Get an early intervention evaluation. Can’t hurt

Clinical social worker. Absence of a caregiver word at 12mo is a hard red flag for ASD assessment. You should get further testing.

14 months doesn't sound very late to me, OP.

My first was like this, too. Still not a single word at his 15 month checkup, at which point we were referred to early intervention. This was in DC, where early intervention is really good. The testing showed a pretty significant communications delay, but no delays in the other areas (they test them all no matter why you’re referred - motor skills, cognitive, social/emotional, communication, and there was one other I forget). We started speech therapy. He still had zero words at 18 months.

Said his first word at 19 months, and then his language took off. At 24 months he was completely caught up and speaking in complex sentences. We only ended up doing six months of services.

He’s now a healthy, happy 5 year old who talks non-stop.

All that to say - you’re either out of the range of normal or close to it. But most of the time that ends up fine. So no need to worry, but yes, if there’s still no words next month, it’ll be time to get him some help to jump start his speech.

Hi OP. I have three kids so I can only speak from my experience, but I do not think this is normal. My middle was the same was as you. He had zero words at one. My first was advanced, so it was hard to compare but I knew this was not on track. We had his hearing tested at the advice of his ped (it was fine). He also started speech therapy (private) around age one. The speech therapy gave him great options like sign language to use while he was still figuring out words. And it gave us as parents ways to communicate with our son where he was at - mimicking signs, etc to help his share his needs.

You will get MANY people telling you this is normal, “my kid didn’t say a word til 3” etc, but go with your gut - there is truly absolutely no harm in early intervention speech therapy. It’s a wonderful learning process for you and your kiddo.

My speech therapy kid talks more than anyone in our family now FWIW.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is totally normal. Early intervention will start being interested if there are no sounds/words at 18 months and won't do any interventions until there are no words at 22-24 months. You might have friends with early talkers that you are comparing her to, but she isn't even yet a late talker herself.

Not true in MD. My son was assessed before he was 2 and had plenty of words but still qualified based on his lack of enunciation. His daycare teacher told me to get him assessed and it has been helpful. He is 2.5 now and still behind but making progress.

Here is the link to sign up for MD, but each state has a program.



https://marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Pages/Special-Education/MITP/index.aspx

Agree, we are in MoCo (MD) and reached out to early intervention at 16 months because DC had no words at the time. We qualified for early intervention and received parent coaching. By 22 months DC was doing great speechwise (later diagnosed with level 1 autism, previously known as high functioning, but not because of speech issues).

They will not just look at words. They will look at the sounds your DC is making as well. I believe 14 months is in the normal range to not have words yet. However there is no downside to reaching out to early intervention to get assessed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: OP, I would give the pediatrician a call. I think the things your child is doing sounds like they are on the way to speaking-but it's easy enough to check their hearing. Sometimes kids have fluid in their ears that we don't know about. The ped could also refer to EI for an evaluation-these are easy and fun for the child, and reassuring if there is nothing to worry about.

This. I have known a few kids who were slightly delayed verbally and it was due to fluid in the ears.

This was my third kid. No babbling at a year. He had fluid in his ears. Got tubes and started babbling/talking soon after.

Anonymous wrote: OP, I would give the pediatrician a call. I think the things your child is doing sounds like they are on the way to speaking-but it's easy enough to check their hearing. Sometimes kids have fluid in their ears that we don't know about. The ped could also refer to EI for an evaluation-these are easy and fun for the child, and reassuring if there is nothing to worry about.

This. I have known a few kids who were slightly delayed verbally and it was due to fluid in the ears.

Anonymous wrote:That is totally normal. Early intervention will start being interested if there are no sounds/words at 18 months and won't do any interventions until there are no words at 22-24 months. You might have friends with early talkers that you are comparing her to, but she isn't even yet a late talker herself.

Not true in MD. My son was assessed before he was 2 and had plenty of words but still qualified based on his lack of enunciation. His daycare teacher told me to get him assessed and it has been helpful. He is 2.5 now and still behind but making progress.

Here is the link to sign up for MD, but each state has a program.



https://marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Pages/Special-Education/MITP/index.aspx

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ba is a word for example if your baby points to the bottle or a ball and is saying "ba" to identify that object. I think it would be pretty rare for a 14 month old to say bottle or ball. Sounds like your daughter is totally normal.

She gestures, waves, points, and is pretty good at nonverbal communication, but I don't think she says any sounds that she has assigned a consistent meaning. She often points to birds, butterflies, ceiling fans, and other things up high like the sky as viewed through windows by saying Ba or Da but I don't know if that counts...? Maybe Ba/Da means "thing that is up in the air"? Or just, "Look at that!" Is that too vague to count as a word?

I don't think so if it's consistent when she sees those things.

Doesn't hurt to talk to the pediatrician.

I'd also watch some Miss Rachel videos for your own education as how she talks to the kids basically models speech therapy. Lots of repetition, clear talking, showing kids the shape of her mouth, etc.

Call early intervention directly. You don’t need a pediatrician’s referral. Ask relatives if there’s a history of late talking in either of your families.

OP, I would give the pediatrician a call. I think the things your child is doing sounds like they are on the way to speaking-but it's easy enough to check their hearing. Sometimes kids have fluid in their ears that we don't know about. The ped could also refer to EI for an evaluation-these are easy and fun for the child, and reassuring if there is nothing to worry about.

My son wasn’t talking at this age and they had us check his ears. They were fine and he was talking about six months later.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that she babbles a lot and imitates sounds is wonderful.

She has repeated some simple words like Boom but does not know what they mean.

Try sign language /modified sign if you want her to learn meaning without emerging vocal language.