Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is not a good sign. Do not wait and reach out to your pediatrician.

I took speech language pathology and at this stage she should at least know a few words! Zero words is not a good sign.

Early intervention is important!

Yes but it's fixable right?

DP. PP is being extremely alarmist. While not having words at 15 months is outside of the normal range, a significant portion of children that do have delays at this age, especially if it is just in expressive language, can catch up on their own. Our DD had no words at 16 months, we did do EI and found it super helpful, but I suspect she would have caught up on her own. She graduated from EI after 6 months because she was meeting/exceeding milestones.

The problem is, you don't know if your child will be the one that catches up on their own, or if they'll need help, and interventions work better if you start early. The upshot is - your child, in all likelihood, will be just fine, but you should take advantage of the wonderful resource that is early intervention.

Anonymous wrote:this is not a good sign. Do not wait and reach out to your pediatrician.

I took speech language pathology and at this stage she should at least know a few words! Zero words is not a good sign.

Early intervention is important!

Yes but it's fixable right?

this is not a good sign. Do not wait and reach out to your pediatrician.

I took speech language pathology and at this stage she should at least know a few words! Zero words is not a good sign.

Early intervention is important!

That’s a clear delay. Call now.

My twins are 20. They were premies and the pediatrician kept putting off concerns about delays by saying it’s ok - they are premies. We got them evaluated at 18 months and were shocked to learn they needed PT, OT and ST. Our next door neighbor at the time was an empty nester and she said that her son (around 30 at the time) was a late walker but that he walks just fine now. We didn’t appreciate it at the time but do now. Mine started talking just before they turned 3. I have to admit it was a huge relief. My dd occasionally references the early years and I say it doesn’t matter where you start, it matters where you finish. Bottom line: trust your gut, not your ped and get the eval now. Remember the journey is long and has ups and downs.

I thought my 15-month had no words (aside from "uh-oh" which she did use properly when she dropped stuff) so I started trying to get her to mimic/work on receptive language through naming body parts and it took her a few hours to learn to point at her nose when I said nose and about two days of this to say nose herself. She's still (at 17 months) not really interested in talking per se, but knows a couple body parts, a couple shapes, has specific words she uses for certain animals, and says "ball" and "row" (sing row row row your boat, mum!) consistently without prompting.

I didn't schedule intervention at 15 months (because I called my mother and she said none of us talked much until 2) and while my household is English-dominant, we do have a second language which does delay speech a bit. That being said, if I hadn't seen improvement I would have scheduled something at 18 months and if you're concerned it certainly can't hurt!

Good luck, OP! I know this kind of thing is stressful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not necessarily worried but just checking in with other people. Also, we speak both English and Spanish at home and I'm not sure if that ACTUALLY delays speaking. I've heard that's not actually true but who knows.

Anyway, she just babbles mamama and "uh oh." Thanks all.

We are a bilingual home and our daughter also with speech delayed. When we decided to just stick to English vocabulary shot up.

Our speech therapist told us that while children in bilingual homes sometimes do speak later, it's not bad for them and learning two languages is great for their development. Stopping the second language is no longer recommended.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not necessarily worried but just checking in with other people. Also, we speak both English and Spanish at home and I'm not sure if that ACTUALLY delays speaking. I've heard that's not actually true but who knows.

Anyway, she just babbles mamama and "uh oh." Thanks all.

We are a bilingual home and our daughter also with speech delayed. When we decided to just stick to English vocabulary shot up.

Anonymous wrote:My son is 17 months old and probably has about 20 words, and we speak English, and his nanny and sister speak Spanish. He understands both.

Your DD is still within the range of normal - do you feel like she comprehends? Can she follow directions? She'll probably surprise you when she's 2, and bust out with a full sentence.

No, she's not within the range of normal. She is delayed.

I don't think TV is the answer but singing songs is a good way to teach language. Our speech therapist had us sing very simple songs at that age. Like the name song (you can make up the tune) that goes "Mama, mama, sing a little mama song" and then say "Where's mama?" and point to myself. Then do the same for baby, and for stuffed animals, dada, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does she watch sesame street videos? Try to watch and sing the songs with her.

This is, I'm sorry to say, bad advice. Studies have shown that kids this age cannot learn from interacting with videos. Read, sing, talk, point, that's all great, but do it without the videos.

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I agree...I've never heard of using tv for a 15 month old. Last I heard, closer to age 2 was the recommendation.