My daughter is 18 months old. She rarely watches TV and we always read books. My problem is, she still can't say a lot of words. I am worried that she might be having speech delays. Has anyone of you had the same experience? Though, my daughter understands and listens to us whenever we talk to her. Am I worrying too much?

Hi mommy, some children are usually just late bloomers. At times also, she just need to be exposed to children her age. You can enroll her to play school class to encourage her to talk and interact with kids her age. You may also consult a Developmental Pedia to evaluate your daughter if this would give you peace of mind. This is what we did to my daughter who also wasn't able to say minimum of 50 words at the age of 2. Although she can understand us and follow our commands, she doesn't verbalize much that time. Now, at 3 years old and after undergoing Speech therapy, she is more talkative and can interact well with us and with her peers.

In general, language skills start developing between the ages of one and two. Any form of communications, such as babbling, pointing to an object, responding to your comments, indicates that he/she is beginning to understand what is said to him/her (even though he/she is not using actual words to communicate with you). Every baby develops differently. My nephew only started talking at around 15 months. It was clear that he could understand us and was blabbering in his own baby language, but he just refused to “converse” with us. Now, at four years of age, we can’t get him to stop talking. ;p

Though you get her assessed by a speech therapist, but she is just 18-month old, and you should give her a little more time. Some kids start speaking clearly a little late. Make her practise the words she has problems in pronouncing, and do not worry as she is in the phase of learning new words and picking them up. Think yourself about learning new language and think how many times you would fumble and forget. So, give her time. :) http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35:admin&catid=2:uncategorised&Itemid=117

for my case my son start to speaks more and well around 2yrs old. my mil also commented that why at the age of 1.5yrs old still cant speak well. his father which is my hubby speaks at very young age. my mom told me instead not to worry. soon my son will be v talkative and talk non stop. true enough my son talk non stop at the age of 2yrs old and can reason and argue with us too. so no need to worry and talk to her more through books and daily things and conversations. all babies are different so i dont like to compare my son with others.

Every kids are unique, hence their progression is definitely different. 18months might be too early to gauge if she's having any speech delays. Try talk to your PD, their school teachers, peers' parents to see if this is normal among toddlers of his age. My younger son has the same problem as your girl back then. His progress is quite slow as compared to my elder son; but pd said it's quite normal at that age. Just talk to her and get her to talk more often, everything shall be fine. Now, my younger son is very talkative. ;)

I have a 19m and same thing she doesn't babble nor say a lot of words. Our pedia says she's doing okay as she understands simple instructions for her age. Give stimulation as well to make her respond in words. Like when reading a book.. we ask "what's this color" then we teach them what to respond. I also use repeat after me thou they're prone to mispronouncing it's fine. it's a step

Every child is different. 18 mths is still rather young. give her more time. :)