words and speech intervention at 18 mo?

[thatgirl2478]

Does anyone else think that's REALLY early?

My DD has a few 'words' that we know - but it's not enough progress according to her Ped. Her words aren't super clear (we know what she's saying but others wouldn't) and she doesn't have many. For example, she says 'itty' for kitty, signs 'more' (though we think she's using that sign to mean 'drink' now...) and pants like the dogs when she sees them. She does say Dada and Hi clearly.

She's only 16 mo - but her Pedi says that she should have 12 - 20 words by the time she's 18 mo (which I don't think is going to happen). If not, she will possibly need to go to speech therapy with the Easter Seals.

Am I worrying over nothing? Or is he on to something?

FWIW she's been working on walking and climbing, she babbles non stop, she can follow basic instructions, and she has more teeth than most kids her age (the only ones left are her bottom canines and her 2 yr molars).

[jenny1223]

My initial reaction to your post title was "that seems really early!" but I'm no expert. I do know some kids who will suddenly start talking a lot more over a period of a month or so.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't really be worried, but I'd probably take my kid for an evaluation and try to step it up on signing more. My 12 month old has no words. I have no idea if that's a problem.

[LauraMoser]

I can relate on the worry. DD2 is 19 months, and just a month ago she was only saying about 5 or 10 words. She has started saying more now, but they are not very clear. I would try not to worry about it yet. I've seen a lot of kids just suddenly pick up a lot of words in a short period of time.

[Deleted]

Jun 1, 2012 15:58:41 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

I wouldn't really be worried, but I'd probably take my kid for an evaluation and try to step it up on signing more. My 12 month old has no words. I have no idea if that's a problem.

My DS is 14 month old says "ma-ma and da-da" and that's about it. And makes "mooo"ing noises when he plays with his farm animals.

[thatgirl2478]

thanks guys - it's the momma guilt setting in. I feel like I need to be interacting with her ALL the time - but hell I'd get tired of hearing my own voice after a while so I can only imagine what she's thinking...

[msmugsy]

I don't think it hurts to get an eval. My now three year old just started speech therapy and she had the same type of delays at that age. We kept waiting for it to get better and it never did. She is 3.5 and has the speech sounds of a 2.5 year old.
I also have a 20 month old and he has a ton of words- so in retrospect I now know she was behind.
That said every kid is different and develops at different rates. There are a few kids in the ST office that are 15-18 months.

[anna7602]

That seems really early to me, but maybe your pedi is seeing something I am not aware of. DD didn't start talking a whole lot until about 22 months and our pedi was fine with it as long as she was understanding everything we said and communicating in other ways (babbling, making up words, mimicking the sing-song patterns in my voice even if her words weren't clear, etc.)

[liveintheville]

My pediatrician evaluates at the 2 year appointment. We had an EI assessment for Kid 1 but he did not need further intervention (he understood just fine and they weren't too worried about actual number of words he knew.) Kid 2 needs an assessment because he maybe knows 20 words at 2 years old. They're coming on Tuesday

[GailGoldie]

it can't hurt to have an eval - but chances are it will be a waste of time.

My son, Grayson, had ZERO words at 18months and didn't understand a lot of what was said to him. He had tons of ear infections as a baby - and so we had his hearing checked- sure enough, it wasn't good - so he got tubes- and then started speech therapy (he did qualify for EI). He's about to turn 3 and is doing awesome.

My older son, and Grayson's twin, both were not talking much at all even at 2yo - BUT they understood EVERYTHING that was said to them. We had Griffin eval'd b/c we were worried- and the speech therapist said he was fine- understanding is much more important than speaking at 2yo.... sure enough he exploded a few weeks later.

Gibby (Gray's twin) also didn't talk much at 2yo- we didn't even bother ot have him eval'd b/c we knew he'd be fine like his big brother --- and now the kid does NOT shut up at 3yo

So- i think your doc is being a bit of a worry wart. If she understands everything- i wouldn't bother with an eval until at least 2yo... unless you feel something is wrong.... but not saying a lot is far from having an issue when a child is that young. There is a hUGE range of normal for speech in the first few years.

[rootbeerfloat]

It's early. My pedi had similar concerns at DD's 18m appointment. She didn't say much, maybe 5-10 words. (DS, who is older, had always been a talker, so even though H and I weren't necessarily worried, we took notice of how little she talked.) We had her evaluated around 19m, and EI said she was fine (and also that our pedi was notorious for referring everyone!). Toddlers usually hit their word explosions around 18-20m, I believe, and DD's came around 20-21m. She's not even 3 yet, and she talks all the time in sentences.

[dcrunnergirl]

At 15 months, my kids had zero words and the peri said if it wasn't better by 16 months to call EI. We ended up calling and they qualified and we've been in speech since. It has been a great experience and the kids are doing great.

I say if you're worried then call but it not give it another month and if your LO isn't progressing,then call.

[Deleted]

We had DS evaluated at 18 mo because he only had about 15-20 words. We were told that while this was a delay, it wasn't a large enough deficit to qualify for services through EI. FWIW, he did catch up to his peers by 24 mo without any extra services.

The milestone they really look for is at least 50 spoken words by 24 mo and the use of 2 word phrases.

[thatgirl2478]

Thanks all.

One of my many concerns is that both DH and I had speech issues when we were little. I couldn't say my 'r' s correctly, DH could say 'r', 's', 'l', 'th', etc correctly and processed words in the wrong order (he heard them correctly, but processed them jumbled and then answered jumbled too). I don't know if any of these things are hereditary or not, but if so it's another hurdle for her.

[statlerwaldorf]

My doctor doesn't refer kids until 2. Although in DD's case, I wish she would've been tested sooner. She had a hearing problem that wasn't caught until she was 2.

[teacherjulie]

At 18 months my daughter said mo for more ma da ball I was concerned as I knew by 24 months the goal was 50 words we watched her for two more months and then got referral. She has been in speech for almost 9 months while I see improvement she still has a delay she is up to maybe 25 words, 10 of those completely independently

[hannamarin]

My niece didnt bet speech therapy until 4yrs old. She caught up in 5 mths.
I just wonder if there is any harm in waiting 6 mths to reassess

[chia]

There's nothing wrong with getting her evaluated. If your pedi suggested it, I'd do it.

[kershnic]

I don't have kids yet, so I'm so butting in, but I work with at-risk families so I interact with EI a lot. The whole point of EI is that the earlier you intervene the easier the treatment. Between your and your DH's history and the pedi's recommendation, I'd go for it. Chances are it's nothing at all and your daughter is just developing at her own rate (because plenty of kids don't talk much or are difficult to understand at 16 months and are just fine!) - but if she does qualify it's a lot better to get her some help at 18 months and have her on-track by 24 months than to wait to intervene until you (maybe) see a delay at 24 months or 36 months or whatever point you start to actually get worried.

[sarahbear]

Your pedi is being very overly cautious. I'd wait until 2 years and only consider it then.

[bananahannah]

I am a speech language pathologist and I would say your pediatrician is being overly cautious. I would wait until 2 years and reevaluate.

[RoryGilmore]

I feel like I could have written this post regarding worry about my 16 month old's language except that my pedi isn't worried. My pedi looks for 3-5 words by 18 mos and does a more thorough look at language at 2.

Right now, DD says Mama, Dada and Hi clearly. I can understand her saying Dog, Uh Oh and Eat. She signs More, Please, All Done, and Eat. He counts all of this and says it's pretty normal for it to be difficult for non-primary caregivers to understand kids for the first few years of life.

When I asked about evaluation when we were in for her 15mos appt, he said that it was clear that she understood and was trying to communicate even though the words weren't coming out so he wanted to wait a few months and see how things go.

[snarkymalarky]

Lurker chiming in...I was worried about my nearly 3yo DS being behind in speech at that age. Well...I swear within a week of mentioning my worries to DH, the kid had a verbal explosion and now he is the chattiest kid I know.

[Mrs.Syntax]

My DD, at 16 months, was pretty much exactly like yours. She only had a few words. However, at 17-18 months it was like this crazy language explosion happened and she started saying several new words daily. So, it can happen really, really quickly. I wouldn't worry just yet.

[pierogigirl]

I had my son evaluated at 1yr. It was very interesting and it can't hurt. He didn't qualify, but EI works and the earlier the better.

[Deleted]

That is when we will be starting Edmund's interventions. But then again they want to get an early start with him since he was born with a cleft lip and palate and had to have 2 surgeries. Some of the muscles in his mouth still don't function properly but should within the next couple months.

[Redpoppy]

We took DS for a speech evaluation after his 3 year appointment because I was concerned about his pronunciation of a few letters. He was tongue tied at birth but not enough to be treated and I did speech therapy as a child. The sounds he was having issues with don't develop until as late as 8 years and he was on track for appropriate ones for his age so we didn't need to do any further intervention.

[thedash]

My kid pretty much only says doggie, balloon, and bus. Totally random! I haven't been too worried because he's in a bilingual environment, which I have heard can cause delays. However, I'm sure he will not have 12-20 words by 18 months! That seems like a lot and it seems early for EI.

[rubytuesday]

I could have written your post. We are 19 months now and my worst talker says ma ma & da da & has said 3 other words once or twice. My pedi was recommending EI at the 15 month appt, but I held off for 18 months. We have an evaluation scheduled for Tuesday. He does seem to understand a lot of what we say.

[slug*bug]

Jun 1, 2012 20:38:22 GMT -5 chia said:

There's nothing wrong with getting her evaluated. If your pedi suggested it, I'd do it.

Another ditto for chia's suggestion, though that seems early to me, as well.

DS didn't have the recommended number of words at 24 mos., and was reevaluated by his pedi at 30 mos. when a speech eval was recommended (though I'd been privately stressing out about his language for months.)

Having advice from an objective voice was very helpful for us. Even though he did not qualify for EI and no further intervention was recommended, the speech pathologist was great and gave me guided exercises for language and play development that gave me constructive things that I could do at home which was great for both DS as well as me.

Before the eval, worried more than I really needed to simply b/c I wasn't sure how I could help him, or if he really even needed help.