I'm not really concerned about Brayden's comprehension because he appears to understand what we say. But, he just doesn't speak. He actually has about 5-7 words but there is not consistency. He does say "momma" almost daily. But other than that the other words are used very inconsistently. Which is weird because you would think that he would be more consistent with words like Dada or even Baba since thats the main way he gets his calories. In fact, he didn't start saying "baba" until he was almost 16 months old and now I don't think he's said it for almost a month. But he certainly wants it and will pitch a fit for it - he just wont use the word anymore. So his 5-7 words are only used once every three weeks or so. So next month, my pediatrician told me that if he is not using 10 words and starting to put two of them together, that we are going to evaluate him. That will put him at 20 months. I don't see how he can possibly improve that much in the next month, so I'm pretty sure we'll get an evaluation. (I've actually been worried since he was a little baby because he was really late to even babble as a baby.)

All that and I haven't even asked my question. Sorry about that. My question is - should I try to introduce signs with the words at this point? Is it too late? Or should I just wait since they might have their own agenda if they sent him for speech therapy?

I ask this because my grandma watches him occasionally and last month she fed him and taught him the sign for "all gone" that we have used in my family for many generations. For some reason I never thought to teach it to him. He picked up on it after one night of being with her and will use it sometimes to tell me he is done eating. It's not consistent - but he uses it about 50% of the time. And he even knows it can mean other things than just food - my mom asked him where his shoes were last night and he did the sign - "all gone". Makes sense to me since his shoes were in a bag and he couldnt see them....

Sorry I do not have a lot of time to respond right now but I wanted to let you know how much I emphasize with you! I will get back to this later on tonight but I wanted to let you know it is NOT TOO LATE to introduce signs. The main brunt of reponse from my 27 month old is due to signs as he hardly has any words at all. It has proven to be a useful tool for us and enables Iain to avoid some verbal although he does try to say the word he is attempting to sign as well. The sign for "more" is used a lot by him along with the word "mo". We have been encouraged to use the signs heavily if at all possible for Iain to enable him and not to pressure him for speech. Signs are fairly easy to pick up and we are doing well with them, just do not take on too many at once. I will find the great link Roni gave me for them as it has been wonderful for us.

See you later.

I agree with Leigh and strongly urge you to introduce the signs with the words. It will help Brayden to learn and with the aid of signs he'll be able to communicate and thus be less frustrated with the whole communication thing. I don't remember exactly when we introduced signs with Evan, but it was definitely later than 19 or 20 months.