In about the same exact scenario - doctors encouraged us to start day care for this reason. Were hesitant about the risks but moving forward.

Neither of our kids spoke until after 2 years old (only 3-5 words before 2) or walked until 18-19 months. Our pediatrician is older and very laid back; she said they were just “on their own schedule”, so we never got therapy.

The kids are now in elementary school, and will not sit down or shut up! They aren’t geniuses, though. Just average.

Both of my kids needed speech. They had only a handful of words at 2. It turned out that one had a stutter and the other had a lisp. The stutterer is completely fine but has to slow down when he’s excited or he has to repeat words in order to get his point across. It doesn’t affect his friendships or anything else, his teacher didn’t even know. My other with the lisp still sounds a little funny, the other day he was asked if he was from Boston. Both have completely normal vocabularies now and communicate well.

My youngest was not talking at all at 12 months, only 4-5 words at 18 months, and I did request a hearing and speech eval. We watched closely and the therapist gave me strategies to use at home. She started daycare around that time as well (previously with nanny) and her speech improved a lot- she's caught up now at age 3 and articulates well. There's absolutely no harm in being proactive!