Speech Help for My Toddler.

Get her evaluated thru your school,district. The early intervention programs are until 3 years old. If you wait until she is 3 you will have to pay for evaluations and services. So I would start the ball rolling, get her evaluated.
If she needs services, the earlier the better.

Sounds like you are doing a lot of great things. You might want to speak with her ped to see if she would qualify for speech therapy, our DS has seen some real benefits. Although, you never know, it could just be that it was about waiting for him to be ready, and the speech therapy was just correlative, not causitive about bringing about real change.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

Call your local early intervention program on Monday. Set up an appointment. The early intervention staff member will come and do an evaluation.

Around 18 months, many toddlers use single words. It is very important that your daughter understands simple commands like "Get the book"...

Keep reading to her, etc... and have somebody come to the house just to double-check.

Try not be tense and ask her to say words ---If she picks up on this, she might hold back a bit.

One of my kids spoke in paragraphs at age 2, the other did not (not even close) and she is one of the smartest kids in her age group.

Keep us posted!

I have a cousin whose daughter was like this and my suggestion is that you pay attention to how you're responding to her. For example, she would point at something and just "grunt." Mom always rushed over and handed her whatever she was pointing at. The kid learned that she really don't have to "work" or "ask" for anything, just a point and grunt and it's hers! So, if she's trying to show you something or wants something, wait for her to actually ask (or at least try to ask) for it.
I was also one of those "weird moms" in the store who pointed out and described everything! When dd and I would go to the grocery store, clothes shopping, whatever, I just talked to her constantly. It would be something like: "Okay, now we're here at the store, and we need to pick up some bread and milk. Don't let me forget, okay. Ooh, look at those bananas, should we get some of them, too? These are really yellow and big, how many do we need? Maybe 4 or 5? What other fruit should we get?" Pretty much a running commentary of what we're doing, what I'm looking for, etc, with some pauses where (if she had been talking) she could respond. Now, she's a very vocal and descriptive 4-year-old, who uses some fantastic and advanced words! She is in speech therapy for her articulation, though, so we are still a work-in-progress.
PS: At your next pediatrician visit (at 2y/o) they will ask how many words she uses--be honest, and tell them you're concerned about it.
Good luck mama!

You need to get her evaluated by a speech therapist or through your state's Early Intervention. You can wait a couple more months and see if she improves but if she is close to 2 and you have not seen dramatic improvements, then take initiative and get her help. People are well meaning, but 2 words at 20 months is delayed. At 18 months, typically children should have at least 5 words.

I agree that you should have her evaluated. My son started speech therapy when he was 22 months old. They suggested that we use sign language. If he was hungry, we would ask if he wanted to 'eat', then we would move his hands in the sign for eat and then give him something to eat. This will help her to understand that words have meanings. You gradually move to waiting for her to make the sign herself.

Every kid IS different. My first daughter, at two, just TALKED. She made other kids' parents insecure about their kids. But my daughter who is just now two is borderline speech delayed according to her ped at her visit a few days ago. I wrote down words she says before her two year visit so I'd have an idea and came up with about 100 she'll say on her own, plus she repeats words. She's not putting words together much in two or three word sentences though, or referring to herself by name or pronouns. And she'll say "Dee' for Daddy and has a name for her sister, but has never said Mommy or Mama (I did get a MA the other day when she was stuck somewhere). The ped told me to watch her for the next few months and if she didn't improve to have her evaluated. We are also going to have her hearing checked to make sure that's not contributing. So you may talk to your ped now and see if they want to wait until her two year old visit to evaluate, or if they want to get ahead of it. I'd say she's definitely speech delayed, but that doesn't mean she's not smart, and you'll find tons of stories about kids that didn't talk at all, then when they did it was 10 word sentences. I agree reading books (good for this age are simple pictures where they can easily identify particular animals etc) and talk to her about everything you're doing and seeing. You don't have to baby talk, but you can simplify....instead of "Would you like some Cheerios?" you could say, "Cheerios, please?" Or even just "Cheerios?" Every kid learns differently too...some are visual learners, some auditory, etc. So if you haven't tried a kids video (Baby Einstein etc) that might name animals etc, it's might be worth a shot. Kids are weird. She might not want to talk to you, but she might talk to the TV :) Give the ped a call.