Help me feel better about DD's speech

[imbatman]

I've always felt like DD was pretty average as far as her speech goes, but then yesterday I saw a video (I know, I know...) of a 15 mo boy who had so many words and repeated words back to his mom. And I just...I started to worry that maybe she's not doing as well as I thought.
She has a few words (go, no, hi, dog, kitty, mama, dada), although she really only says "hi" consistently. She only repeats kitty back to me if I ask, and that's only occasionally. She knows what things mean, though. She points to her belly, ear, nose, and foot when you ask, makes a moo sound when asked what a cow says and a woof woof sound when asked about a dog. She doesn't nod for yes or no, when we ask her something and the answer is "yes" she just giggles and smiles. I guess maybe we should start getting her to try and say yes and nod, but the giggle has been adorable and we haven't tried to change it. She also waves hi and bye.
I guess I'm just looking to see if all of this is normal and age appropriate or if we should start working with her more to get her to use her words and mention it to her Dr. Like I said, I wasn't even concerned until I saw that video yesterday.
Also, she's 14 almost 15 months old if that helps.

[Deleted]

She's fine. I promise.

All kids are different. Receptive speech is also more indicative of issues than spoken speech. So if she's understanding, she's great at this stage.

Both of my kids were more into motor skills than speaking. DD was 18 months before she said more than a couple words. Close to two before she really said a lot/could do sentences. However what she did say came out loud and clear and correct to the point where most people understood her right away.

DS now at 18 months just starting spitting out words in the last two weeks. His speech isn't as clear as DDs was, but he's also saying a lot more.

[osulori]

There is a huge range of what is considered "normal" at this age. The kid in the video using all the words he was is great, but that doesn't mean that your kid isn't fine. She is

[shellbear09]

That is so so young to be worried about speech imo. I think my pedi asked for 2-3 words at 15 months.

[indylady]

She does more than my son and he's 18m! I would not worry. That video is an outlier.

[imbatman]

Thanks. I knew deep down that I shouldn't be worried, and that she's fine, but watching that really got me thinking. It's good to be reminded that there is a wide range of normal.

[drloretta]

They all develop at different rates. She's well within the range of normal

[momin2013]

Nope, no need to be worried at all. DS had a handul of words (which didn't even include Mama or anything close) at 22 months. He had a HUGE word explosion at around age 2, and now at 2.5 goes around talking, in full sentences, all.day.long.

[greencrayon]

My daughter is 18 months. She only says "uh oh" and "ta-da" reliably. I know she understands me, and she can follow simple commands. I'm just waiting until 2 to see if there's anything we need to do about it.

[imbatman]

Jul 30, 2015 9:19:12 GMT -5 greencrayon said:

My daughter is 18 months. She only says "uh oh" and "ta-da" reliably. I know she understands me, and she can follow simple commands. I'm just waiting until 2 to see if there's anything we need to do about it.

Lol my H has been trying to get her to say ta-da for the longest time now!

[boxerdog]

DS is almost 15 months and he only says yay, hi, and mama (and none consistently).

She is fine! I know it is so hard not to compare and worry because I do it too!

[greencrayon]

imbatman 

[curbsideprophet]

She sounds fine to me. Certainly not behind.

[imbatman]

Jul 30, 2015 9:24:08 GMT -5 greencrayon said:

imbatman 

Oh how adorable is she!!!

[Deleted]

Totally normal I promise. It's hard not to compare but really, she is so young. There is a wide range of normal.

greencrayon omg so cute!

[fortnightlily]

She sounds totally normal to me. My kid only had a handful of words at 15 months, and some of those were signs. He had his language explosion around 20 months, though it's been a gradual upslope since then (he's 22 months now), not like a sudden 0-1000 thing. I hear "uh oh" and "bye bye" all day long "Bye Bye mommy" "Bye bye table" "bye bye car" "bye bye blanket". This month is the first time I'm hearing him spontaneously use new words he must've picked up at daycare "I'm thirsty", as opposed to using them after repeating after me "You want a grape?" "Grape!".

[catsarecute]

This sounds a lot like my daughter who is almost 16 months. Her comprehension is terrific but she just doesn't have the language yet. She does know how to sign (more, help, water, please) but doesn't really use words much. She can say mama and dada and points to us when we use them but she doesn't call us that by name.

I have noticed just in the past month that she is getting a lot better at trying to repeat sounds. She repeated "meow" yesterday when I told her what a kitty says.

Try not to worry about it too much and don't compare! Each child will develop at their own pace.

[thebreakfastclub]

My kid wasn't doing much of anything at 15m. By 20m he was very talkative, and at 2, I sort of wished I could muzzle him.

[magpie]

Jul 30, 2015 9:52:40 GMT -5 @callmefia said:

Just say no to comparing! It's nice to get ideas from other parents on things to work on, but they will do it when they are ready!

I agree with this so much! 

[chicago]

This sounds within the normal range to me!

[auntie]

Your LO sounds like she's right where she should be.

What was the context of the 15 month old's video? Was it like a bragging thing?

Just curious. Early speech isn't always a good thing. I'd lost count of DS's vocab by 15 months; he'd had simple phrases by about 10 months, could repeat anything by 15 months (in retrospect this was echolalia which is OK when learning to talk but not much after) and spontaneous sentences by 16 months. We didn't realize it at the time, but this was a red flag for his brand of ASD.

[game blouses]

It sounds like our kids are almost exactly the same in speech (DS just turned 15 months). He had his 15 month check up and his pedi was fine with his amount of words. She mainly wanted to know if he pointed, expressed happiness and disappointment, and attempted to communicate with us. She'd like him to have over 10 words by 18 months and seemed confident that he would.

[imbatman]

Jul 30, 2015 15:22:30 GMT -5 auntie said:

Your LO sounds like she's right where she should be.

What was the context of the 15 month old's video? Was it like a bragging thing?

Just curious. Early speech isn't always a good thing. I'd lost count of DS's vocab by 15 months; he'd had simple phrases by about 10 months, could repeat anything by 15 months (in retrospect this was echolalia which is OK when learning to talk but not much after) and spontaneous sentences by 16 months. We didn't realize it at the time, but this was a red flag for his brand of ASD.

It was just videos his mom posted of her saying things and him repeating back (night night, nose, teeth, bellybutton, etc. It was a ton of words). It didn't seem like he was just busting out words on his own, but they only lasted for a couple seconds, so I can't be sure. It's not anyone I know personally.