19 Mnth Old Not Saying Much....

hi N., when my son was 2 1/2 he wasnt able to communicate very well. my husband and i think and thought it was because he was home with grandma, she watched him. but then i got pregnant with my 3rd chuld and started staying home with my own children and watching others also to earn some extra money. when i did it helped him a great deal, kids learn to communicate better and faster with other kids. the only thing i could say that would probably benefit her a great deal is either a play group with other kids or child care on a part time basis. hope this helps W.

N.,

My daughter is at the same stage. Your daughter seems to be hearing fine if she can point to everything you are asking her to. I would not be concerned that it is a hearing issue. She is developmentally fine then there is no concern. Some children just take longer to talk. My daughter is 22 months now and says very little, although also very bright. We have talked to her pediatrician and also got others opinions and some kids just talk at different rates. I would give her a few more months to see how she does, she sounds like she just may not be ready yet.

If you are worried, have a speech evaluation done on her by whatever Early Intervention agency you have in your area. My 2 year old wasn't saying but about 10 words a couple of months ago but now she is having full blown conversations with adults! She still has her baby babble moments but otherwise she talks great!! Hope this helps!

Keep doing what you are doing, for starters. Reading to her, filling her world with language. Also, when she does use a word, expand what she has said (ex., she says, "dog" and you say, "yes, that is a dog. It is a big dog" or something to that effect). I would not be overly concerned at this stage in the game as a big language burst usually happens between 18 and 24 months. If she does not develop more language over the next few months, talk to your pediatrician about a referral for a speech-language pathology evaluation. Depending on where you are going to school, they could have a speech clinic on campus--that is, if they have a speech pathology program at your university. There are also several websites available to give you not only ideas on how to increase language but also to provide appropriate developmental skills. I like to refer parents to www.blankies.com (I think that is right, and if it isn't, let me know. I have it at work). You can also contact your local Parents as Teachers organization--a free program designed for children and families ages 0-5--for a free developmental screening. It would be peace of mind at least. Good luck to you and I hope this helps.

My cousin was like this. He was stuck on the word birds for the LONGEST time. Everything was birds. Finally he got over this. I am not sure why he was stuck on this word or how he got over it but I wanted to let you know that this happens with other babies too. Hopefully she will start using more words soon.

I understand exactly how you feel. My son didnt call me mommy until he was two, but in every other way he was fine. He even knew his numbers and letters before he was 3 but it was so hard to understand him. I finally broke down and took him to be evaluated. They said that his speech was severly impaired. He has been going to speech therapy for a few weeks now and is doing wonderful. There is a place here in Tulsa call Abletalk that will evaluate your child to let you know if they are on track. It won't hurt just to check! They take soonercare and are really wonderful. There phone number is ###-###-####

This is a tough one, either she has a speech delay OR like my now 10 year old is just learning and assessing, my son said nothing but ba, ma and da until he was over 2 years old, one day I had gotten dressed and came out and asked my son's father how I looked he said fine and my son then 2yrs old said "pathetic" lol, after I made a HUGE deal about him saying such a big boy word and of course going and changing my pathetic outfit;) I noticed he would assess everything around him, and when ppl would talk he would move his mouth trying to form out certain words, and at 10 years old he has perfect speech!!!
Oh yea....he did have a frenulectomy (sp?) when he was 2 as well, after he said his 1st big word, but that is also called getting his tongue clipped there is that piece under your tongue that holds your tongue down and his was connected too close to the tip of his tongue, so they had to cut it, I have had 3 of my children go through this surgury for speech issues!
Good Luck!

I say don't worry to much about it. Wait a couple of months she is still little. If she still isnt talking then talk to her doctor about speech therapy. My daughter is 25 months she started speech therapy when she was 22 months (she was only saying 4 words). They started off by teaching her signs for please, book, more, and thank you. She even started using her own signs for things. They also told me to with hold things from her. example If she wanted gold fish crackers give her one then when she wants another get eye level with her and have her say "more" or "please", even if its just the first sound of the word. Since then she has been adding words to her vocabulary every day. Good luck!

I seems to be in the same boat, my son is 19mths old and has a limited vocab of about 25 words or so. The only 2 he puts together is "Baby Cry" when his little sister cries. Of course all kids communicate at different rates, just keep working with her, it sounds like she is picking everything up and soon will be talking up a storm!

One thing I did with all 3 of my kids was constantly not only talk to them and say things like "do you see that beautiful flower over there? It is pink. Can you say pink flower?" Then they would try to say it. Sometimes my daughter would say she could not say it when she didn't want to and I would tell her I would like her to try later and I would ask again later for her to say it. However I also used tons of sign language. I taught basic signs to get them to be able to communicate their needs with me. My earliest child to sign (because I taught her earlier than the others) was my daughter. She signed at 4 months and could tell me when she was hungry and when she needed a diaper. Your daughter is good at pointing to things and identifying in that way so maybe she would be more likely to use some signs to communicate. It encourages a response to you. I would ask my children to sign their need and tell them it was so I could understand and help them. This in turn created early talkers with large vocabularies. You may want to teach her even just a few signs and ask her to sign it or say the word in order to get things she needs....for example if she points to something on the table because she wants to eat it and she is making whining noises then encourage her to either say or sign "eat" or "more" or "please". Tell her how to say them and help her learn how to sign them (there are websites) so she has 2 ways to communicate and can pick the one she is in the mood for using. We just kept up with the "say the word" routine or "show me the sign". My daughter is my 3rd child. She has been speaking sentences since she was 11 months old and single words since 6 months. However she was slow to start using them frequently. She could say many words very early, but didn't have to and like I said I taught her signs too so either she would communicate that way or her brothers would communicate for her. Children won't try if they don't feel they have to. If they are given everything they want by just pointing or making babble, then they will stick with what works. They're smart! My daughters 1st sentence was "but I dih-nit bite" said when she accidently bit me when nursing. It was MONTHS before I heard another sentence that long. She still used words occasionally, signs a lot and 2 word ideas every now and then. Once she turned 2 she just started speaking tons of sentences and now she talks and sings all the time as she plays at nearly 27 months.

All kids are different. My 2nd son started speaking long sentences at 17-18 months and he has hardly stopped now that he is 3.5 yrs. His words started at 5 months and were few and far between). My oldest son started his words early (4.5 months) and he also had a large vocabulary by 18 months but it wasn't until he was right at that year and a half mark that we figured out that we could get him to repeat words back to us. We didn't do that as a rule, but one night we had him say all these words, then we called grandparents and did it again. We thought it was cute the way he said them...mostly enunciated well, but some that were mispronounced. All 3 of my kids went through repeating every word we said when they were a bit older than your daughter...meaning as I would go in the kitchen and say "I am going to empty the trash" my child would repeat back "empty the trash" in question form. The other thing we did is try to keep the language real. We didn't tell them all the time to say certain sentences because we wanted them to have an understanding of what their words meant and we wanted them to logically come up with how to use them. We would have them repeat words as they learned what those new words were. For example, we never would let anyone try to get our kids to say bye bye unless we were actually going bye bye or someone else was leaving. This way they not only got the word, but understood the concept of the word.

My daughter still likes to "read" with me by repeating every word I say. She has several of her books memorized and sometimes wants to read them to me. Otherwise she sometimes will have me read it and then I have to pause so she can read it. It is funny and cute. I wouldn't be too alarmed that your daughter isn't speaking more yet. If she has proven she can say some words but they are few and far between it is likely just a matter of she doesn't feel the need to say words because she knows how to get by without them. Just work with her on "saying the word." Even if she says something close or just babble, congratulate her for trying. I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to get her to perfectly pronounce it right away. You can tell her "good try" and then tell her she said the word (and then repeat the word while enunciating it clearly so she can hear it again) very well. If you do it that way, she won't feel discouraged that it didn't come out quite right and if it did come out right, it just reemphasizes it. Hang in and don't fret. Your little girl is doing just fine. Just keep encouraging her and before long you will wish you had earplugs! HAHA

B. :)

My son din't talk for the longest time. I got him into FirstSteps thru our Parents As Teachers, and he recieved speech therapy (among others) until his third birthday. He used to be so frustrated and withdrawn all the time, and now he's just the sunniest lil guy around. He's in preschool now, and still getting speech therapy. (It's free thru the state too; a huge help!) Check your area for organizations like these, and get your daugther evaluated. You know the smarts are in there, it just sounds like she needs some help getting everything out. :)
Good luck!

J.

N., i have been there. actually i kind of still am. my 4 yr old son didnt really start talking until last yr. i took him to an ent dr to see if he had a hearing problem or to see if he was tongue tied and both were fine. i was told that he is at a 2yr old level of talking and that he needs to be talked to a certain way for him to understand. hes very smart, but he wont talk properly. my advice if you havent done it already is to ask your dr to see if she is tongue tied. and maybe even get her hearing tested. they say that if they have a hearing problem, that could cause them to not speak as fast as they should. we are still trying to figure out why my son is the way he is. he has been going to preschool since last yr for speech therapy and that has seemed to help trimendously. when we started he was only saying a few words and now he is starting to put words into sentences. you might check with a speech therapist also. like i said it is working for my son. it might work for your daughter. hope i have helped a little. good luck, R.

I would say she is perfectly normal. I worried about my son too...he was 2 1/2 before he started really talking (his son was the same way)and then it was phrases right from the start. My hubby kept telling me he will talk when he is ready and he was right. He said a few words before that, but not many and when he pointed to things someone (me, hubby or his 2 sisters) would get them for him so he didn't need to ask for things. You might try asking her questions that require an answer like "What do you want? Then name the item she is reaching for and try to get her to say it before you give it to her. Or if she has a ball in her hands, say "Is that your ball?" Then a few minutes later after she puts it doen, tell her to go and get the ball and bring it to you. She will catch on quickly and she will start to say the words. Playing alone is good too, it teaches them pretend play and they start to jabber to their toys. lol. I wouldn't worry, I don't think she behind at all, each child is different.

My son who is 3 was a lot like that. When he was 18 months old we had him evaluated through First Steps and they started him in speech therapy. He nows goes to preschool (for his speech) and loves it and is talking so much. It is very frustrating not to be able to hear your child talking and not to be able to have him tell you what he wants with words. It wouldn't hurt to have her evaluated just so that you know. My younger son is 20 months old and is only saying a few words but makes a lot of sounds. We participate in Parents as Teachers and they are doing an evaluation next week to see where he falls in the speech development. It is all paid for by the state so it is worth checking out. When we first started noticing a delay in my oldest, his doctor said that some kids just start out slower but will completely catch up. But I would think it is better to check it out early. Good luck.