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@Coral: both of my kids went through a language explosion a little after 2 years old. My daughter was a huge finger sucker and I worried a lot. I would wait a few more months before being concerned - it seems as if the number is on track with what we should expect kids to know at that age.

One thing to add: some kids have an explosion start later and that's okay. My daughter was a little behind with her expressive verbal skills but she understood everything!

At 20 months, DS had about a dozen signs but only a few words. We weren't worried because you could tell by his face that he was listening when we spoke to him. And he could follow complex directions, like get the ball and put it in the basket. In contrast, DD who is 20 months just said "waffle please, mama. Pop up. Hold it." while I was typing. The range of normal is huge. DS'S version of that at 20 months would have been to sign eat and point at the toaster. He started talking a lot after he turned 2 and hasn't stopped yet.

My daughter is 19 months and similar. Besides "want more" (which is more like "waaa maaa" plus the sign for "more"), she doesn't really have a ton of words. She says "yah" and "no" but that's kind of it. She tries to say "socks", "birds" and when prompted will do animals sounds but I do feel like she's behind in talking. And she shrugs for "I don't know", but doesn't say anything.

I've been trying not to worry about it but it's hard because she's clearly frustrated with her inability to communicate. But she's definitely understanding what I'm telling her, and she can follow complex directions. Ultimately though I've just been planning to wait it out and see where she is at her two year ped appointment. The few other kids I know who were late talkers all ended up getting tubes in their ears after constant ear infections but that's not the case with my DD so the longer she's not talking the more I've been worrying.

At 18 months, both of our twins had less than 6 words (which is what I believe is the target for that age to have at least 6 words) and were officially considered delayed, but our pedi said to re-evaluate at 2, and if we needed to do a referral for speech therapy we would then.

They had a huge language burst between 20-24 months and by 24 months they probably had 25 words, and no one was at all concerned. Now we can't get them to stop talking. it's worth bringing up at your next pedi appt, but I think 10 words between 18-24 months will be considered fine.

My son also has a speech delay which we discussed initially with our doctor at his 18 month appointment when he had less than the 'norm' of words. We were referred to the public program which took about 8 months to get in. I was worried while we waited so we saw a private therapist. He is now 28 months and has improved a lot and goes through phases of big development, but still isn't anywhere close to where he 'should' be. He can communicate in his own ways to us with signing and some words, lots of gestures, etc. And understand everything we say to him.

I will echo another poster that it doesn't always work out that they catch up and being dismissed of your concerns is very frustrating. We decided to be proactive because there is no harm for him to have therapy, even if he just takes longer to talk than others in the end. I would pursue being evaluated or at the very least speak to your physician and push if they dismiss it. If your kid catches up, then you cancel it and are no worse off. If they don't, you've got a plan.

@Coral: he may very well be in the realm of "typical development" and may have a language explosion soon, but if you are at all concerned I would push for an evaluation. Where are you located? In most states you can self refer to early intervention without a referral from a doctor.

@littlejoy: I'm a speech therapist in early intervention and we get referrals for concerns for expressive speech only as early as 16 months. 80% of my caseload was referred before 24 months, so I would definitely push for referral before 2.5 if there are concerns! We do have a lot of doctors that are pretty laid back about speech development but in most states parents can self refer.

@littlejoy: I think it varies greatly in different areas. I'm in California and if there are any areas of concern we take them for an assessment and they then qualify if they're 33% delayed in one area. Most med schools don't require a speech development class and I think doctors have so much more to worry about it gets pushed to the side. Sadly we also get referrals for kids that are almost 3 (we only serve birth-3) because their doctor said they'd catch up, and in many instances that's just not the case. I don't want to worry parents but I always think an eval is warranted if the parent has any concerns.

@Coral: Yeah, that thread was bad, huh?? My DS sounds like your LO - a little younger at 15.5 months but honestly just "mama" on any regular basis. While kids in his daycare are already stringing words together!!!

SOMETIMES he says "hi" or "miii" (milk). He really just points and babbles. But he can retrieve books by title and knows our dogs by their names. Just chiming in that my ped said she doesn't even ask for ONE word at the 15 month appointment. She asks at 18 months. More likely than not, your LO will be ok!

I self referred at 15 months with 1 word. My state requires 25% behind, which he just met. We just did his year assessment and he is still 25% behind. I don't know if he would be at this point without the help or not.

I would just search for Early Intervention in your county or school district. My state does EI through the county, but the school district is also by the county.

Hi friend! I will fully admit that I was one of the ones on the thread who had a LO who was/is fairly talkative and seemed to be on the higher end of things on that post. I will say it wasn't always like that - at 12 months he didn't seem to be on par with his peers (in my opinion, not his doctor's) and so I started researching speech pathologist's blogs and implementing their tips. I saw a huge difference in no time. I actually borrowed a recommended book from the library specifically about speech development as well and used tips from it (it's out of print and I've since returned it so blanking on name). I remember once of the tips was to not answer to grunts, that when they grunt for something you tell them what it is (or sign it) and have them attempt before giving it.

I'll also say that I thought the word explosion was going to be like he went from saying nothing to talking in sentences. It wasn't like that for us. It was more that suddenly around 14 months he started learning 3-5 new words a day and by the end of the month that really added up. I'm a big believer though in therapies and being your child's biggest advocate. I would hate to be waiting for a big "explosion" and then find myself 6 to 12 months down the line and realizing it never happened. I say this because I saw what a difference it made just implementing tips into our daily life - I couldn't imagine what a dedicated EI instructor could do in just a couple of months!

ETA: Also, at 12 months when I was worried about his speech I relegated his paci to only in the crib.

@Coral: Welcome to Motherhood! I saved you a seat

I can't remember all the blogs - pretty sure I just googled "toddler speech development delay tips" or something like that and read everything I could, but I do remember this website: http://teachmetotalk.com/. It specifically recommended the Roger Priddy "First" books, which I cannot recommend enough!! We read them constantly to him and it taught him pointing at an early age (we were constantly pointing at pictures) and I vividly remember the day he could list everything in each book. We actually have to buy new ones for Baby #2 because the spine is broken they have been read so much.