I have a baby who turned 15 months old on the 24th. I am growing concerned about her lack of learning to talk. She is very intelligent otherwise...she can come to me when I ask her to, she hit all of her milestones on time, she smiles and laughs at us and others when we play, and knows how to reach for things that she wants....she just can't point and ask for it. She will scream, cry, grunt, whine for things, but as I try and teach her to point and say, she doesn't pick it up. We take her out to the park where there are lots of little kids to play with, but she just does her own thing, acknowledging other kids, but don't interact.
I don't know if I am overreacting or not, but I have contact the local early intervention program and a speech pathologist will be here soon....it was against the pedi's wishes, but I want to know and I concerned so she will be checked out. It's free and the information that give will help us in the long run, even if she is fine. I don't know what to think because she is the first and only child and I am a sahm too, so she doesn't get much exposure to other children. I don't know what to think anymore. She was doing so well until now....she jibbers alot, can hold a "conversation" and does give eye contact, only not when being held, unless she is playing with you hair or face.....um....I think that is all. Please help!
She sounds totally normal for her age. Some children don't speak until a little later, and many have a speech explosion at around 18 months. And definitely do not worry about her not playing WITH other kids. At this age, they don't!
It sounds to me like she is probably fine. Toddlers don't play WITH each other until they are much older (2+). Until then, they like to be playing with other kids around but they don't really interact much. Totally normal. For speech, does she have any words - even Mama or Dada? She should have a few words, but not many at this age.
I'm glad you called EI, and they can tell you for sure after they evaluate her. But my instinct on this one says that she seems fine.
its good that your getting her checked out. It doesn't hurt just make sure everything is ok... speech pathologist will be able to tell you more than a ped will. That's why they are trained in this area.
I can see where your worried but also know that each child responds and reaches this stage at thier own pace.
My 4th didn't start talking simple things until he was almost 2. He didn't need to, even if we were trying to make him. We knew what he wanted and instead of him getting upset about it we got it.
Im sure she will come around soon. As far as playing with others some kids would rather play alone... out of my 5 I have 2 that would rather play this way and have always been. They are also the quieter ones out of the group. I don't think there is anything to worry about there either.
Like I said getting a second opinion is a great thing at least it will put you to ease about it no matter what you find out.
She actually sounds pretty normal. Kids don't really get going on talking until closer to 2 years old. Can she say a few words like mama, dada, hi, etc? She should have about a 3-6 word vocabulary at 15 months. My son is 13 months and does point occasionally but unless it's mama, dada or Archie (our cat) that he wants, he'd never be able to ask for something by name -and I wouldn’t expect him to until closer to 2. As for playing with other kids, this won't happen until closer to 3. Until then, they parallel-play where they're aware of the other kids but are mostly doing their own thing. Try to relax and just enjoy her where she is. I know this is hard and we worry about the development - especially with our first- but it sounds like she is doing well.
She sounds completely normal, not only the talking/jibbering but her behavior around other kids. Kids don't really start playing with each other until around three.
Please go to the library and check out a few books on child development. Not parenting or discipline but DEVELOPMENT. You will learn what's "normal" and when to start being concerned :)
Relax she is only 15 months! Just keep doing what you are doing. Kids
do not play with each other at this age. She sounds like a perfectly normal
15 month old. Babies develop at their own pace. My daughter had a few
words at 11 months. When she started walking she stopped talking. I have
a feeling that is what you are seeing. Walking takes a lot and babies cannot
initially do both at the same time. My daughter did eventually talk. She was
a late talker. When she did speak it was not baby talk, she spoke in
sentences
So I say relax and enjoy your little girl!
At 15 months it's not unusual for a child to not talk. It is unusual that they can't reach for what they want. My year old granddaughter has been reaching for what she wants for a couple of months now. But she's not pointing.
Babbling is the first step to talking. My year old granddaughter babbles a lot of the time. I don't expect her to be talking by the time she's 15 months. She's a long way from making sense of her sounds. She does say ba ba and reaches for her bottle. She say buin for button. That's because we talk to her using those words.
Also at 15 months a child plays along side but not with other babies. She won't be interested in playing with another baby until she's much older. 15 months is way too early to have conversations.
It's good that you're having her evaluated. I think that you'll feel reassured. Since she's babbling she's most likely on the right track.
Here is a good site for milestones. http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/devmile.htm
Here are some links you may not have seen that could help you.
http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/articledetail.cfm?id=323
http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-15-month-olds-language-a...
Remember she is very young still and children all develop at different levels and ages. Don't worry yet and just enjoy her. Talk to her all the time and show her things, tell her things and names for them as you talk and make it an everyday thing. If you can make her ask for things but she doesn't have a vocabulary large enough to ask for most things yet. As for pointing maybe that will come later but try to teach her to ask for them and not point. Kids this age do not play together or interact with each other to play. I would not do a speech pathologist at all at this point. Let her grow and develop and enjoy her and not put her through therapy, etc.,etc. She's still a baby.
I would not worry about her playing with other children at this point. At that age and even into the 2's, they will play independently (or "parallel") rather than together. That is normal development.
In terms of speech, has the ped evaluated her hearing? That can be a stumbling block to speech. My son had very limited speech but also had almost constant ear infections during his first year. When we got tubes put in his ears at 13 months, he started picking up speech very quickly. The infections were causing hearing loss which in turn causes difficulty learning language sounds. Just something to think about!
Your ped should do an MCHAT test at 18 months. It covers pointing and eye contact among other things. Try not to worry until then. You may want to try sign language.
Your daughter sounds a lot like mine. She's really bright, but she learned to talk late. She'll be 3 this July, and she's just now starting to really pick up how to talk. I wasn't sure whether to be nervous, but my family & pediatrician said to be patient - every child develops at his/her own pace in different areas, and as long as there are no other problems (like signs of hearing problems or of a mental deficiency) I should just let her be. They were right. She's doing fine, and I'm sure your daughter will too. I think the 2 main reasons to not start with a speech therapist or tests too early are these: 1) the intervention programs are quick to "diagnose" disorders that aren't really there & once your child gets labeled, it's really hard to remove that label even after it's become clear that there is no problem. 2) if your daughter is just taking her time on language development, speech therapy & all that goes with that might just stress her out & cause her to be further delayed. I hope this helps! I know it's so hard to be patient when all you want is to hear your little girl say this or that. But I think she will develop her speech in her own perfect time!
I have two kids. My first child did not learn to speak until he was 2 1/2 years old. He went to a Montessori School (between 2 years and 2 1/2) and the teacher was concerned that he didn't speak. The problem was that I was also a SAHM and he didn't have much exposure to other kids/people. And as a mom we understand what our child wants just by intuition or because we learned what their jestures/ different cries are asking. So the child doesn't necessary learn to speak with us for us to understand what he/she wants. Which is great except there is no pressure for him to learn to speak when he is getting everything without speaking. So when he went to school the teachers didn't understand his jestures and so he was forced to speak if he needed something. At 2 1/2 he started speaking and caught up to the rest of the kids in speech very quickly. Now he's in 1st grade and at times I can't get him to stop talking (lol). So maybe if she wants something try to make her ask for it. Or for example, if she wants her blanket say to her "can you say blanket"? Also, my kids didn't start actually begin interactively playing with other kids until they were around 3 years old. I think she's really young so give her time. But when I observed the kids at a birthday parties, most of the kids didn't interactively play with other kids until 2-3 years, depending if they had siblings.
We have 3 kids , 7 ,5 and 17 months...........all 3 were just like that at that age.........
She sounds pretty normal at 15 mos.
Over reacting she is only 15 months
To tell you the truth, she sounds OK to me! My son didn't start talking until about 18 months (if I remember correctly), but now at 3 he'll talk you until your ears fall off. I don't think children start playing with each other until they're much older. They will play along side other kids, but not with them....they kind of do their own thing. I would say my son really started playing with his sister, who is 6, at around 2.5...maybe even three.
I'm at SAHM too, and it's a little nerve wracking when you don't have a model to follow. I went through that with my first child, but from one mom to another, she sounds A-Okay to me.
When my son was 18 months old he didn't talk AT ALL, no mama or dada, nothing. We had him evaluated and found his receptive language skills (what he understood) were 6 months ahead and his expressive language skills (what he could say) were 9 months behind. We started using some sign language with him to help him express himself. When he was reevaluated at 22 months his receptive language skills were at the limit of the test (3 y/o) and his expressive language skills were 6 months ahead. When he was in the 2 y/o range he used "therefore" correctly in a sentence. His language has continued to be ahead of his peers. He is now 14.
My advice is have her tested for your own peace of mind. I also recommend starting to teach her some simple sign language so she can ask you for things. We started with "more" and he used it in response to me asking if he wanted more of something about 2 days after we showed it to him a couple of times. We then taught him the signs for things he would ask for: drink, food, specific items.
It seemed that once he was able to express his wants, etc. in sign he quickly started talking.
Let us know how things go.
Some kids don't speak until late! 15 months is early by most standards. Give it time.
