[Luvhannah]

My daughter is 18 months old and does not have vocabulary of 8 words yet and does not put 2 words together so we are having her speech tested. It may be too early but it has me worried and I just want to do all I can to make sure she gets help early if it is needed. Any other adoptive family have this issue please let me know what worked best for your little one. Thanks.

[robandjulie]

just wanted to give some support. We were just visiting our son this weekend and he has a handful of words in Spanish but not much. We did start teaching him sign language while we were there and he picked it up very quickly, but he sounds like he's at the same place as your DD otherwise. Get her tested if you're concerned but I wanted to let you know that our DS is nearly the same and is 19 mos with no language disruption yet.

[cbmstephanie]

Flora is 16 months old and she only says:
mama, daddy, puppy, baba, maaaa (which I believe to be Maria), more, all done, ackyy.

She's only been home for a little over 3 months so I'm not overly concerned with her lack of vocabulary right now. If you are though, I would definately get her tested. Just wanted to let you know that I don't necessarily think she is too far behind, as far as Flora goes anyway! Did that make sense?

[Casey677]

We adopted domestically and have had our dd since birth. She was delayed both physically and with her speech. It is definitely not too early. I was quite surprised that they were able to determine that she needed ST at 13 months. Make sure you go through Early Steps (or Early Intervention - whatever your state calls it).

At 13 months she had no words. Now at 20 months she probably says about 30 words. She still doesn't put 2 words together (other than Thank You which I think she thinks is only one word, lol). And she also doesn't do alot of communicating on her own. The words that she does know, are usually only parroted back to me. i have found that mom's intuition is usually right. Good luck with the ST! It has really worked wonders so far.

[TeeTee]

My dd is 19 moths old and only has a vocab of about 15 words. She is not putting 2 words together either. I have the book "what to expect the toddler years" in it it says she should be able to say 6 words at 19 months. It also did say to pay attention to their level of understanding. can your child follow a command. And it also said that if your child was an early walker, climber, etc then speech is usually a little later due to putting all of their efforts into that. So I am not worried as of yet, she understands EVERYTHING and is trying to talk more and more. I think it will come, each child is different, they talk at different times just like they walk at different times. Good Luck...Carrie

[SKL]

My 20mo is not much of a talker and doesn't put two words together. I am not officially "worried" but am considering having an EI assessment done if I don't see it happening soon. I do see lots of vocalization, great nonverbal communication, and a tremendous grasp on receptive language, so that is why I am waiting. She tends to be lazy in some areas and I think speech is one of them.

[CEB]

Its actually quite common. Our peditrician had advised us to wait until DS had been home and hearing English for a significant amount of time but not much past his second birthday if his speech was still so limited. We had him evaluated by Early Intervention at 20 months (11 months home) when he had less than 10 words and everything else in the world was a Ba (and he would not try to imitate any other sounds and he made lots of back of throat noises in babbling). The speech therapist found him to be at 12 months level for speech (the general developmental therapist found him right on age track). We started speech therapy through EI at 21 months and it took 4 months of very slow but steady progress and then starting at 25 months something clicked and he got it. At 27 months he is still a little behind (and still getting therapy - we have been approved for services through year end) but almost caught up - and no more funny throat noises. Its possible he would have clicked without the therapy but that certainly did not hurt (and I believe it really was beneficial at some level). Its amazing to come home every day and hear what he learned (ie last night I asked "what did you have for dinner" and he said "food". So I asked "what kind of food" and he said with a big grin "pizza mama"). He is putting together 2 words but that is the area that the therapist is having us focus on now - longer sentences/expressions. So, bottom line, have her evaluated and give her every opportunity to be successful but again its common and she is probably going to be fine regardless. Good luck!

[jennsult]

My DD is 20 mos and says maybe 8 words clearly. She also is not walking yet. We are more concerned with the walking part however, have been told not to really worry until she hits that 2 year birthday. I'm not saying you shouldn't be concerned but I think this is more common than you think.

[joyloo]

Funny you should post this. We just went to the pediatrician's this morning for DS's 2 year checkup. Right now he has a vocabulary of about 50 words and the only words he puts together are "bye dada". I was sure that his Dr would want him evaluated and was very surprised when he said to wait another month. He said that because DS is not delayed in any other way like understanding what we say, etc. and because he makes " babely " sentences that sounds like he is trying to talk he is not concerned. He also went on to say that him learning to talk is not going to show gradually by him saying just a few words then saying more and more. Instead he is absorbing everything he is hearing and will suddenly have a language explosion and probably suddenly start talking in sentences. I'm not sure if I am getting the best advice but I am going to give it one more month. If his language hasn't improved much by then I am definitely getting him evaluated. Just wanted to share with you what my doc said. Personally I don't see any harm in getting them evaluated. What can it hurt?

Joy

[guatparents2be]

didn't read through the posts but i think it is within normal limits for a child who was exposed to spanish as an infant. we did sign language with our son starting at 8 months and by the time he was 18 months he had about 50 signs (and only 8-10 words, not stringing them together yet.)

at 23 months he won't shut up. talks constantly has many many words, and said his first 4 words sentence a few weeks ago "mommy, daddy, stop talking!"

it's fine to get your child assessed but make sure that they evaluate in context of the situation.

[mkinzie]

DD is from China. She came home at 13 mo. She also didn't say to many words at 18 months. She was evaluated by EI (I recommend it whether you see a problem or not. They had many good ideas to jumpstart language) and found to be within the normal range. At a little over 2 years she had a "language explosion" like Joyloo said. It was amazing! Now at 2 1/2 yrs she talks constantly and sings constantly, too. She can sing the whole song "Tomorrow" from the movie "Annie" with no mistakes. It amazes me how far she's come! I was worried to death this time last year! My pediatritian kept saying to give her time and it would all work out. Luckily it did! Hang in there!

[jamilahlashwe]

Our son is 19 months. he came home at 11 months. he heard Spanish until then, then English AND Czech. He totally understands everything in both of those languages. He doesn't say any words clearly, but talk non-stop in his own language. Those are long sentences with pauses, intonation, iflictions, gesturing etc. If you didn't know, you would think it is a legitimate language. He signs "more" and "please" a communicates very effectively in other ways (if he wants to go out, he brings me his shoes and jacket, then my shoes and stands in front of the door etc.). He is pretty advanced in all other ways, so I am not terribly concerned, but will talk to our ped at our upcoming visit.


Jamila

[mamaskoby]

My son didn't say one word at 18 months and when I called Early Intervention they old me he should be saying 50 to 100 words at 18 months and by 2 years should be saying 2 word sentences. They assessed his speech at equivalent to a 7 month olds. We now have 3 different therapists coming to our house every week to help.
Trust your instinct. Early Intervention is awesome and is soooooo helpful. It certainly cannot hurt to get an assessment!

[SKL]

Originally Posted by mamaskoby

Early Intervention they me he should be saying 50 to 100 words at 18 months and by 2 years should be saying 2 word sentences.

Wow, I've never heard or read that an 18mo should be saying 50 to 100 words. I am sure that some do, but I bet it's the exception rather than the rule.

[JustBarbara]

[quote=mamaskoby]My son didn't say one word at 18 months and when I called Early Intervention they old me he should be saying 50 to 100 words at 18 months and by 2 years should be saying 2 word sentences. \quote] Wow - I have never heard of that but as another poster said I'm sure there are EI folks who also have that high benchmark. DS came home at 5 1/2 months - and was hearing English and Spanish at home. At 18 months he had 10-12 words and I asked the ped if we should get an EI assessment. She suggested we wait until 21 months. At that age DS had worked up to 30 words - then a month later it was 70 words at 23 months over 130 and now he is talking up a storm and speaking in 4-5 word sentences and also very good with the one-word sentences "NO" He is exposed to English, Spanish and Russian on a daily basis and is doing very well. Seriously, if nothing else than to put your mind at ease ask for a referral - it will do no harm. EI is amazing - really I am a true believer. Niece and nephew both had it for speech and niece for PT. Now at 6 1/2 they are oh so ready for first grade - both physically, intellectually and emotionally. Good luck.