As many of you will know Burton turned two last week. He is a very confident and well rounded little boy and, asides from the odd tantrum (aaaaargh!) he is funny and happy most of the time. I think he is amazing (obviously, I am his Mummy!) and I feel he is quite advanced for his age in most areas and has been since he was very small.
However, one area that he lacks in is his speech development. I don’t know if it is laziness or that he can’t be bothered to really try, but his vocabulary for his age is really below average. Having looked on the Internet, it appears that most toddlers can say about 20 words when they are 18 months increasing to 50 words or more by the time they turn two. Upon reaching two years old children should start to make basic sentences as well. Ok so that’s the average, and every child is different and develop at varying paces – I fully appreciate this fact.
My two year old can say the following
“mama” sometimes “mummy”
“rara” which is daddy (don’t know why he says ‘r’ instead of ‘d’)
“Mamama” which is grandma
“haahoo” which is haahoo from In The Night Garden
“dacter” which is tractor
He can say “Jenson, Burton, blue, balloon, tree and grandad” when pushed. He prefers to use his own made up sign language and noises to communicate instead, and I have to say he is brilliant at doing this because he ‘acts’ everything out so well and most of the time we can understand what he is saying. If he wants me to sing The Grand Old Duke for example he marches up and down; if he wants a drink, he lifts his hand up to his mouth and slurps; if he has done a pooh he holds his nose and points to his bottom! There are so many actions he does it’s quite staggering really. When we don’t understand what he is trying to tell us, he gets frustrated and usually has a tantrum.
Being big for his age he often gets people ask him his name when we are out and about, but of course he ignores them, leaving me to explain that he can’t talk yet. I sometimes think people wonder if he has learning difficulties because he just babbles to them. I know he finds it hard when he is in the company of other children to make them understand what he wants – he points and pushes them and says “ai” and some children think he is trying to push them over! I can see the look of bewilderment on Burton’s face when he clearly cannot understand why they don’t know what he is ‘saying’.
He isn’t stupid – he knows what animal is what, he can differentiate between colours and vehicles and can learn how to do a wooden puzzle after one go! He understands what you ask him and is a quick learner. I thought that once he learnt how to ‘speak’ a word he would use that word all the time but he only does so when asked – with the exception of those words I mentioned earlier. It isn’t like I haven’t encouraged him to talk either – when he was only a few weeks old I read to him constantly, and pointed things out and told him what they were. Television has only been more of a feature in his daily routine since he was about a year old, as before then we only ever watched In The Night Garden and Timmy Time once or twice a day to allow me time to drink my cup of tea!!
So I really don’t know why he doesn’t talk! Oh and I know people say that boys tend to be more lazy at talking – but most of Burton’s peers who are boys say far more.
But how long do I keep telling myself that it’s nothing to worry about and soon he will talking so much I will be wishing he was quieter! Should I be worried or is this “normal” for some children? Has anyone else had similar experiences? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you x
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Thank you xx
Thank you xx
Oh don’t worry, hun. He will soon catch up. Every child is individual. OH’s nephew is 25 months and he can’t say a single word. He doesn’t even produce sounds or uses signing… x
Thanks Carolin, that a makes me feel better. I don’t worry too much because I know he isn’t stupid but I thought he would be making better progress now xx
I think they say that all children catch up and are at the same level by the age of three.  If you were worried you could contact your local GP/ Health Visitor but try not to worry too much.  They do all progress at different stages 🙂 xx
Thank you. I don’t worry all the time about it, but just wondered if it was anything to worry about! X
I saw a friend and her boy yesterday and his language is pretty similar to Burton’s – he’s over two and a half so it’s true that there is a great deviation from the ‘norm’. I agree about seeing your GP though, maybe he can refer you to a speech therapist to set your mind at ease. I’d give him a bit longer though, he’s still a baby really 🙂 xx
Thanks for your comment Lindsey. I think I will see what happens over the next couple of months and if no change I will ask Doc or HV just to reassure myself that his speech development is ok xx
Maybe he is just lazy. My friend told me that her sister hardly spoke until she was four but all of a sudden she started and everyone was shocked how many words she had picked up without them knowing. Apparently, she’s a right little chatter box now LOL x
They do all develop at different rates but if you are worried I would speak to your HV, it sounds as though he understands a lot though. I have a friend who is excellent if you want a professional opinion – her name is Libby & she is very approachable – you will find her at http://www.smarttalkersblog.com/
I’m sure he will catch up in his own good time
x
Thanks Helen I will take a look x
I wouldn’t be worried at all. As you say I think its well known that boys tend to be slower at speech than girls.
We’ve been lucky with Charles in that his speech developed quite early on. [I’m trying to word this so that its not in a boasty competitive “my son is better than yours” kind of way because I’m not saying that at all xxx]
I think this is because I MADE him talk. I realised early on that if he pointed to something and grunted I would immediately get said item, or if he held his arms up and made a noise I would pick him up. So I would make him say “up” before I picked him up, or “juice” [whatever word he would use] if he wanted a drink and so on. At times it did seem a bit mean and harsh and he’d get a bit wound up so I tried not to let it get that far, by that I mean I’d give him X amount of “chances” to say the word before I gave him whatever he wanted. We found this worked really well for us and as a result we can have a full conversation with him now at 25 months. We found his girl friend who is 2 months younger than hims speech was at times at the same level as his but he understood what everything meant whereas she didn’t.
The health visitor did say it was quite rare for a boy to have such good speech as Charles.
Another friend of mines son is 2 at the end of August, he doesn’t say much at all and you can tell he gets frustrated about it. She has been to see her HV who referred he to a speech therapist but they’ve said they can’t do anything until he’s 2. So its worth speaking to your HV for a referral if you are worried.
From what you have said though Burton doesn’t sound or seem frustrated? [other than when he is with other children]
I’m sure within no matter of time you will be writing a post asking how on earth you can stop him from talking so much 🙂 xxx