Should I be worried that my 20 month old doesnt say a lot??

[dliver316]

Well I wasnt really very worried, but as time goes on I am getting a little more worried. He says mama, dada, hot, hat, and other things that I know what he is saying but is not really the word...example: he says "I no no" and shrugs his shoulders for "I dont know." And when we count he says "da" for "one".
I know he understands so much of what we say...actually he seems to understand most of what we say to him. But he is just not getting out many words. My pediatrician said to contact them if he doesnt start talking more soon. I try to do everything they say to do....we read books, I talk to him all the time in short sentences and point things out repeatedly.
I just dont know if I can afford speech therapy , especially if he is just going to start talking in his own time.
Anybody else go thru this? Or should I really be worried? Thanks!!:shrug7:

[pedspeech]

You may want to take him to the ENT and get his ears checked- just make sure that he can hear what you are saying. I say this because I finally gave in and did it when my middle child was about two, even though I was SURE that child could hear me. Know how embarassed I was when I showed up and both ears were blocked and he wasn't hearing much of anything? I still don't know how he was able to follow directions as well as he could.

Beyond that, I don't think I would worry yet, especially since he seems to understand what you are saying. He isn't really supposed to be intelligible at this age (in other words, as long as he is consistently "saying" the same word to name something, then he has the word just isn't able to handle the fine motor skills to articulate it yet).

If it gets to the point that you think he does need therapy, you can go through the early intervention services in your state and if he is really delayed you wouldn't have to pay for it. Once he turns three years old, he could be serviced in the public school (again, no pay).

ETA: Forgot to mention that I was a speech pathologist in the school system for several years and did early intervention services for the birth-3 kids after school until I started having my own kids!

[CW&M Mom]

You can take him to your local school district ( the elementary school would work) and ask that they have him evaluated for speech therapy.

ENT is good too...you never know if there hearing as well as you think.

[dliver316]

I guess you are right about the hearing...although I am pretty positive he is good with this. I have tested him by whispering his name when he didnt know I was behind him, and he turned right around. Or when there is any noise, he turns in that direction.

[CW&M Mom]

My son couldn't hear the low tones...and I had no idea. He had had some ear infections and had enough fluid in his ears that lower deeper tones he was not hearing. High pitched tones he heard just fine....

[Jesseroo]

My younger brother was like your boy...he didn't start talking til laaaate, but there ended up being nothing wrong with him (although he ended up being a pretty rowdy boy when he started school ^_^) We thought for a while that there had to be something wrong, and my mom did have him late in life (mid thirties), but everything checked out just fine.

[mycouponhunter]

I wouldn't worry yet... My sister came to visit in May when my daughter was about 26 months old and had me all convinced I need to have her in speech therapy and she is now about 30 months old and is talking up a storm! Sometimes she will go on and on and I need a translator because I have no idea what she's saying and other time she's very clear. Just give it time. My daughter was the same with walking. She wasn't walking until around 16-17 months and once she walked she ran and now I chase her around Walmart because she refuses to sit in the cart! It's hard not to worry or compare with other children. Feel free to message me if you want to talk more.

Virginia

[crystal12605]

Okay..... Well here is MY story! My son at the age of 18 months was acting strange but the big thing was he wasn't talking. Maybe a babble or two here and there but not enough to stop my worrying. I talked to my ped and she kept saying he was fine. I pushed for an evaluation and found out he was at a 6 month old level. He is now three and we have him in speech therapy and it has done wonders. We do not pay for it, its free. My son is still very delaid (spelling?). The reason I'm saying this is not to scary you but IF he does need therapy you should find ALL your options out soon. the sooner the better. Oh yeah, early intervention paid for the hearing tests too. He also has occupational therapy that is free to us. Thank the lord that I pushed because It really helped us out tons.

[tmsmalley]

Here is a great chart that shows where your child should be at. Keep in mind sometimes they are focusing more on one area than another and can lag in one sector while exceeding another.

http://www.ask-nanny.com/child-development.html#18

Seems to me like your child is on the edge, probably within normal boundaries, but maybe on the lower end for language. Should you be worried, I always say, go with the mommy gut. You're concerned enough to brig it up to the ped and to post it here, then I say check it out. Start with the ears. As pp's have said, there can be problems with certain tones and pitches that you won't be able to notice. If that's fine then you can call your local school district and ask them how to connect with your local Early Intervention group. Between your health insurance and EI, you should not end up being billed for these kinds of services if you end up needing them. EI will evaluate and if there's no issue, you'll have peace of mind. If there is one, they can attack it early.

It is also possible that by the time you get doctor's appointments and evaluations organized, he'll be talking up a storm, but I don't recommend waiting it out. Get things scheduled and resolve it one way or another.

All the best!
Tess

[shoppinglinda223]

It is hard not to worry. I was right where you are 2 months ago. Everyone kept telling me to stop worrying and that every child develops at their own pace, but I still cried alot because she wasn't talking.

Well, my DD turned 22mo yesterday. She just started talking about 4-5 weeks ago. I was so worried. At her 18mo appointment she had 6 words, that's it. Her pedi told us that if she wasn't talking more by 21mo he would have us contact EI. However, like your baby she did understand what we were saying and she was communicating by pointing at things and babbling. Right when I was about to call the pedi and EI, she started talking. She came home from daycare and counted from 1-10. My DH and I stared at each other in disbelief because we couldn't believe what we heard. I finally cried tears of joy instead of worry. Fastforward to today and I would guess she now has about 200 words and is starting to put words togehter such as blue car, milk cold, I want, etc. For her the talking came so fast all at once.

I hope this is what happens for you too. The words will come out soon. I'm sorry you are worried. Us mothers just want everything to be perfect with our babies.