What can your child do/say?

Question

Could you all please tell me what your 16 month old (or around that age) can do/say?
I’m really worried about my 16 month old daughter I’ve expressed my concerns with the health visitor but her reply was “go to more parent and baby groups” 
My daughters physical development is fine she’s doing everything she should be for her age if more more, but when it comes to her language and emotional development that’s where I worry! She doesn’t speak any words at all, she babbles a lot (dada,baba,diddy,momma without knowing the meanings) she doesn’t respond to her own name and doesn’t understand anything such as get your toys, get you diddy etc. I’m not sure if she’s just a late bloomer due to being an only child or if it’s something more.

Answer

So I had similar worries with my daughter but spoke with her pediatrician. Her pediatrician said for most children, the language bloom is typically sometime between 18-24 months, even though most parents expect children to be speaking sooner. 
She said most children have between 5-10 words at 18 months old, and noises that are not “words” to us, still count if they are used consistently to refer to the same thing. After hearing this I calmed down a lot.
I have so say, she was right. Before 20 months my daughter added words to her vocabulary but it was very slow progress. Then around 20 months my daughter went from saying a few certain works to talking constantly, putting short sentences together, and trying new words every single day. I would say she went from maybe 25 words to 500 in a month. It was phenomenal. 
I think so many parenting websites and articles lead us to believe most children are talking earlier than this, but, especially for first time parents who may not know to look for consistent noises as “words” (or animal noises count too) we feel like our children are falling behind, when in fact they’re doing just fine.

Answer

I have to say that not responding to her name or other words is more concerning than not generating meaningful speech. I agree kids develop speech at different rates, but typically they can understand much more than they can express. I’d look into getting her assessed by a speech and language pathologist.

Answer

Every child is totally different!! I’m from Australia and our health nurses say that around 18 months they should be up to 5-10 words by then and are able to point to or grab things you say like “‘where’s the dinosaur”, can roleplay, knows and responds to their own name, starting to try out their own socks or jumper on. There’s a few more but i can’t remember ahaha. Every child is different though my niece is 18 months and can do a few more activities than my son  but can’t say many words where my son can say over 20+ words  but is a bit slow on doing things like climbing up to a slide and some 18 month olds can barely do either. So just goes to show how different every baby is. Obviously 18 months is a 2 month age gap but still close, there’s some mum apps you can download to show you the levels your child should be starting to get up to but no need to stress and if you do see your local pediatrician

Answer

They develop at their own rate. I wouldn’t worry unless your pediatrician says you should.

What can your child do/say?

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