If your toddler is not talking, make sure to get their hearing checked. Also note the variety of sounds they are making, such as babbling with consonants and varied vowel sounds.

My son had very few words at 20 months, but he also never babbled due to temporary hearing loss (fluid in ears) as a baby. The words used a very small handful of sounds, I think just one or two vowel sounds. He started speech therapy before 2 yo and it was tremendously helpful.

Anonymous wrote:My oldest had maybe 10 words at 17 months, and when he started day care at 18 months learned 100 words in a week. By about 22 months, he was speaking in mostly grammatically correct sentences. He started slowly, but exploded once he started going, and at seven years, hasn't slowed down much. But he struggles mightily in other areas, such as motor skills.

My youngest is now 26 months. He started speaking earlier, with about 20 words at 14 months, and has steadily increased, but never had an explosion. He had several hundred words and was singing by 20 months. He's now behind where his older brother was at this age. He is focused on communicating his needs/opinions, and doesn't care as much about getting it right.

I attribute a lot of the difference to books. DS1 would listen to books for hours pretty much from the day he was born. He'd never fall asleep - just listen and watch the illustrations for as long as you'd read to him. DS2 wanted to destroy books until he was about 18 months. So DS1 has pretty clearly had tens of thousands of more words read to him.

One thing we've consistently done with both boys is to talk to them in full sentences and to challenge them beyond their current skills/abilities. In the car, at dinner, during bath time, etc. - always having conversations, asking them for their opinions.

Been hanging around a 16 month old great niece lately. Both parents are very bright and are speaking to her in two languages. She has three words. But no one's worried and I don't think there's a reason to worry at this point.

All kids are different!

They are, and some can qualify for and benefit from early intervention services, which are free.

My oldest had maybe 10 words at 17 months, and when he started day care at 18 months learned 100 words in a week. By about 22 months, he was speaking in mostly grammatically correct sentences. He started slowly, but exploded once he started going, and at seven years, hasn't slowed down much. But he struggles mightily in other areas, such as motor skills.

My youngest is now 26 months. He started speaking earlier, with about 20 words at 14 months, and has steadily increased, but never had an explosion. He had several hundred words and was singing by 20 months. He's now behind where his older brother was at this age. He is focused on communicating his needs/opinions, and doesn't care as much about getting it right.

I attribute a lot of the difference to books. DS1 would listen to books for hours pretty much from the day he was born. He'd never fall asleep - just listen and watch the illustrations for as long as you'd read to him. DS2 wanted to destroy books until he was about 18 months. So DS1 has pretty clearly had tens of thousands of more words read to him.

One thing we've consistently done with both boys is to talk to them in full sentences and to challenge them beyond their current skills/abilities. In the car, at dinner, during bath time, etc. - always having conversations, asking them for their opinions.

Been hanging around a 16 month old great niece lately. Both parents are very bright and are speaking to her in two languages. She has three words. But no one's worried and I don't think there's a reason to worry at this point.

All kids are different!