My Johnny just turned 14 months, and he is not saying any word. He had severe GED and food aversion. He is doing better now but still has some feeding issues (doesn't chew, doesn't feed himself). He would chew on anything except for food. The SP didn't see any problem with his speech, but I am getting concerned because he is still not speaking. He seems to understand a lot (names, actions, commands) and likes to point at things and say something we don't understand. Is it normal for a 14 months old boy not saying any word? Should I call the SP and have them evaluated him again?

P.S. We are speaking 2 languages (Chinese/English) at home.

Johnny does seem to be a bit behind if he's saying no words at all. What does your ped say? I don't know if living in a bi-lingual home would cause a delay or not? There are some moms here who are bi-lingual so hopefully they'll come along soon.

My daughter was evaluated at 17 1/2 months, when she still had no words. She ended up being delayed in several areas and way ahead in others; she scored between 9mo and 30mo on her evaluation. The end result was speech therapy every other week and OT every other week, but they alternate so she sees someone every week, and they reinforce what the other one does.

At 21mo, she now has a 14-word vocabulary (mostly "b" words for some reason!), which is still WAY behind, but she's come so far from 4 months ago.

Thanks a lot for the input. I will call the SP and have Johnny re-evaluated again.

14 months is a bit behind, but there is a huge learning curve happening at that time so you have to take that into consideration. Since he understands a lot of what is being said, then it is a matter of expressive language needing to be addressed. OFten children learn receptive language first, this is normal.

Does he use any sounds at all? Remember that you can count on sounds to be the pre-curser to words, so if he points to a dog and consistantly makes the same sound, then he is communicating with you as he can right now. Just keep it simple, only one to two words right now and he will catch on.

As far as bilingualism goes, I went through this with my first and then had the Hanen program for Iain over the spring/summer. It was made clear that it does not cause a delay, merely may cause a stall. Just keep at it and Johnny will end up using the language of his peers anyway, but will still be learning the home language. If he is severely delayed, they may ask you to stick to one language consistantly, but at our Hanen program they still encouraged parents to use both, regardless of the severity of the delay. I suppose it differs with each child and the delay, I do not know. With Walker, we had a French caregiver who spoke only French to him and we spoke English and Franglais to him at home. We were told to simplfy it for him as he was so severely delayed, so we went to English only.

Do not fret too much yet and give it a few more months. If by the age of 18 months you are still not noticiing any improvements, I would personally be parked at the SLP office. ;-)

I think I might have some helpful info! One of my good friends is Polish, so in her home, they speak both polish and english to the children. Her middle child (a boy), who is now 3 years old, did not say much for the longest time. In fact, if you compare him to my son (also 3 years old) he is way behind! Her son understands everything you say to him, and can communicate by pointing, etc, but speaking words that make sense has been very slow going. I would say that he did not say anything that made sense at the age your son is. Her pedi, and everything that I have always read, says that for children in a bilingual home, speech is likely to be delayed a bit. They just have so much that they have to process...it takes time to get it "unjumbled." I would consult your pedi if concerned, but I would bet he is normal for a bilingual kid. You are doing him a great advantage raising him to be bilingual!!