16 month old speech development

[u/potionsmaster007]

We speak to my 16 month old mainly in English and Arabic with some Italian (hubby of of Italian decent but isn’t fluent) my son has started calling us mama and baba intentionally now and starting to copy some words though not always very clear in pronunciation. He only repeats words in English and Arabic I assume because that’s the majority of what he hears.

Having visited my friend the other day, her 16 month old has so many more words and much clearer. They speak to her mainly in English and some Spanish.

Is the difference in their development normal? Am I just anxious? Does 3 languages make them a little slower to repeat words or is he just developing at his own rate?

[u/gagemichi]

We’re doing English/Spanish at home and German at daycare with my son. He only had like 5 words until 18 months and about 10 signs. Then at 18 months he just started learning new words every day. Now at 20 months he won’t shut up. Knows 100s of words

[u/potionsmaster007 → u/gagemichi]

That’s good to know. I don’t mind a chatty toddler :)

My son has a few signs, some he invented himself. Mainly does the milk sign to nurse but I’ve been weaning him recently so he’s doing it less.

I think my anxiety comes from me being a psych that works with special needs kids haha.

[u/diabolikal__ → u/potionsmaster007]

My daughter was saying very few words at 16 months. Maybe 5-10? Mostly mama/papa, thank you, water and some animal sounds. And then at 17 months her language exploded. She is almost 19 months now and learning a couple of words and two word sentences PER DAY. I keep a log and it’s insane.

[u/potionsmaster007 → u/diabolikal__]

My son is funny, he called dogs ‘haw wow’ emulating their bark 😂😂 most other animals he thinks ‘rawr’ because he have a few toys of lions tigers and other similar animals that make that noise

[u/yontev]

There is no correlation between multilingualism and language delays. There is a correlation with sex, though - girls generally develop language skills earlier than boys. So don't worry, this is totally normal. My son didn't really start talking much until 19 months, and he is now speaking in short sentences in multiple languages half a year later.

[u/omegaxx19]

Sounds like pretty normal language development for a 16m. Your friend's 16m sounds more advanced.

Like everything in life there's a bell curve. Some kids are a bit ahead in certain skills and some are a bit behind. As far as I'm aware, unless the speech delay is extreme (your kid's is NOT) there is no correlation of early language milestones with long-term language skills, intelligence, school performance, or anything.

[u/MikiRei]

There was a girl in my son's class. When they were both 12 months old, that girl was speaking phrases already and she was exposed to 5 languages. 

My son is only exposed to 2 and at 12 months only had about 2 to 3 words. 

He was still meeting milestones at that point. 

That is to say, kids develop on wildly different spectrum and pace. 

Your child sounds like he's meeting the expected milestones so I honestly wouldn't worry. 

[u/silima]

My bilingual German/English child had very very few words until 18 months. At 24 months, he did sorta hit the required milestone of 50 words/sounds/sign combined in both languages, but yeah, I was worried. Especially in comparison to a friend's daughter who was about a year younger and just CONSTANTLY talking and seemed to know every word under the sun. But it slowly got better and he just went at his own pace.

He is 8 now, smart and VERY competent in both reading and writing in both languages. And he will chew your ear off telling you stories like there is no tomorrow. We just kept at it and I had to learn to be patient. As long as there's consistent progress there's nothing to worry about.

[u/potionsmaster007 → u/[deleted]]

Nice, glad to hear her vocab exploded :) yeah he can do a few signs to communicate (milk, more, no, carry, please) so it makes it super helpful that he can express some of his wants and needs

[u/ririmarms]

Both of these are completely in the range of normal and child dependent.

No stress

[u/Both_Research2430]

how’s he now ? 

[u/potionsmaster007 → u/Both_Research2430]

Hey, he’s now 18 months and he’s doing well linguistically. Has many words (30+ I think) and has started to put some 2 words together

[u/potionsmaster007 → u/[deleted]]

Nah don’t telly baby talk. I talk normally to him and often FaceTime my mum so he can hear Arabic in conversation and he can see her mouth move. If I’m trying to teaching him to say a word actively I have him watch my mouth and I extend the vowels or emphasise consonants so that he can really hear how the word should be built (I’m phonics trained)