The internet says so many conflicting things. My kids understands a lot like he can point to body parts or go find/identify a toy if I say the name of it, etc. BUT he’s only making random noises. For example, he just says the exact same thing for every B word just “buh” (whether it’s a bike, baseball bat, book, bumble bee, belly button, etc). He is not progressing to pronounce anything even over months of identifying these things as “buh.” And he often tries to communicate something and gets frustrated and just says “o oo oh uh o oh.” He likes the word open and says “oh-en” for open. But then almost everything he he tries to tell me is some variation of this word/sound even though he wants to tell me something else not related to “open”. He attempts a few animal sounds like cluck, quack, and oink, but they are again just very poorly defined noises. ( “Ga” for quack, “oh” for oink).

Clearly he’s trying to talk and he understands things which is great, BUT my concern is that he seems stuck and struggles to pronounce and progress past a basic consonant sound. even if he’s said that sound for 3+ months, it doesn’t progress into a defined word.

My parents said I said the alphabet at 1 including a word beginning with each letter, and full sentences and songs by 2, and I know that’s early but it’s hard not to compare and think something is wrong with my kid. And I’ve let him watch a little bit of Ms Rachel almost every day (no other tv) but I’m thinking that the tv could have delayed him. I spend time daily reading with him, singing songs, and doing all the things.

My insurance doesn’t cover speech therapy but I’ll do it if he’s delayed. I’m worried that he may have issues with his lips/tongue/ oral motor skills that are preventing him from saying things. He is not a good eater and still likes mainly purées vs the “work” of chewing (doctor isn’t concerned since weight and appetite are good and he can chew food, and yes we’ve seen feeding therapy as well).

Any thoughts??? Does he need therapy to pronounce words? Thanks!!!