My son still isn’t talking

i feel you, i’m in the same boat

Follow up with your Dr office. If only for an update (and in case the referral got lost somewhere).

Mine maybe says 5 words? It's hard because most aren't full words. I have to really listen to wrap my brain around what he's saying. Banna for banana mmmmuh for milk, he has said other things, but only once when copying me. My pediatrician wasn't super worried because he's pretty good on all his other milestones.

A fun activity we do that can't hurt. We have a board book for first words. I go through and read and point to the pictures. Then I challenge my little one to point at them. He may not say the words yet, but he can point to the kitty and shoes and things.

Are you doing baby signs? That has helped us a lot with communicating.

baby signs as in sign language? I haven’t tried that! I just bought a little device for flash cards that will read to him since I feel like he just doesn’t like listening to me so hopefully that helps!

I just don’t understand because he hit all of his milestones early as an infant and at around 9 months loved waving and giving hugs but now he just won’t! I don’t know if he’s just being stubborn and doesn’t want to or if there’s something wrong with his development! It just makes me feel like I’m failing him😭

So if he hit all other milestones and even ahead in others than it may just be that he focused on those and not speech. My son isn't talking either. He will say Dada, used to say momma but won't now and I've gotten him to say sissy once. But he understands everything I say to him. Does your son atleast understand?

He was 3 months early so I expect him to be behind and we took him to a nicu grad specialist that has been working with nicu babies for over 30 years and she said she's not worried at all about him not talking yet, and within an hr could tell that he was a stubborn little butt and will ONLY talk when he's ready, just his personality, could be the same case for your son! I have always tried doing sign language wirh him for milk, more, please and thank you and he's been finally doing it back for maybe 3 weeks and that's it now. But never hurts to keep pushing for speech therapy!

I think he understands but he just doesn’t listen😂 sometimes when I tell him to get a toy or find his favorite blanket he will and he ALWAYS understands when I tell him his food is ready lol

My boy only says like 3 words. He's 20 months old has never given kisses and rarely gives hugs. My sons doctor said it was normal.

he’ll only say dada, he used to say mama but won’t anymore. I just don’t know why he used to wave but refuses to now. We live far away from family and don’t get out all that much so it’s always just me him and his dad and I wonder if that has something to do with it because he’s not getting the opportunity to be social.

If you're worried, I always suggest reaching out to your states early intervention program. They are a free service and they come to your home and do a full evaluation. It's really simple and my son even had fun with it. He is getting services for feeding delays but based on the evaluation they will tell you if he is technically behind and if so they can provide free services in your home to help ☺️ it's been so helpful for us. Let me know if you need help finding your states information.

My girl is the same way. And often time doesn’t babble unless she’s super excited. She’s very very quiet. My daughter may have autism though. The last part of her diagnostic assessment is on 3/19. I highly recommend reaching out to some sort of program that specializes in delays. I’m not sure which states have it but I’m in Wisconsin and we have a free/affordable (based on income) program called Birth To Three. And it’s for kids with delays, disabilities, etc. If your state has one, I highly recommend it. After a quick google search for your state, I found these links that may be helpful

https://www.mpf.org/community-resources/early-childhood/

https://www.maine.gov/doe/learning/cds

This second link seems to be your states birth to three program

thank you so much! That is super helpful

My son is about to be 2 years old and still only babbles. It’s a more mature type of babble like he’s really trying to have conversations, but no actual words. He says hi but that’s it.

same here! He doesn’t say hi but it seems like he’s trying really hard to say actual words it’s just gibberish coming out!

@Lindsey yes! Baby sign language is basically asl, but using just simple signs and simple concepts. Even if you don't know sign language, it's easy to learn. Mine knows more, milk, orange, apple, help, up, down, give, eat/food. We are working on bath, happy, excited, toilet and a couple others.

I’ll have to try that out! Thank you for the suggestion!

yeah I might have to put him in speech therapy. Though there are other circumstances that I believe are a part of it. Certain things have happened to where he’s at his grandparents a lot and I think that’s part of the problem. They’re not really teaching him like I was able to teach my daughter.

https://www.maine.gov/doe/learning/cds

You don't need your doctor. Just fill out the form.

@Lindsey and to caveat off of Miriam, ASL is still consider verbal language. If your child is able to do ASL it greatly reduces the delay percentage and more accurately points to what the cause of delay is. My daughter does ASL, over 20 signs. But no actual verbal words. Because of these she is 25% delayed. If we didn't do ASL she'd be 50% delayed and treatment plan would be different as there would be no evidence of the verbal language skills.

thank you for that info Alyssa! I will start trying to do signs with him, I filled out the form you posted so hopefully he can learn some signs before they reach out to me!

This has some great first signs to get you started with your little one. Ms Rachel has others, but this one is nice and geared to both first words and signs. I've learned a bunch of signs from this and a few other places to use. https://youtu.be/zwL2o4jZxbc?feature=shared

we’ve watched this video sooo many times the past couple weeks and I’ve noticed she signs when saying certain words but have only tried to get him to SAY the words! Looks like we’ll be putting this on again first thing tomorrow when we wake up, and working on the signs to see if he does better with that! Thank you so much!

oh, I hope it helps! Something my little one is really participating in lately is songs with signs! Ms. Rachel is also good for helping get those going. We do itsty bitsy spider, wheels on the bus and if you're happy and you know it among others. This is pretty recent for him consistently doing the motions with me and I love every minute of it. He gets really excited about them now.

Another thing that's really helped me around stress about developmental milestones. Try to not stress out where your toddler can feel it. And make working on those milestones fun for both of you. If you both get frustrated, wait a while and try again. Another thing is to not try to work on everything at once. It's overwhelming. Pick a new thing (like a game to work on words) and work on getting used to that and then add a new game. This really helped me not get overwhelmed when my little one wasn't meeting some of his milestones at previous checkups (he caught up quickly in the week or two after his checkup).

@Lindsey make sure you are integrating the signs consistently throughout the day. Change (for diaper changes), eat, thirsty/drink, banana, more, and book were some of my daughter first ASL signs and are probably the most used. We are working on shirt, socks, and pants this week.

Show him the signand say the word. Repeat it a second time then grab his hands and help him somewhat do the sign. Then do whatever that sign was (if it was eat you give him the food for example)