Do you expect a 15 month old child to try and communicate?

[Deleted User]

My 9 month old baby now says mama, dada, ha (which we think means dog, since the dog is called harry and he'll shout "Ha!" at any dog). He'll also shake his head when he doesn't want to do something and repeatedly open and close his mouth when he's thirsty.

I don't see the harm in encouraging the little one to be more verbal .. if you want free baby sitting, it's got to come with free advice also

spendaholiceejit

Hiya,
I know grannies get very concerned about their grandchildren (I know my mum does... she's a nightmare, but I love her and Id hate it if she had no interest in the children)

I personally, at 15 months, would like to see my children working on words rather than grunts, but at the same time I think your GS is fine, some are just a little later than others. My DD is 18 months and although she had a few words at 15 months, it is only just in the past 6 weeks that her volcabulary has rocketed all of a sudden.

Dont stress too much about it, keep chatting away to him and he will get there eventually. He obviously knows what he wants

Gingham_Ribbon

Don't forget that children work at different things in different ways and at different times - mine were quite methodical about it - they'd concentrate on one thing until they could do it then moved on to the next and it would seem that they'd forgotten how to do the first thing, then suddenly they were doing both.

I was worried when I saw the thread title as a 15 month old who wasn't trying to communicate at all may have some problems, but this little one is clearly communicating very enthusiastically!

Plans_all_plans

I know kids develop at different rates (and that boys can be slower in developing than girls) but my daughter was talking in sentences by 18 months and was well on her way from 14 months onwards. Admittedly, she was quicker talking than other kids at playgroup and she had at least 2 adults with her at all times (me and my mum) so this will account for her good speech, but even so I would expect more than a handful of words by 15 months, even if they can't be understood by people outside the family.

Saying this though, I wouldn't interefere unless he got to 2.5 and could only grunt still as it will only cause problems for you!

Gingham_Ribbon

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

I know kids develop at different rates (and that boys can be slower in developing than girls) but my daughter was talking in sentences by 18 months and was well on her way from 14 months onwards. Admittedly, she was quicker talking than other kids at playgroup and she had at least 2 adults with her at all times (me and my mum) so this will account for her good speech, but even so I would expect more than a handful of words by 15 months, even if they can't be understood by people outside the family.

Saying this though, I wouldn't interefere unless he got to 2.5 and could only grunt still as it will only cause problems for you!

Why would you expect that? Because your daughter talked earlier? Our eldest told me his first joke when he was 7 months old. Should I apply a similar expectation to other children I encounter?

The situation described in the OP is completely normal.

BitterAndTwisted

It can make a huge difference whether the child is an only child at home or the youngest. There's nothing like having several people all ready and willing to be the baby's slave and handmaiden every time it points at something it wants. Just because a baby or small child isn't using understandable language does not mean they are not learning. They are. I once was a nanny to a family of three children and the youngest at 20 months just pointed and mumbled and he did this almost until he was three years old. Once he finally got the hang of it we couldn't shut him up

Gingham_Ribbon

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Just because a baby or small child isn't using understandable language does not mean they are not learning. They are. I once was a nanny to a family of three children and the youngest at 20 months just pointed and mumbled and he did this almost until he was three years old. Once he finally got the hang of it we couldn't shut him up

Exactly. Einstein was a very late talker. I doubt we could pick out early or late speakers among the adults we all know. It's not important.

esmerelda98

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

Why would you expect that? Because your daughter talked earlier? Our eldest told me his first joke when he was 7 months old. Should I apply a similar expectation to other children I encounter?

The situation described in the OP is completely normal.

I'm dying to know the joke told by this genius-child. 7 months is quite early, even for the most basic speech.

Plans_all_plans

Gingham: Yes, the reason I would expect it, is because my daughter talked earlier. If I have another child, I will expect he or she to speak at around the same time my daughter did. It is not unreasonable to expect things of people, even 15 month olds! It is what you do if someone falls short of your expectations that matters: as you will see from my previous post, I said I would not do anything in the OPs position unless the child reached 2.5 years without talking.

To the OP, if you are looking after the child alone and are concerned with the lack of speech, it is a good idea to not have the TV on and spend as much time as possible talking to the child. Of course, you may not have the TV on at all already, but just in case I thought I'd mention it.

brians_daughter

sunnyone wrote: »

I am nan to a 15 month old boy and Im differing with my daughter as to teaching him to speak, any opinions welcome.

My grandson points and grunts at what he wants and I encourage him to make diffrent noises based on what hes asking for but my daughter likes the grunting and pointing, hows that going to help him talk?

he has three words in his volcabulary now, ma, da and nan.

Yesterday it was like he was conducting an orchestra while I gave him breakfast, point at egg, point at toast or juice with each accompanied by a louder grunt if I ignored the pointing.

You can encourage him to speak, but dont expect much back until he is ready. Just by the fact he is now pointing and trying to make sounds is great

if he is grunting at his cup i would just say 'juice? you want juice?' and point at the cup. same goes for other words too. Or when you think he wants juice make the sign taht you are talking about juice, ie lift his cup up to your mouth and pretend to drink before you fill it - he will get the hang of the situ!

My lo is 15 m too and I speak to my son all day long - we have been to asda this morning and everything i put in the trolley i show lo and tell him its name, ie i pick up a banana and say 'whats this? It is a banana, its a yellow banana' Yes, ppl look at me like i am a nutter and shopping takes 90 mins instead of 45 but i see it as an activity we can do together!

My lo says lots of words such as mummy, daddy, nan, gandad (grandad), juice, cup, night, oast (for toast!), ball, bye bye , hello, og (dog) , ta (thank you) and pe (please).

I read a lot to him too and point out all the various animals etc and make the noises and names. When he sees a cow in a book he makes the animal noises and trys to say the name so 'moo' for the sound and 'ow for cow and 'baa' for sheep sounds and 'heeeep' for sheep.

We went to baby sign from him being 16 weeks old and this has helped massively with communication.

The grunting and pointing is a really positive sign he is ready to start to try and say more words, and personally i would encourage this!

also, and each to their own on this but we dont use words such as 'baba' or 'doggie' or 'birdie' we use baby, bird and dog. I feel it silly to teach them baba then in 12 months time start saying - 'its a baby not a baba' but everyone has different views on how best to teach their own children