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I'm not sure how normal this is, but it doesn't hurt to have him evaluated for Early Intervention if you're concerned. When DS had his overall evaluation (12 months), they said he had some delay and gave me ideas to help encourage talking even though we're not doing speech therapy. I know another mom whose 2 year old is in speech therapy.

Totally normal as well. I think my son had about the same amount of words at that age.

Totally normal. DD is 16 months and says things like daddy, mommy, why, what and a couple of her friends names but that is it. She babbles incessantly and really seems to think she is talking. Pedi says that is actually really great for her age.

I think it's totally normal. Once they hit a critical mass of 30 words you should see an explosion

@stargal: sounds normal to me to be honest. at 16 months my daughter was about the same. now she is 18 months and has a lot of words and talks constantly

I think it's normal. DS only had a few words at that age too, but probably started learning and retaining 1 new word per week then. 18 months was his language explosion.

As you know i have expressed similar concerns with T. He babbles a ton and says words but not as many or as purposeful as some of his playmates. He was always ahead on physical stuff. He gestures a bit and i have noticed he is becoming better at that but he is more about bringing us things than pointing. he will sometimes point with his whole hand and grunt or say Mama when he wants something. Sometimes he answers to his name and other times it seems like he is deaf or full on ignoring. He engages with eye contact and plays a lot though. He is 14 months old next month. My feeling is this: he sounds like he is progressing BUT it can't hurt to work on some things with him if you think delays or some sort of mild processing disorder are going on. In our case i have decided not to have him formally evaluated till around 18-20 months because most of what i have read has said that's when it starts to becoming more clear BUT i also do not think it can hurt to check out some books from the library and work on some therapies with him yourself now. If he is just fine then they wont harm him at all. And if there is an issue, since early intervention is SO critical in helping the outcome, you will do him a lot of favors. I checked out the the following youtube channels:

My son had very few words at that age and babbled a LOT for a long time. I probably should have had him accessed, but he eventually caught up- at his preschool screening, the speech therapist was really impressed and actually marked him as advanced in his verbal skills and vocabulary.

Sounds normal to me. DS was never much of a babbler, at about 19-20 mos his speech suddenly took off and he was repeating everything and making it clear that he had been listening the whole time. I wouldn't worry about it.

Jake will be 17 months next week and only consistently says 'mamamamama' 'dada' and 'dah'(dog). He does sign 'more, please' and understands direction. As @MrsMccarthy: said, he doesn't 'want' for much...he seems to be okay so I try not to worry much since kids are SO different.

That's exactly where we were at around the same age. I think we are at the beginning of the word explosion now, he's starting to pick up a word or two a day now at almost 22 months, for the past couple months it was one word a week or so.

I believe the standard is about five words by 18 months, and stringing simple sentences together by 24 months. I would not worry, especially if his other cognitive and social skills are up to par. I'd be willing to bet you'll notice an explosion soon!

@stargal: sounds very normal to me! My LO didn't have very many words at that point. She only had a handful , and at her 18 month appt, I was freaking out because she only had about 15 words. Our ped told us not to worry - it was clear that LO understood so much of what we said. She's 20 months now and just this past month, her vocab is really starting to pick up. She's at 30 words now, and I swear is learning at least 2-3 new words a day. She's also starting to string together two words and copies everything we say So don't worry - just keep talking to him as much as you can and he's gonna start picking up a lot more words soon!