20 Month Old Not Talking - Cincinnati,OH

Mine was similar and I started telling him to use his words because I could not understand him. If he started crying I would pick him up and take him in another room until he stopped crying. I would tell him that i can not understand him while he is crying. He would usually stop shortly and we would try again. Before long he started spewing out words that I did not even know he had heard.

If the workds have slipped out then he is capable to speaking them again. My daughter is also 20 months and will whine and cry and expect me to read her mind. I ignore the whine and grunts and tell her to use her words...over and over and over. She now uses her words when asked.

When my dd was two we contacted our local ECI (early childhood intervention). They came to our house and did speech and decelopmental delay evaluations (she had when she was younger, standered premie test). And when she turned 3, they turned us over to the public schools for speech thearpy. They school did their own testing before inrolling her.
If you can not find a local ECI, call the school admin. office and ask the special ed department if they know where you can go/call.
It has helped a lot!

Hi J., I think you were given great advice below and I agree you should be prudent and have him checked out, but that being said, please be assured that he could be totally normal or even advanced. I didn't talk until I was THREE YEARS OLD. My mom had me evaluated for delays, and everyone was very worried. Now I'm a lawyer! So I guess I figured it out--hopefully he will too. :)

Here's a great article that may help:
http://www.babyzone.com/toddler/toddler_development/langu...

My 20 l/2-month-old granddaughter doesn't talk yet, but she's beginning to. She also does the whining, but we've begun telling her to say the word before she gets it. Sometimes we never do figure out what she wants! Don't worry; he'll be verbalizing soon. Keep up the good work!

Hi! Your son sounds a lot like my son. At my sons 2nd birthday he had a vocabulary of "mama, dada, and noo" I of corse was very concerned, as everything I looked up on delayed speech led me to autism or other special needs sites. My pediatrition recommended early intervention. I personally didnt find them to be a great help, as I was already using the tactics that they were introducing. Some of the things I did was I made pictures of some of the things he likes, such as juice, snacks, his bed, tiys, books, puzzles...I put them on the fridge so he could point them out when he wanted them...eventually he began saying the word (or at least trying to) with prompt. Another thing to try is putting him in aplaygroup or some sort of interaction with kids that are his age..I say his age because my son has an older brother whom he didnt seem to pick up any vocab from.
Now that my son is 3, I have taken him to preschool screenings which are free through the public school system (as is Early Intervention, ask you Pedi), and he was determined to meet the criteria for speech service twice a week. He absolutely LOVES it because it is at the school and they pull a few kids out of their class when I drop my son off for his speech. Now he is talking constantly, many people still cant understand him..but he is coming along. I have spent many nights awake worring about whys what ifs and oh mys...but now I realize that he will speak hes just doing it at his own pace!
Good luck, and dont worry, soon your little guy will start talking!

It is frustrating, isn't it? My 20 month old son is the SAME way....many different sounds, a few words, some animal sounds, but not what you should "expect" from a child that age. I am actually just about to contact our early intervention program to have someone come out to our home to do an eval. My older son has a speech delay so we kind of know the path we have to take.

Yes, I would keep talking to him, pointing things out, reading to him, and just doing what you are doing. I am also a big believer in early intervention. Our older son is 3 and has come a LONG way with the help of early intervention. It wouldn't hurt to see if he could benefit from the services of a speech therapist.

All my best....

Get his hearing checked ASAP. My son had delayed speech, when I pushed to get the hearing test, it determined he couldn't hear out of his right, due to fluid. He ended up with tubes, we went thru the help me grow program- from 2-3. But it only took about 1 month and 1/2 to get him to finally start talking after the tubes were in. feel free to email if you want.
____@____.com

Take care,
K.

Definately keep talking to him but try not to get too stressed about it. He will sense and absorb that anxiety. Keep your sentences simple and emphasize and repeat key words. Point things out and tell him the name of things. Talk about what is happening as it is happening. If he hears the same words in the same situations everyday, multiple times, then eventually, he will get it. He won't put words together into phrases until he has 40 to 50 words. By now, he should have a good number of words.

If you're already doing all of things mentioned above, then you need additional help. I would suggest that you do two things: 1) Enroll him in a good quality daycare with excellent teachers who talk and teach to him all day long. He will pick up so much from the other kids as well. Even part-time daycare 3 days a week will greatly benefit him. 2) Find an early intervention program, quick, and get him tested. Good luck!

sounds exactly like my son who is now 27 months but now he says 'uh-oh' and ma-ma and da-da and does a couple of animal noises but other than that no words. Evry ped hes had says not to worry about it he will talk when he is ready. It doesnt mean that there is something wrong with him. wont hurt to get him checked out but dont stress on it too much. I did and alot of moms were telling me that we needed to get him lined up with 10 docs for speech and strengthening...really dont stress it. Reading alot to them is supposed to help but we read to noodies ALL the time -his fave thing to do-and he still is not saying much. I always figured that he is just quiet. He undderstands almost everything that we tell him,too. Thats another thing. Can you tell if they can understand what youare telling them? if not then hearing checkd. all in all dont stress...good luck.

Since you are in Ohio, contact Help Me Grow. They will start by sending out someone from there to do an eval, then if he qualifies the next step will be a referral to a local agency that can evaluate him again. If he is determined to be speech or language delayed, they likely have a local center where he can attend either integrated or speech delay only classes. The evaluations will include a bit of hearing too, and of course your Ped. Dr. should be told too (but doesn't have to be). The State of Ohio's requirements for speech delay are more relaxed than the school district (who takes over for these things once the child is 3.) Even if they think your child is just being "stubborn" in not speaking, they'll have suggestions for you! There is no harm in getting an evaluation, the child thinks it is play time. My son had speech delay...at two he could only say about 10 words or less. He was referred to Happy Day Schools in NE Ohio area and attended a two-day a week program there for one school year and part of the summer. He absolutely blossomed. He's now three and won't shut up! I have NO doubt he would have overcome his speech delay on his own in time, but Happy Day and the speech therapists and early childhood specialists there most definitely sped things up QUITE a bit. It made him so much happier to be able to tell me what he needed/wanted! And it's a free program (they'll even bus if needed, at least up here they did), so why not take advantage to something that could possibly help your child? You don't need a Dr to contact Help Me Grow, visit their website www.ohiohelpmegrow.org and you can "refer" your child yourself. Best of luck!

My son was not talking much at 20 months, maybe 3-6 words. The between 20 and 24 months he learned lots of words and was babbling away. If he gets to 24 months and still not much talking, got for the early intervention. My son is turning 4 now and we are looking for speech only because he doesn't pronounce all his sounds correctly. Otherwise he babbles away and has a big vocabulary.

Do NOT just chill. Now is the best time to get him the help that he may need. I am in Illinois and they have an Early Intervention program for birth to 3 year olds that come to your home to evaluate your son and determine if he is in need of speech therapy. Then if it is determined that he needs the help then they will come to your home or sometimes daycare to do the therapy. If you are not sure who to contact you may talk to your childs doctor, but if yours is like ours was at the time we were noticing this with our twins, he was no help. He is also no longer their doctor. You could also contact your local schools as they should be connected to them because at age 3 the birth to 3 program will refer them to the school.

I think you need to contact your childs doctor & let them know he is still not talking. They may want to send him for a hearing test. Sometimes kids don't pick up talking because of issues with ears. Not saying he has a hearing problem, but some kids will put stuff in their ears and other wholes & if they do it blocks the sounds they hear. He may be repeating what he hears, but you don't hear what you are saying coming from him.

Also, I wouldn't stop talking to him... I talk to my kids even before they are hear. Might sound strange to some, but talking to them from the time you know they are in your tummy helps your voice sooth them when they are here. And talking to them also helps them to learn... just because he isn't repeating things doesn't mean he isn't learning from what you are saying to him. He is just having a hard time telling you what he wants - which can be very flustrating to him & why he whines & cries when you don't understand him or "read his mind".

For now - let the doctors check out your boy... then go from there. But never just give up. Good luck & take care!

A mixture of both! Just keep talking to him...he can understand you, you know that, right?...and then just chill! He will be a blabber mouth before you know it. Promise.

My daughter is the same way. She is going to be 2 in a couple days and she just recently started actually using words, before she would 'slip up' and say something but getting her do say it again or repeat ANYTHING was also always a no-go! She doesn't have a huge vocabulary yet but there is nothing wrong with her...she is just a slow talker.

Hope this helps.

You need to stop responding to his nonverbal skills and tell him he needs to use words especially if you think he is capable of more. If you do feels his speech is delayed you need to talk to your dr. My dr told me not to worry about it until he was 3. He said boys talk later than girls and then on top of that my son was the youngest of 4 kids so there was folks talking for him.(especially his sister). At 3 I told the doctor I want him checked out because I felt his vocabulary was not where a 3 year old should be. He had a haring test to rule any issues there. I then him evaluated in our school district by the school psychologist. He did a MFE (Multi-Faceted evaluation) on him. He was identified as having a speech delay and was enrolled in our school districts' preschool program where he received speech and language therapy. I did supplement this with Cleveland Speech and Hearing therapists for a year. I also enrolled him in a second preschool who had a great program that used a multi therapy approach. SO I sent him 3 days to one school and 2 days to the other. I did this until kindergarten. HE was then enrolled in the regular kdg class. He has been getting speech/language therapy since he was 3 and is now in the fifth grade. He was identified on the autism spectrum in the fourth grade but with a diagnosis of PDD-NOS which means he has a few autisitic traits but he is not autistic, if that makes sense. PDD mean pervasive developmental disorder and then the rest is not otherwise specified. Which to me means he is a little different than other kids. When he was young he played next to kids instead of with them because he did not know how to talk to kids because he had language deficits. SO he was sent to social play groups to learn. He has a great group of friends and is a very intelligent boy today. I want you to know that your son may just wake up one day and chatter away. Sometimes I can't get my son to stop talking. He is such a thinker and is very creative. You may have a thinker on your hands. Also what is your husband like? If your husband is quiet, your son may be quiet. Mothers sometimes (most of the time) do not understand that boys are wired differently than girls. I have learned this the hard way. I have 3 boys and at least 2 of them including my husband would say you just don't realize that we are not like you. They think diffferently and are motivated differently. I am sorry to have babbled on like this. Women try so hard to make men what they just aren't designed to be like.