When should we consider speech production onset delayed?

[Marilyn Vihman]

As Philip Dale already noted, 16 mos. is really too soon to start worrying about a child not yet producing (intelligible) words. A more important question is how well she understands language, and from your comments I am guessing that comprehension is fine. I don't know whether her late standing and walking are related to her slow language development, but not using many consonants or CV syllables is definitely an indicator of delay, perhaps the basis for the delay - and it may even be that she has some word-attempts, but with only vowels available, word use may be hard to pick up on. 

I agree with Philip: Don't begin to be really concerned until 24 mos. or so. Many children start a bit late, for known and unknown reasons. Given her family's interest and attention, chances are that she will do just fine - but at age two if you are still seeing no progress, a consultation with clinicians would begin to be a good idea.

-marilyn vihman


On 12 Sep 2014, at 16:03, Fatima Badry <badry at aus.edu> wrote:

> A 16 months and 2 weeks child has not yet produced her first words   Although she seems to have  age appropriate cognitive and social development. She is very interactive and communicates all her intentions by grabbing adults' hands and direct them to do what she wants, she makes sounds (mostly vowel combinations with hardly any consonants)  with appropriate intonations. She also follows melodies by singing, using something like lalala with appropriate tunes. Her mother has been interacting with her since birth in English and so have other family members.  Her dad is interacting with her in Arabic.  
> She is also late in standing and walking. 
> If we rule out delayed cognitive development and autism givien her very social behavior, what could explain the delay in speech production? Are the delayed speech and walking related? Could it be some motor skill issue eventhough she has great coordination and can navigate youtube on phones to get to her favorite nursery rhymes with amazing dexterity! 
> Her mother wants to know if she  can she do to help her start speaking?
> All insights are much appreciated.
> Fatima
> Sent from my iPad
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Marilyn Vihman
Language and Linguistic Science
University of York
Heslington
YO10 5DD
tel +44 (0)1904 323612
http://www.yorkphondev.org







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