I've polled a few moms that have children around the same age as Lauren, but I'm still worried about her speech. She literally has none.

She'll say a few things that sound like dog or cat, but that's about it. She used to say something that sounded like duck, but not anymore. However, she does say mama and dada on a regular basis.

It just concerns me, and I know we're not to compare our children, but when the girl at daycare said that "N" (who is a week older than Lauren) says "uh oh sgetti o", I about fainted. Lauren is no where close to saying something like that.

I try to get her to repeat what I'm saying but she just stares at me like I'm nuts. And I don't want to just give her something that she wants without her telling me, because I don't want her to learn that all she has to do is point and whine and she'll get it. KWIM?

Any pointers? I am always saying the word for everything we see... dog, cat, sky, table...etc... I read to her all the time and I constantly am telling her what we are doing. Is there something I'm missing? I guess I am concerned so much because I just read in Parenting magazine the other night that by 18 mos. she should be saying 18-25 words. Unless some amazing miracle happens over night, I don't predict that we'll be there!!

Sandy, I'm right there with you. You'd think Zac woudl be saying " doggie, kitty, uh-oh, birdie, car, truck, ball" for SURE since he hears those words HUNDREDS of times in a day and I'm not kidding. But nope...he only says mama....rarely dada...nothing else. I mean, he makes all KINDS of jibber jabber sounds but doesnt SAY anything. I'm going to bring it up at next months appt.
I constantly name things out to him all day and i get nothing back. I'm certain he understands what I say but just doesnt SAY things. KWIM?

Oh, Sara... I'm not glad that we're not the only ones, but it's reassuring that maybe they just aren't ready to talk for some reason.

Lauren does the same.... she's constantly jabbering, but nothing that makes any sense. I too was going to bring it up at her 15 mos. appt. I know Lauren understands what I'm saying because when I ask her to do something, she does it. Roll the ball... pick that up... bring your shoes...etc.

I thought maybe she was concentrating on walking and let the talking fly out the window, but I'm pretty sure she has the walking mastered... now, let's move on to talking. If she wants something, she just stands at my leg whining and pointing until I get it for her... annoying!! LOL

Zac doesn't even POINT yet. :roll: He'll just look at whatever it is that I ask him "where's the _______". My cousin's daughter was about to be evaluated because she was like 15 months and saying nothing at ALL...and all of a sudden she started saying words.

Let's hope that's the case for us Sara...

I know people say not to hope for talking too soon because once they start talking, they don't shut up. But come on...

OH that was me, and I still don't shut up LOL

Hi

Ava was born 4/20/05
Over the last week or 2 she started pointing at everything (from what I understand this is VERY important)
My friend who has a son with delays across the board said by 1yr they should say 2 words IN ADDITION to Mom and Dad
Ava has been babbling and saying momma and dadda forever
Only this week she started saying cat, toy, but not on a consistent basis
She will copy us...but usually only gets the first sound and doesn't say the words again on her own
I know all kids are different...I have been a little concerned because my ds at her age said duck, car, ball, cat etc etc etc
He is now 2.5 and a blabber mouth :)
I'll keep you posted as we have Ava's check up on Monday

Kim
zach and Ava's mom

I've moved this to the speech forum, Sandy, so that hopefully it will get a bit more attention.

Thanks Janette!!

No problem! I wish I could offer you more support right now too, Sandy, but am going through major stuff here right now and not even able to think clearly. Hopefully it's 'just' the reflux that has caused a delay. Is there a screening process you can go through in your State?

Catherine says nothing other than "uh-uh" for "uh-oh." She does say this appropriately and consistently. She has just started in the last few says shaking her head "yes" or "no" appropriately and consistently in response to questions, even long-ish sentences like "Are you ready for night-night?" or "Do you want to go swimming?"

This is definitely going to be a hot topic at her re-scheduled 15mo check-up next Friday. She is sooo frustrated and I'm sure this is why she screams all the time. All the time.

To be honest Sandy, I would say don't worry. The boys are totally different to one another and yet they are brought up in the same environemnt with the same stimuli etc etc. Stephen is quite the little parrot... he says loads of words and copies (or tries to) everything I say... cat, fish, mama, dada, bubba, beep, bob, bottle, bye, hello etc etc . Matthew, on the other hand, despite the same amount of attention and encouragment, says mama and dada, fish and cat. That's about all. They both "babble" and they both point at everything.....
Truly, there is plenty of time for her to start "talking"......

Oh, and I forgot to add that it is MAtthew who is the one who LOVES books.. he'd rather have a book over a toy and just loves me reading to him.....go figure :dontknow:

I'm worried about Cady, as well. She went from saying about 7 words at 12 months old, to only saying two now...dog, woof, and dada...then the only thing she does now is point and say "unh?" I'm with you, Sandy. I wish I could offer some support to you, but I don't know, either.

Okay, not sure if I am must help either her. I know that Zoee is delayed in speech. She is going to be 2 next week(:cry:) and she is only saying somthing like 10-12 words. She is jargonning(if that is a word) like no tomorrow. The St says that is good. She can also answers questions so that shows she can understand. I think also at the age of 12-16 months they only said maybe 10-40 words. So they may be where they should be. I am going to do research on this for everyon. I will get some information from one of the kids' therapists. Maybe that will help everyone. It would help me!

Thanks Shannon. I was just talking to my best friend tonight concerning this. Lauren's speech may not be the best, but just yesterday (and before) I said to Lauren "go get your shoes and bring them back to mama".. and she walks out to the mudroom and brings her shoes back to me. So, I know she at least understands and can follow simple instructions. I hope that counts for something. She just doesn't say anything really.

That's pretty much where Zac's at, Sandy. He can follow "simple" instructions but just doesn't say much other than "mama, dada, gaga, caca, rara, baba and aaaaah" :roll:

Eliana is 18 months and only says 6 words. It is very common for children with GER to be delayed in speech. Eliana says mama, baby, ball, bye bye, dog and new this week - mine.

Hello ladies.... I hate to see some of you freak out about speech when most of your kiddos are probably fine so here is some information to keep in mind (remember I am a speech pathologist and I have been doing early intervention for 15+ years)

1. Bewteen the ages of 1-2 is a time of rapid development in many areas espeically bewteen 12-18 months. It is perfectly normal for a child to stop progessing or even regress in one area to focus some time on another- like not using words that they used to b/c they are focusing on gross motor skills like walking, climbing stairs or fine motor skills like eating with a spoon or social skills like separating from a parent and exploring on their own.

2. Children develop at a variety of different rates and there is a wide range of what is condsidered normal at this age. Just b/c your child is not talking, walking or whatever like another child does not mean they are delayed or have a problem or are not as smart as other kids.

3. All children understand more than they can express. The gap can be especially wide at this age and begins to close as the child gets older. This is why all children at this age get frustrated (and not just with speech but other tasks) b/c they know what they want but do not know how to go about getting it.

4. There is more to language development than just saying a certain number of words at a certain age. You need to look at they way the communicate non-verbally, social interaction, receptive language (what they understand). Children will also continue to babble or jargon as they are adding true words to their vocabulary. A true word does not have to sound perfect. Often children use the initial consonant and vowel to produce a word like "ba" for ball or bottle, or use a reduplicated syllable like "dada" for doggie but other combinations are used as well.

5. I rarely get concerned about a child who is using only 1-2 words at age 18 months unless there are concerns about the skills mentioned above or they have a medical diagnosis that would put them at risk for speech/language problems. Not all children with GERD have speech problems. Some do but often not the GERD itself is causing the problem. GERD can cause the vocal cords to swell with irritation if the cords have been exposed to acid and a child may not want to talk b/c of this discomfort. Just like with feeding therapy this needs medical treatment as speech therapy may not help if acid is still bothering them. Other kiddos with GERD are at risk for speech problems just like all children with chronic medical conditions are at risk. Parents are so busy taking care of the child's medical needs that the child hasn't had the same language learning experiences a healthy child has had. Also if you felt like some of our refluxers felt you would want to be talking either.

By the age of two most children should.....

1. have a vocabualry of about 50-200. they use mostly nouns but should also have a few action words, 1-2 modifiers (location words- up, in, descriptive words- big) and one pronoun (usually "mine!")

2. as a child gets close to that 50 word mark they begin to combine words into 2 word sentences.

3. they use word more often than gestures to communicate and they often communicate for a variety of purposes.... request, to comment about something, to ask for help, to respon to yes/no or other simple questions.

4. speech intelligiblity is not perfect. a two year old often subsitutes one sound for another like saying "buck" for "truck".

Most of what develops above happens in the later part of the second year (after 18 months). Often a rapid rate of new words comes along where a child adds a new word every week. Ali started doing this around 20 months. Prior to that she had maybe 5-10 words she used inconsistently.

I hope this helps ease some minds. try this link from the American Speech and Hearing Association ASHA for activities to encourage language development.
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/Parent-Stim-Activities.htm

Ok your bill for this session is........:) Actually I have meaning to write something on Speech/language/voice in children with GERD for the PAGER site for some time now (there are only so many hours in the day) Once I get around to it I will post a link or get permission for Roni to post it here if she would like to.

Take care, Pam

Thank you for all of that information Pam!!

Thanks, Pam! I think we all have the tendency to worry more when we aren't sure what "normal" is.

I havent read through all the posts, because I am so lazy right now! But I wanted to tell you that I think what you are doing is great.

Chelsea is 4 now. When she turned 2, she only had 3-4 words and they were very hard to understand. She communicated msotly with grunting and pointing. She wouldnt mimic my words--wouldnt even try---and if I tried to make her say a word in order to get something, she decided she didnt want whatever it was instead. She was considered 15 months delayed when she was evaluated shortly after 2. We tried early intervention through our local regional center, but we the place we received services was HORRIBLE. So I pulled her out and hired a private speech therapist when she was almost 2 and a half. She still wasnt talking! The speech therapist we hired privately was great. She actually didnt do very much that I wasnt already doing at home. She just flooded her with language. For Chelsea, it was very evident to this therapist and to me that she understood everything we were saying to her. Cognitively she was ahead. The therapist said they usually compensate for what they arent doing in another developmental area. So every week at therapy, and every minute at home I said everything out loud. If she touched the book, I would day "oh look at the book", "you want the book" and whenever she said a word, I echoed it so she could hear the correct pronunciation. Bottom line, you just do what you are already doing. You talk everything out loud. Read books a lot, when you are doing something with her--say out loud what you are doing...so all day all she hears is language.

By the time Chelsea turned 3 she jumped from 15 months delayed to 6 months delayed. I pulled her out of speech and continued at home what we were doing there. Now at age 4, I am so happy to report that her vocabulary is at her 4 year old age level!!!!! She struggles with pronunciation still but the reason is specific to her problem. She has very low oral muscle tone. She is just starting back with the speech therapist, after over a year break, to work on pronunciation because Chelsea decided she was ready to work on it.

Note what I just said--Chelsea decided she was ready. There is nothing we can do to make them develop before they are ready. Chelsea was delayed in so many areas, but when she was ready she did it. All we can do as moms is provide the type of environment that encourages their development. The rest is up to our kids!!!

I hope this encourages you!!!! She will talk when she is ready, and when she does it will be music to your ears!!!! (abd other days you will wonder why you ever wanted her to start inthe first place :wink: ).