No talking at 15 months

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearing test

This. Go to an ENT and see an audiologist.

[Anonymous]

We had this issue with our daughter. Not many sounds at 15 months, a few words at 18 months. When she was not adding more words by 24 months, we had her evaluated. (Her hearing was fine, btw, and no ear infections). She tested completely normal except for an expressive language delay. We began speech therapy a few months after she turned 2, and now at 3 she is almost all the way caught up. It did seem like it was just the passage of time rather than the therapy that did the trick, but I do think the therapy was helpful nonetheless. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing test

This. Go to an ENT and see an audiologist.

+2

My DD had a speech delay due to problems with hearing (which were caused by ear fluid). Once we got the hearing issues resolved with tubes, she made very quick progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 15-month-old baby says no words at all. Not even Mama or Dada. He makes English-sounding syllables, but that's about it.

His doctor isn't worried. But all of the milestone lists I've found online say that he should be able to say a few words.

Anyone have any advice? Anyone's child have a similar history and then go onto speak well? I'm worried that his lack of words could signal some cognitive/intellectual issue.

How does he currently spend his days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there more than one language spoken at home or by caregivers? Both of mine have been slow to speak, but I've changed it up to our Spanish speaking au pairs. Neither have had any long term speech issues.

Exposure to more than one language does not cause speech delays.

This is one of the biggest myths out there - children are ripe for learning more than one language and it doesn't delay them in the slightest.

It doesn't cause speech delays but it can delay talking in one or both of the languages for a short period of time.

NP here. My kids are raised bilingually (DH speaks his native language to them, I speak English) and they have both been delayed in start of speech, but quickly caught up with and surpassed peers after that. Both didn't really have any words until 18 months, when things took off. DH's and my siblings' kids (none of whom are raised bilingually) have started speaking earlier and have not advanced so quickly after starting to speak. From what I read about raising our kids bilingually, this is normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing test

This. Go to an ENT and see an audiologist.

+2

My DD had a speech delay due to problems with hearing (which were caused by ear fluid). Once we got the hearing issues resolved with tubes, she made very quick progress.

The Child Find Office/Health Department in Fairfax County actually do it for free! For a while, they were testing him on a yearly basis - at no cost to us. We only went to an ENT when fluid in his ears didn't resolve (and he had no history of ear infections).

[Anonymous]

My DD said uh-oh and mama until she turned 2, then started speaking in full sentences (in English; she had been exposed to two other languages at home). But it was clear that she understood what people said to her and she communicated perfectly what she wanted, but without using words. She's something of a perfectionist to this day and is very verbal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't freak out. Does your child communicate needs in other ways? Does s/he understand what you are saying? Does s/he want to be read to? AT that age, kids love those picture books that have 1000 pictures of household items and the label next to it. My kids wanted us to "read" those over and over.

My oldest really had no words at 15 mos. At 22 mos. she had only a few verbalizations (like un-unh for no, and uh-hun for yes, bus, mama, dah-dah.) Seriously, she had like 10 sounds when she was 24 mos. We did the child find services around 20 mos.

First the child find people came to observe and assess our home and interactions. They told me that first day that they could tell she wasn't autistic b/c of how DD responded and interacted with me. They asked if I was a teacher b/c of all educational toys (blocks, music, books, etc.) I had in the house (apparently it's not like that in a lot of homes).

The child find lady would sit on the floor and stack blocks and say "UP!" "UP"... etc. I thought it was a waste of time and my child would look at me (when the child find speech therapist came) and she would be looking at me like "I already know this... duh!"

My child was an extremely cautious child. She didn't step off the sidewalk onto the grass willingly. She always understood heights and was never at risk of falling down stairs. She would never climb up on a table. She would burst into tears if brought into a noisy room (we would always go first to a gathering so that the crowd would come upon her slowly). She just isn't a risk-taker at all -- to this day and she's 12.5 yrs old.

So, with very few words at around 24 mos. and me feeling that the "speech therapy" was a waste of time, I called and cancelled their services. When she got to 26 mos, she literally started talking a bunch and never shut up since! Seriously -- the words just started coming out. She was absorbing the words all along (as we knew she understood everything), but she just wasn't willing to take the risk of speaking until she was ready.

I know other kids who didn't really talk much at all until 24 mos. or so. Don't freak out. Consider your child's personality and whether it seems like s/he is understanding and responding to you.

This is OP. Part of the reason I am worried is because the lack of talking seems at odds with my son's personality. He is quite social -- loves to be picked up and played with -- and he babbles a lot (but doesn't say actual words).

So I guess I'm worried that the lack of words signifies that there's some intellectual or physical disconnect. That is, it seems like from his personality that he would be inclined to be speaking by now. So I'm worried that he isn't speaking because he can't.

Anyway, I am going to contact Child Find. Thanks for all of the help, posters!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had this issue with our daughter. Not many sounds at 15 months, a few words at 18 months. When she was not adding more words by 24 months, we had her evaluated. (Her hearing was fine, btw, and no ear infections). She tested completely normal except for an expressive language delay. We began speech therapy a few months after she turned 2, and now at 3 she is almost all the way caught up. It did seem like it was just the passage of time rather than the therapy that did the trick, but I do think the therapy was helpful nonetheless. Good luck!

Do the doctors know why there's this delay? Will she face a lifetime of related issues? Is there an intelligence component? Is it just physical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had this issue with our daughter. Not many sounds at 15 months, a few words at 18 months. When she was not adding more words by 24 months, we had her evaluated. (Her hearing was fine, btw, and no ear infections). She tested completely normal except for an expressive language delay. We began speech therapy a few months after she turned 2, and now at 3 she is almost all the way caught up. It did seem like it was just the passage of time rather than the therapy that did the trick, but I do think the therapy was helpful nonetheless. Good luck!

Do the doctors know why there's this delay? Will she face a lifetime of related issues? Is there an intelligence component? Is it just physical?

No, in our case there didn't seem to be a reason for the delay, but late talking does run in our family. The important thing at this age is that their receptive language (what they understand) is doing okay. Remember that the milestones are a guideline designed to get kids who may have more serious problems the early intervention they need. They're not a hard and fast rule...many kids are simply late talkers who will catch up by the time school starts. My daughter seems to be very intelligent, and her speech therapist does not expect further problems for her down the road.

As to your concerns that you mentioned in response to the other PP, my daughter is extremely social and a little daredevil. It's not just cautious perfectionists who are late talkers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had this issue with our daughter. Not many sounds at 15 months, a few words at 18 months. When she was not adding more words by 24 months, we had her evaluated. (Her hearing was fine, btw, and no ear infections). She tested completely normal except for an expressive language delay. We began speech therapy a few months after she turned 2, and now at 3 she is almost all the way caught up. It did seem like it was just the passage of time rather than the therapy that did the trick, but I do think the therapy was helpful nonetheless. Good luck!

Do the doctors know why there's this delay? Will she face a lifetime of related issues? Is there an intelligence component? Is it just physical?

No, in our case there didn't seem to be a reason for the delay, but late talking does run in our family. The important thing at this age is that their receptive language (what they understand) is doing okay. Remember that the milestones are a guideline designed to get kids who may have more serious problems the early intervention they need. They're not a hard and fast rule...many kids are simply late talkers who will catch up by the time school starts. My daughter seems to be very intelligent, and her speech therapist does not expect further problems for her down the road.

As to your concerns that you mentioned in response to the other PP, my daughter is extremely social and a little daredevil. It's not just cautious perfectionists who are late talkers

You just can't make generalizations like this. Even if there is a receptive delay, you may be "okay." We had a receptive delay diagnosed at one point, now we do not, it is clear it is an ADHD issue. Many kids with ASD have receptive delays. They are hard to tease out. At 4, my son's speech is "average" according to testing although I would say he is nowhere near at the level of sophistication or fluency of some of his peers, and am going to continue speech.

Kids with delayed talking, both expressive and receptive, are at higher risk for LDs later on, esp language based ones, which is not a shock. Your SLP can't tell you if your child is on track cognitively, either, so if you do suspect a cognitive issue, that's really for a dev ped or testing way later on down the road. Try not to worry about that now, you will not know the answers to all of these questions for a while, and as you go on, the questions may become way less pressing, as they so often do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had this issue with our daughter. Not many sounds at 15 months, a few words at 18 months. When she was not adding more words by 24 months, we had her evaluated. (Her hearing was fine, btw, and no ear infections). She tested completely normal except for an expressive language delay. We began speech therapy a few months after she turned 2, and now at 3 she is almost all the way caught up. It did seem like it was just the passage of time rather than the therapy that did the trick, but I do think the therapy was helpful nonetheless. Good luck!

Do the doctors know why there's this delay? Will she face a lifetime of related issues? Is there an intelligence component? Is it just physical?

No, in our case there didn't seem to be a reason for the delay, but late talking does run in our family. The important thing at this age is that their receptive language (what they understand) is doing okay. Remember that the milestones are a guideline designed to get kids who may have more serious problems the early intervention they need. They're not a hard and fast rule...many kids are simply late talkers who will catch up by the time school starts. My daughter seems to be very intelligent, and her speech therapist does not expect further problems for her down the road.

As to your concerns that you mentioned in response to the other PP, my daughter is extremely social and a little daredevil. It's not just cautious perfectionists who are late talkers

You just can't make generalizations like this. Even if there is a receptive delay, you may be "okay." We had a receptive delay diagnosed at one point, now we do not, it is clear it is an ADHD issue. Many kids with ASD have receptive delays. They are hard to tease out. At 4, my son's speech is "average" according to testing although I would say he is nowhere near at the level of sophistication or fluency of some of his peers, and am going to continue speech.

Kids with delayed talking, both expressive and receptive, are at higher risk for LDs later on, esp language based ones, which is not a shock. Your SLP can't tell you if your child is on track cognitively, either, so if you do suspect a cognitive issue, that's really for a dev ped or testing way later on down the road. Try not to worry about that now, you will not know the answers to all of these questions for a while, and as you go on, the questions may become way less pressing, as they so often do.

I apologize if I didn't express that well - I didn't mean to imply that kids are "not okay" if there is any sort of receptive delay, just that when we were meeting with everyone doing the various evaluations, they were more or less unconcerned with my daughter's expressive-only delay. They were definitely looking more closely at her receptive skills and what those were like, looking for signs of a more serious problem.

As to the speech therapist's assessment, obviously I did not mean that she was guaranteeing us that my child will never have any language or learning problems ever again. But in regards to the specific speech issues that we were treating, those seem to be resolved for the foreseeable future.

[Anonymous]

I would def do the hearing test - probably the most common reason for speech delays.

And I would also try child find because it is free. However, they may diagnose you with a speech delay and suggest therapy - but you should tease out whether there is a developmental issue versus merely delayed speech. If there's no developmental issue and just delayed speech, I'd be inclined at 15 months not to worry about speech therapy (that they may recommend) and see what happens with time. You'll see a lot of people on here claim how their two year old was barely talking and then, after a year of speech therapy poof - full sentences. Hard to know if that's the therapy or the passage of time. I researched heavily when my son was a late talker, and in the absence of a developmental issue, studies show that speech delayed kids look and act and perform as well as heir peers at age 10. So essentially they grow out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there more than one language spoken at home or by caregivers? Both of mine have been slow to speak, but I've changed it up to our Spanish speaking au pairs. Neither have had any long term speech issues.

Exposure to more than one language does not cause speech delays.

This is one of the biggest myths out there - children are ripe for learning more than one language and it doesn't delay them in the slightest.

It doesn't cause speech delays but it can delay talking in one or both of the languages for a short period of time.

NP here. My kids are raised bilingually (DH speaks his native language to them, I speak English) and they have both been delayed in start of speech, but quickly caught up with and surpassed peers after that. Both didn't really have any words until 18 months, when things took off. DH's and my siblings' kids (none of whom are raised bilingually) have started speaking earlier and have not advanced so quickly after starting to speak. From what I read about raising our kids bilingually, this is normal.

My kids are being raised bilingually and haven't been delayed, though all have learned at their own pace within "normal."

Bilingual kids will have less words of each language typically when they learn, and in the first several years. Their words may be a mix of the languages or hard to understand (but most babies words are.) But there is no evidence they should actually be delayed and not have SOME VERSION of words on target.