this and I hope she is driving you nuts with her babbling soon.

[katilac]

Time is sneaky and relentless. If you give her a few months time, it might then take another couple of months to schedule an evaluation, and then another couple of months to to schedule services . . . toddlers turn into preschoolers in the blink of an eye, y'know?

 

I believe in erring on the side of early intervention. There's no harm to it, and the potential for great benefit. What's the downside of having an extra person focusing on and giving attention to a toddler? Why not just have the evaluation done? If they confirm your thoughts of waiting it out, you've lost nothing but a phone call and an afternoon.

 

My dd had speech therapy when she was 4. Even though she had only a mild articulation problem that she would definitely grow out of, we felt it very worthwhile to commit to that weekly session. It was a huge benefit in terms of increased confidence and decreased frustration for dd.

[TeacherZee]

I think evaluation might be a good idea but I will tell you a story :D

 

My dad is 13 months younger than his older sister. He didn't speak until he was six. At which point they took him to have him evaluated at the college where my grandfather was an professor of education. In front of a whole group of students they held up a picture of a glass and asked my dad what it was. They figured he would do one of his grunts (his sister "interpreted" for him). His response was "It is mom's cocktail glass". Whenever my gran told the story she said she wanted to sink through the floor. :D

 

My dad now speaks two languages fluently. What I'm saying is: evaluation is good, intervention can be good (my sister needed speech therapy). But she might also talk just fine when she is six, and then you might wish she hadn't :lol:

[BlsdMama]

Evaluation / Therapy cost really isn't an issue. We have insurance that will cover any of it as well.

 

Truly I just feel she's slightly delayed, but I wonder if everyone feels this way. :confused:

 

Hm.... Really re-considering the eval.

 

The pediatrician, yes, was concerned, however, was willing to wait four months for an eval. if that was our comfort level.

 

She is still in the 1% for growth, but GROWING, but that's not unusual - so were Elizabeth & Sarah and the other girls never hit above the 10th percentile except Abigail.

 

Physically she is completely caught up - can try to kick a ball, climb stairs (up and down), climb onto playground equipment, run, pick things up squatting, scribble, etc.

 

I wonder.......

[swellmomma]

Ds7 was pretty much nonverbal until 3 years old. He has low muscle tone in his mouth and it made learning to speak difficult. We did speech therapy for years, well technically I did speech therapy with him at home. He would not work with the SLP so every 6 months we would go have an assessment and they would make a package of materials for me to use with him at home, then repeat 6 months later.

 

Anyway, he went from non-verbal/severe speech delay to now having normal/milkd speech issues. However, his other language skills have followed the pattern of his speech and he has a moderate language delay that has slowed down his ability to learn to read.

 

I would get her assessed, even if she is simply following the pattern of her gross motor function because it could be the case of low muscle tone in her mouth/jaw like it was for my ds, and finding that out earlier to start on exercises to correct it is imperative imo.

[Momof3littles]

I would go ahead and schedule an evaluation at this time.

 

I worked in early intervention as a physical therapist but have experience in screening speech and working on evaluation teams.

 

Two things that jump out at me that would cause me to go ahead and schedule now are 1)the history of delays and the medical concerns in infancy (low tone, weight loss, etc.) and and 2) the fact that you aren't hearing a lot of varied sounds/babbling. Not having more than a word or two at 18 months would have me watching closely and debating when to schedule an eval. However, not hearing a variety of sounds in babbled speech, and having a child with a history of delays would make me go ahead and get the evaluation scheduled. I agree w/ PP that it often takes a few weeks to get the eval, and then sometimes another few weeks until services start, etc.

 

Having the receptive piece gives a therapist a lot to work with, and that's great. However, like a PP said, receptive and expressive speech are evaluated as separate domains. Having worked in EI, I can say that many kids would catch up in their own time. The catch to that is that even experienced therapists can't always determine who will or won't catch up without intervention.

 

The expressive piece could be related to things like low oral muscle tone, poor oral motor coordination, etc. and those are things that you really need a professional to look at. Given the history of delays in general, I would say it is important to have those things looked at.

 

HTH. Hopefully your DC will make great strides and catch up quickly, but I would go ahead and schedule now.

Edited July 15, 2011 by Momof3littles

[fhjmom]

I also would recommend an evaluation. IT wouldn't hurt to know exactly where she is developmentally and if if they feel intervention isn't warranted at this time, you will be able to follow more closely and have an idea when to start if needed.

 

You said that there was no problem with her hearing; does that mean you have had her evaluated by an audiologist? If not, then honestly there is no real way you can know if she is truly hearing okay. Response to sound does not equal "hearing okay" so you can't really go by that. Many children who have a mild or moderate loss still "look hearing". Even my daughter who had a moderate-to-severe hearing loss fooled everyone; everyone thought I was crazy for pushing for a hearing eval for her because she was functioning so well. A hearing evaluation should be part of the early intervention evaluation for speech delays. It may not be her hearing but it is easy to rule out, so it is worth the audiology visit, IMHO.

[Okra]

I have had two that were non-verbal at 18 months. One turned out fine, (and it still fits her personality, that she is not real talkative), and one needed speech therapy and is still in speech therapy. He is perfectly fine too, but has lots of articulation problems.

 

My thinking is to go with your instinct. 18 months is still pretty young. It is okay to wait a few months and then make a decision. I am always a bit leery of "expert" people jumping to conclusions and making diagnoses too early. If it is your gut instinct to wait, then that is what I would go with. I don't think it would hurt anything to wait a few months.

 

Speech therapy at 18 months would consist of trying to get her to make "any kind of words" not articulation development. Easy words like "pop", animal sounds, words like mama I know therapists that use bubbles and just try to get them to say "pop" when the bubbles pop. If you decided to wait, I would do my own "informal" speech therapy.

 

Good luck with your decision, and try not to worry. Kids can be "later developers" and be perfectly fine. They just do things on their schedule not anyone else's

 

Okra

[Joyofsixreboot]

My kids were all late talkers. Nothing until about two. Very concerned about the first two, speech therapy and they still didn't say much until 3. I just quit worrying about the others. They followed the same pattern Except my now 15 yo who was dx with AS at 13. He said nothing until 3. I mean nothing until one day in the grocery he pointed and clearly screamed " ice cream.". If you can get services great but I think she's still with in normal.

[gardening momma]

She doesn't really babble. She does make sounds like she is trying to say a word - a single word, and usually it sounds like "dirt."

 

She has just learned to say and use mama.

 

She shakes her head for no. She can name her body parts. She waves bye-bye, points to each sibling as you name them, sniffs her nose when she wants her diaper changed or she goes the bathroom. So, we know the vocabulary is there - she will retrieve her cup, give a kiss, pick up toys, etc., when asked so she understands many, many words. She just can't speak.

 

Hearing is fine, no problems there at all. Language rich environment and she's very interactive.

 

So I'm curious if anyone has had a child who is non-verbal at 18 months?

Yes, dd5 was like that at 18 mo. At 2 yrs old she was saying 5-10 words. I wouldn't worry about it at this point.

[Momof3littles]

I'll offer the flip side of waiting. The 0-3 early intervention system is much more cozy, warm, fuzzy, and family-centered than the system at 3+.

 

Many times people hold off until 2 or so to get an eval. At that point they decide to schedule the eval, which can take several weeks, and then if the child qualifies, it ends up being several more weeks until services start (in some areas speech is really, really in demand). The child may need to see an audiologist somewhere in there, etc. It becomes easy for a child to end up being a few months past 2 until that all falls into place and services actually start. If there is a delay that is going to take a while to address, the child then ages out of the 0-3 EI system at age 3. At 3, everything goes through the school system and it can be more complicated to get services and it is often much less warm and fuzzy than the 0-3 EI system (speaking in generalities). For 0-3, services are usually done in the child's natural environment (daycare or home), so the therapist comes to you. At 3, that is no longer the case.

 

Just something to consider.

[Pamela H in Texas]

My 17month old started speech therapy Tuesday. He'll have 9 sessions per month. If we went through ECI, it would be only 4. Though I'm not terribly worried about a toddler with little speech, I'd rather hit it hard and heavy and early.

 

BTW, my reasoning probably has something to do with having a kid who struggled for way too long with speech (and still has a speech impediment).

[HSmomNY]

I also had an 18m who was not talking. Our ped. recomended EI and they did an evaluation and he is now getting speech 2x a week. From the recomendation to the first speech lesson took 2 months. I would recomend having the child evaluated. If there is no problem great, if there is a problem you have started the process of getting help.

Good luck :grouphug:

[silliness7]

I'm curious. We've never had a non-verbal toddler before.

 

Daniella has spent most of her life delayed and then catching up.

 

When she was born she lost a huge amount of weight and had to be hospitalized and was (mis)diagnosed with a metabolic disorder. In the end, she was fine. We don't know WHY all of this happened to her. It took her almost two months to achieve birth weight. She had very weak muscle tone and couldn't really lift her head as well as a newborn until 2-3 months. She crawled later than my others, walked later than my others, but technically was still within the realm of "normal" development.

 

Now she's 18 months and completely physically normal. She can run, climb, and is generally one of my most physically active, adventurous children ever. :D It just took a little longer.

 

Yesterday was her 18 month old well-baby visit. It went well but she is obviously speech delayed. This wasn't a surprise to us.

 

She doesn't really babble. She does make sounds like she is trying to say a word - a single word, and usually it sounds like "dirt."

 

She has just learned to say and use mama.

 

She shakes her head for no. She can name her body parts. She waves bye-bye, points to each sibling as you name them, sniffs her nose when she wants her diaper changed or she goes the bathroom. So, we know the vocabulary is there - she will retrieve her cup, give a kiss, pick up toys, etc., when asked so she understands many, many words. She just can't speak.

 

Hearing is fine, no problems there at all. Language rich environment and she's very interactive.

 

So I'm curious if anyone has had a child who is non-verbal at 18 months? This is a unique experience for us. My instinct is to just give her time and keep doing what we're doing. I don't think there is an underlying problem here, just that she is delayed and will do this in Ella time as she has everything else.

 

 

Our first was non-verbal at 18 mos. but very similar to what you describe. We did have his hearing tested about this age and that was fine as I suspected because he understood and responded just not with words. There was some increasing concern when he turned 2 and still wasn't very verbal. In our area there wasn't any intervention to take until he was 3. So we were waiting it out. He started talking in full sentences at 2 1/2. His little brother started talking at 12 mos. They started talking at the same time as they're 1.5 years apart. It was weird. But I was blessedly relieved. :001_smile: So no intervention was needed. Due to my experience I'm in the wait it out camp but I know other people will have different stories and opinions on that. I wish you and Daniella well. :001_smile:

[fhjmom]

I'll offer the flip side of waiting. The 0-3 early intervention system is much more cozy, warm, fuzzy, and family-centered than the system at 3+.

 

Many times people hold off until 2 or so to get an eval. At that point they decide to schedule the eval, which can take several weeks, and then if the child qualifies, it ends up being several more weeks until services start (in some areas speech is really, really in demand). The child may need to see an audiologist somewhere in there, etc. It becomes easy for a child to end up being a few months past 2 until that all falls into place and services actually start. If there is a delay that is going to take a while to address, the child then ages out of the 0-3 EI system at age 3. At 3, everything goes through the school system and it can be more complicated to get services and it is often much less warm and fuzzy than the 0-3 EI system (speaking in generalities). For 0-3, services are usually done in the child's natural environment (daycare or home), so the therapist comes to you. At 3, that is no longer the case.

 

Just something to consider.

 

Totally agree with this. I had a 4 year old and a 9 month old both going through the process at the same time - 4 YO with the school district, 9 MO with ECI. I have also heard of cases where a child was close enough to 3 when the parent requested services that the ECI provider suggested the parent wait and be evaluated by the school district, delaying services even more.

[bpskowski]

Truly I just feel she's slightly delayed, but I wonder if everyone feels this way. :confused:

 

Hm.... Really re-considering the eval.

 

I wonder.......

 

I was in similar boat. My twin girls were not speaking at 18 months. Everybody else was concerned. My family has a history of late speakers (although it has always been the boys of the family, not the girls). So I wasn't concerned. They were learning and growing and obviously understood me and could respond appropriately. Finally at 2 years, I did the early intervention. Just because, what could it hurt? I would feel guilty if there were an issue and I did not address it. They had speech until 3rd birthday at which point it turns over to the school system. In their case, the speech really did not do much. I already did all the things the therapist did. It was just a matter of them learning on their own time. But they enjoyed "Miss Susan" so we continued. But once you start you can always stop. They do a full evaluation in the beginning so you'll find out if there are any potential issues. It will put you at ease, plus it will give you more information so you can make a better decision.

[fairfarmhand]

please at least call and have her evaluated. In my state speech therapy is free up to age 3. My bil and sil did not find this out till my nephew was 2 yrs, 10 months, so they have had to pay out of pocket for his therapy. It could save you alot of money if she needs services.

[Mariam]

My daughter who is 2 now was also very non-verbal at 18 mos. She would sign everything and knew the vocab words and same like your daughter would let us know what she wanted but just didnt say anything. Well she would say mama, and think papa, and nana but otherwise all her communication was through sign language (her own :) Now she is two and she's stopped the signing and has started making broken up sentences and I would say is on track now for what is considered average. So I would say she should be ok. :)

[gardening momma]

Time is sneaky and relentless. If you give her a few months time, it might then take another couple of months to schedule an evaluation, and then another couple of months to to schedule services . . . toddlers turn into preschoolers in the blink of an eye, y'know?

 

I believe in erring on the side of early intervention. There's no harm to it, and the potential for great benefit. What's the downside of having an extra person focusing on and giving attention to a toddler? Why not just have the evaluation done? If they confirm your thoughts of waiting it out, you've lost nothing but a phone call and an afternoon.

I have no problem with early intervention, but for speech, I think 18 mo. is a bit early to seek early intervention. Since she's making sounds and some words (at least mama, anyway), I would wait until at least 2 yrs old before getting an evaluation. Dd5 was a little over 2 when our doctor recommended speech and referred us to the county's early intervention for speech. We started with in-home visits when she was about 2 1/2, and when she turned 3 we started going to the preschool for speech once a week for 30 min. at a time. She went for speech there for about a year and a half.

[Teachin'Mine]

I don't usually advocate TV watching, but TeleTubbies can do wonders. I don't know why, but their "talking" seems to speak to the little ones in ways we can't. It may get her started and she may take off from there. BTW don't watch with her, let her just "talk" with them. :)

[Renee in NC]

My 2.5yo receives speech therapy for receptive and expressive delays. The speech therapist comes to the house twice a week.

 

Get the evaluation, especially considering the other delays/problems she has had. I regret GREATLY not getting as much therapy as possible for my 10yo when he was young - if we had, he might not have struggled so much!

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I regret not pushing EI when my son was a baby. At that age the recpetive and expressive is combined and averaged. My son was very high with receptive, but very low expressive, and when combined his total score was "average" and he didn't qualify for services. Here we are 6 years later, still working on language issues that would have been best addressed when first noticed.

 

I'd go for the eval and services is she qualifies. AFAIK, speech therapy isn't going to hurt a typical child that just does things on their own time.

[Mandamom]

We started speech with 2 kids at 18 months as we also have a family history of dyslexia in the family (my mother and dh and several of his family members).

 

My daughter started speech through I&T at 19 months (we requested an evaulation at 15 months) and she qualified. By the time she was 3 she was considered in the normal camp and within 3 months she started reading chapter books.

 

My ds started speech at 20 months and at 3 still qualified for the public school speech program and an IEP. At 4 we stared private speech and he was diagnosed with dyspraxia/apraxia (muscle motor issue in the mouth) and with private speech has made a lot of progress. We're still looking at at least another year of speech.

 

My kids really enjoyed speech at home as they considered it playtime and it was very non-stressful for anyone. Once the kids hit 3 they have to leave the home to receive school services.

 

That was our experience.

[Orthodox6]

Our eldest (son) was born without any problems. He scarcely spoke at all other than "Mama" or "Daddy".

 

When he turned two, he burst forth with spoken paragraphs. We concluded that he was a perfectionist, and was refusing to speak until he could do so flawlessly.

 

Yes, we were starting to wonder if something was amiss. Fortunately, nothing was.

[cathmom]

Our eldest (son) was born without any problems. He scarcely spoke at all other than "Mama" or "Daddy".

 

When he turned two, he burst forth with spoken paragraphs. We concluded that he was a perfectionist, and was refusing to speak until he could do so flawlessly.

 

Yes, we were starting to wonder if something was amiss. Fortunately, nothing was.

 

My oldest did not really speak until age 3, when he began speaking perfectly as yours did. Unfortunately, because of that I wasn't at all worried when my twins were obviously delayed at age 2. I wasn't worried until they turned 3 and still couldn't put 2 words together or say "yes" and "no." Then it took another month or so for their evaluation, and then their first speech therapist flaked out and so they didn't really start therapy until 3y4m. I SO WISH I WOULDN'T HAVE WAITED! They will be in therapy for several years more at this point, and they've already had it for 2.5 years!

[AnitaMcC]

So I'm curious if anyone has had a child who is non-verbal at 18 months? This is a unique experience for us. My instinct is to just give her time and keep doing what we're doing. I don't think there is an underlying problem here, just that she is delayed and will do this in Ella time as she has everything else.

 

IMO, follow your instincts. If your worried, then have her evaluated. It can't hurt to have her evaluated by Early Intervention. If they see an issue, they will tell you and recommend therapy. And it can't hurt to start therapy early... but it can hurt if it is delayed.

 

My twins were non-verbal at 18 months old and were evaluated as they were seen by specialists since Ds and Dd were also preemies. They measured at about 9 months old for expressive language, and 18+ months for receptive language. They just didn't feel the need to talk. They were on pretty strict daily routine schedules, and if one needed/wanted something.. the other pretty much got it too. They also did not babble as babies much, and they did not do "twin speak".

 

They didn't speak more than handful of words (and only single words, never combined them) until they were 2yrs old. They didn't start combining words until 2 1/2 and by age 3 they were talking in full sentences with very clear pronunciation .

 

At age 3, people were surprised at how well Ds and Dd spoke. Very clear and advanced language. Just as they turned 5 they were evaluated for kindergarten and "measured" verbal language at 8+ yrs of age. So they were way ahead of their peers. No speech issues at all. Once our twins were evaluated at 18months, we were told to give them more opportunities to request things, to have conversations with them, to read a lot to them. In otherwords, to do just as you have described that you already do with your DD.

 

But my youngest had speech delays. For him we had other issues that we were watching for... his hearing was very poor from birth and he had surgery at 10 months. He was still not talking at 23 months, so he was placed into Early Intervention. He recieved speech for a year and got caught up very nicely.

Edited July 16, 2011 by AnitaMcC

[Robyn]

I have a non-verbal 17 month old. He says mama, dada, and kitty(sort of). He signs eat and milk, waves good-bye. etc.

 

He has had a full hearing test with a specialist. His hearing is better than my own.

 

He was in the NICU for just over month and saw EI for his first 9 months, until he evaluated out of the program. I have been concerned about his speech from the beginning because of palate issues from being intubated, and his therapist told me to have him reevaluated if it does become a problem.

 

I'm giving it one more month and I'll discuss it with his pediatrician at his 18 month well visit. If he hasn't made any progress by then, we'll be having him reevaluated. We had a very positive experience with EI and it really can't hurt.

[ChrisN in NY]

My 2nd ds (now 21) had a three-word vocabulary at 18 months: mama, dada, and ba (for bottle). Not long (few months) after his 2nd birthday, he was talking in complete sentences.

 

What I've learned about this boy of mine is that he likes to be sure of his success in doing things before he'll do them (at least to be seen/heard). He didn't necessarily do things "late," but he'd make these HUGE jumps in skills.

 

He was much the same way with school. When elementary age, I often heard "I can't do that," but then I'd explain it to him and then it was fine.

 

Maybe yours just wants to be sure of herself? A *little* more time can't hurt, imo, especially since she understands and interacts so well.