17 month old son not talking yet

[nemp]

I'm wondering how many of you have or had toddlers who did not speak until much later. My son seems to be a late bloomer. He is just starting to walk at 17 months. The only word he says is mamama and I'll hear that maybe once a week. Other than that, he screeches and points.

I am not concerned (yet) but wondering how I can support his verbal language. Part of the challenge is that I speak to him in French and he hears English everywhere else. I'm reluctant to give up the bilingual environment although I imagine that he would speak sooner if he only had to think in one language. Do any of you have any experiences in raising children in a bilingual environment?

I'm concerned that if he's missing out now this will impact him later on in life (i.e. he would have a lot of catching up to do).

I think that even if we spoke English at home only, he would still be a late talker. On top of this, we have a foreign nanny taking care of him and so he is not getting exposed to a typical ECE environment. She is taking him to play centres but again, no direct teaching, only new toys to play with and being surrounded by other toddlers.

Any suggestions on how to address this situation is well appreciated. Suggestions on how I can get our nanny to help as well are welcomed. We have lightened her workload so that she can focus more time on playing with him... although there are days I get frustrated since I still want help with other household duties. I wonder if it would help to have another toddler in the house for him to play with.

[MommaToTwo]

I have a friend who is bilingual, so she speaks both to her girls, who are 21 months old. Up until recently they had a nanny who also spoke both with them. They do not have a huge understandable vocabulary yet, just a few words. Ours are coming up on 20 months, and although they are very verbal, it is not anything I recognize yet, apart from a few words.
Having said that, these are all twins, so they chatter away to each other, and seem to understand each other. It is just us silly adults who do not get it

Personally, I think that if you talk with your son throughout the day/evening, he will get there, regardless of the language. Some children are just a bit longer to talk than others. I try really hard not to compare mine to others since everybody develops differently, but sometimes it is hard not to, especially when you hear other children talking up a storm.

How lucky for him that he could be trilingual

[3's_company]

I'm not posting this to scare you, I just wish someone had said this to me when my son was that age. My first was slow to hit every milestone, didn't walk until 16 months, never crawled, still wasn't talking at 2.5 and the standard response I got from everyone was, 'boys are slower, maybe he's just a little late...don't worry'. Now he's 3.5 and has speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, sees our doctor, a ped. a naturopath and a neurologist. I wish so badly that I had pushed to have him assessed earlier and had his therapy started earlier (he has global development delay and sensory processing disorder).
Once again, this isn't to scare you as MOST children do catch up on their own. Plus your son is bilingual. I just want to say that for some kids it's more than that and it's okay to have him looked at if you feel that he might have delays. I feel like I let myself be talked into thinking that my son was just a little slow even though I knew from about 3 months that it was more than that. I wish so badly that someone had mentioned having him assessed as I didn't know. Good luck.

[On purpose?]

My son didn't really talk till he was over 2. He mostly grunted and pointed till then. He's 3 now and won't shut up Just got into the "why" stage. I was never worried cause both my husband and I are from a long line of late talkers. My sister didn't talk till she was 3!

If you're worried for sure ask your doctor but my understanding is your son is going along just fine.

[Nickal]

I only speak to my kids in french and I have a french daycare where I only speak to them in french also. Speaking to your child in more then one language does not cause them to speak later.

I have one daycare boy that his parents are only english and I have watched him since he was 17 months old. I have only spoken to him in french and now he will speak with me in french and english to his parents. He also translates it back and forth. He will be 3 May. Also he started to speak french before english. Almost 4-5 months before.

My S-I-L speaks arabic to her 2 DD's my bro only english and they get only french from daycare and they go back and forth with no problem's. It is easier for children to learn languages younger then older.

Maybe show him some simple sign language while you speak with him. My other daycare boy I did that with and OMG what a difference. He became way calmer because then we knew what he wanted.

[Benjorsam]

I think its probably due to the fact that he is learning both English and French. I've heard that kids who are being taught two languages can be slower to speak. However both of my ds's didn't talk until over the age of 18 mths. With my older ds, we had him for a hearing and speech assessment which ruled out any problems and literally overnight he began speaking. It was like someone flicked on a switch. With my older ds he didn't start speaking until over the age of two. A hearing test was normal but his speech was assessed as being slightly delayed. He went to speech therapy for a few months and we also did a sign language course through QA which helped. He also ended up having tubes put in his ears when it was found that he had a lot of fluid in his ears. Whether is was the tubes or the speech therapy or just time, he did start talking at about 25 mths. And now you couldn't tell that he was ever delayed.

I'm a big advocate of getting things checked out sooner than later. In your case, I think your ds is probably delayed because of being taught both languages but he will catch up and will actually benefit from being bilungual. But I would also take him to your doc who will refer him for a speech and hearing test just in case. If nothing is wrong, great. It will just be a matter of waiting a little bit. But if there is a problem its always better to have it treated right away especially since if he does need any kind of treatment there is usually a huge waitlist which can affect how successful the therapies will be.

[Benjorsam]

Speaking to your child in more then one language does not cause them to speak later.

That's not what I was told by a speech therapist. She told me that kids who are being taught more than one language are usually initially, slower to speak.

[kapoohhh]

All children learn at there own speed and there own circumstances.
If worried... get your doctor to refer you to speech and hearing.
My daughter was a chatter box at 16 months or so with full words you could understand and sentences.
My one son was delayed in talking and grunted till he could spit out sentences after 2 years of age.
My 2 year old now has been doing all the babbling most kids do.
All kids are different.

[oneluckygirl]

I have no clue what it is like to have two languages being spoken to your child but I know this.. My son was 4 months away from being 4 before he was speaking more than one word... He would just grunt and point and that's all he needed to do because around him knew what he was trying to get across majority of the time.. I ended up having speech pathology for him from Queen Alexandra.. They also did an XRay of his tongue and mouth to see why he wasn't talking because sometimes it can be a physical thing holding them back..
I would suggest contacting Queen Alexandra and expressing your concerns. HTH

[Nickal]

Speaking to your child in more then one language does not cause them to speak later.

That's not what I was told by a speech therapist. She told me that kids who are being taught more than one language are usually initially, slower to speak.

From what I know it does not my mothers family 10 kids = no problem
8 of them have 4 kids my mother had 5 no one had delayed speech either
All of my cousins have 2-3 kids each all bi/ or trilingual no one has a problem.

Almost the same numbers from my dads side. So to me it is not speaking to your child in more then one language.

Arabic is a hard language and on S-I-L side their family all the kids are trilingual and all speak fine. Sometimes when they do not know a word in one language they will say it in another then you just tell them the correct word for that language.
That is my opinion and our very big family experience.

[mommedout]

@oneluckygirl: did they figure out why he was delayed, is it getting better, and is he frustrated by it?

[myboy]

They say anywhere from 5 to 20 words is normal for an 18month old. My son didn't say many words at 17 months either. At the age of 2 he didn't say that many more. Now at 2 years and 3 months, he says quite a lot of words and a few put together sentences. Give him some time. Use small simple words to him and if he wines and points, just always say the words back to him like more milk, oh, milk and any time you give him something say what it is. If he can follow simple instruction and knows what you are talking about I personally would not worry too much. The health nurse told me also that ma, mama, da and dada was considered 4 words.
My son too didn't sound very clear. My mother was the one who caught words he was trying to say. Now my son is very clear with most of the words he says and repeats new words with ease.
Also my son has never said the word no, but he does shake his head. He says ok however...I am glad he doesn't say no, his starting mama was enough and he didn't say that until he was 22 months old!!

[myboy]

Oh, I was going to add, and I am sure many parents out there will hate this advice try watching with your son once a day a 15 min. show like baby einstein or a real animal show. That is how I got my son to learn his animals. I thought he would never say dog or cat. I realised later though that he said my cats name instead of cat. I watched it with him. I didn't just put him in front of the tv. I really interacted with him and he started saying new words with it around 2 weeks into it. You can do it with books too, but my son would just not get into the books. He does like books now.

[Sunnygirl]

By 18 months if he isn't speaking 5 words then talk to your doctor. Most kids alternate speech with physical development - so if he isn't doing either I'd definitely get him checked out. May not be anything wrong, but it would be less stress on you if you knew.

Also - I'd work on 3 to 5 or so "signs" that you should do while you say the words... maybe "more", "all done" and even "truck" pretending to drive would be a fun one. Right now concentrate on just a few words - doesn't matter what language - just repeat them, repeat them, repeat them.

[Blacken]

Im not expert either, of course, but wanted to let you know about our son as well. At 17 months he didn't say much, didn't start walking until 16 1/2 months. He just turned two and he is a different little guy! At 17 months, he could understand quite a bit, but did not verbalize. Now, he speaks in 5-7 word sentences and is fairly easy to understand.
He hit a breakthrough around 20 months if memory serves correct. We speak a lot around him, of course, and don't baby talk at all. Because he was understanding a lot, we didn't worry at all.
Hope that helps!