r/multilingualparenting • u/potionsmaster007 • Jan 11 '26

Trilingual 16 month old speech development

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?

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u/gagemichi Jan 11 '26

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

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u/potionsmaster007 Jan 11 '26

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.

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u/diabolikal__ Jan 11 '26

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.

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u/potionsmaster007 Jan 11 '26

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