My firstborn is a boy and he was quite slow in his speech too despite talking to him alot. He was able to say papa and mama at 11 months but tt was it. No other spoken words but he was able to understand simple instructions like "Throw this in the bin" and he was able to throw into the bin or pick up the remote and he was able to do it without us using any gestures. My private PD wasn't so concerned though but I was the kanchiong one and tried to get him an appt at KKH via polyclinic. Only managed to get a speech specialist at 18 months and by then he has progressed but not as much as compared to his peers. By then I also put him in half day childcare but still not much improvement. He was unfortunately absent alot due to always being sick and my mom cldnt bear getting him sick further so she decided to continue caring for him full time. The speech therapy also didnt do much so I stopped aft 5 months. I only see a much faster progress when he got to N1 aft 2 years old. He's a Dec baby so yes his peers are all older and could speak sentences by then. He became very talkative when his baby sister was born just before his 3rd birthday. And now at 4.5 years old he's able to read and write better than most of his peers, according to his teacher. Took me a lot of practice every day with him, lots of reading and pretend play too. Generally boys need more time than girls, from what I observed as an educator myself.
For my girl at 15 months, she is alr able to speak in phrases and simple sentences like 'I want this'. A far cry from what her brother could at the same age but it cld also attribute to her starting sch age. I sent her to infantcare since 6 months old so she communicates much better.
Read more
