When Does Baby Start Talking?

Mary,
Hi, I have a daughter who is turning 16 months on Monday and she says Da Da all the time and Momma when she wants to eat or wants me to get her up and whenever she just plain wants my attention. We've caught her saying Bye Bye once and we think she says good girl and tries to repeat Thank You. I started thinking of how much we should really repeat what they say and how maybe I should try talking more to her to get her to repeat what she hears. I thought I heard somewhere they start talking between 18 mo & 2 years old. My friends daughter is 2 and she talks pretty good. Let me know what other people have told you.

J. Swift (Greg & Nattalie)

My second son is 15 months old now. We just had his 15 month appointment and one of the developmental questions was does he say 5 words. My response was kinda, depends on what you really call a word. :) He understands and communicates how he knows how, so I too wouldn't be concerned until about age 2. Like you said, boys are often slower with developmental things like that. :) And each child is different with what comes quick and what takes longer to develop. With talking, there is often a time, I want to say it was around 18 months with my first, that all of a sudden there were a lot of new words.

Hi! I am a speech therapist and I can tell you that at 15 months we look for 5-10 words (depending upon the test you refer to) and at 18 months 15 words. At age 2 we expect to hear a lot of single words and as their vocabulary expands, some 2-word combinations. A word is any consistent utterance that is spontaneous (not imitated). So if "dog" is always "woof" or "bebe" or "dod" that is his word for "dog". The main thing is if he is doing a lot of babbling or "jargon"-those long strings of another language. 2 is a "magic age" for a lot of kids. I would not wait any longer that age 2 for an evaluation if you still have concerns! Contact Early intervention (Day One network in Kane or Kendall CO. ###-###-####) They can set you up with all the details! Good luck!

My son did not really start talking till about 18 months. He is 3.5 now and has been a jabber jaw ever since. Infact I get alot of comments about how well he talks for his age and the fact that he is a boy. so I would not worry yet.

M.-

My son was almost 2 before he started speaking. I thought that we would have to enroll him into some type of speech class but his doctor said that we should wait until his 2nd birthday and them determine what we should do. Well, she couldn't have been more on target because once he became 2 he was a talking machine- Also he started daycare and that was a great help to be surrounded by a bunch of little people communicating the best they know how.

Hope this helps-

My son is also 15 months old. He says "Mama" all day long, to anyone who is around. When we were at the MD last week she seemed more worried than we did. She said that she wanted to wait until his 18 month check up and then if he is not speaking she would recommend a speech therapist. Seems a little extreme to me? He is very interactive, plays with toys, babbles all the time, and brings things to us. I was very worried after we left the MD but I found myself repeating words to him and getting upset when he would not repeat me. I was getting on my own nerves and found that I was not enjoying all his crazy babbles like I did before the MD appointment. I have tossed out the idea that he is not developing "normally" and now I am just enjoying hearing him call the dog "mama". I wish you the best with your son and remember that developmental milestones are only a guide used by health care professionals.

hello
my doughter started to talk when i took a boy to baby sit in my house. and she was almost 2.5, then she started to say real words. my son is now 15 month and somehow i do not wory about it that he is also saying just few letters. i believe, that if You want him to start talking faster, You need to get him to other kids(an example if You sitting at home mother, go more often to fitnes club and leave him in chids room, he will learn faster).
now when i'm mostly talking to him, i already know what he wants, before he tries to say it, and he does not need even to improve him self.

My little girl is 17 mos old and maybe says 3-4 words but again, some words are not "real" words. She understands a lot of words and some sign language as well (I'm fluent in ASL). She is still classified as "delayed" speech and is getting speech therapy once a week through Early Intervention. My doctor was not too worried that she is not talking much, but recommended EI more for our peace of mind. The EI people also said it's not a big worry at this point, but she qualified, and it's free through the state, so why not.

Take comfort in the fact your son is interactive, playful, understands you, babbles (even if it's not understandable), waves bye bye (sometimes - not even have to say it) and knows some words. Some kids talk later than others. As long as he's doing the stuff mentioned above, he'll eventually get there. be sure to ask ur doc next week about this.