My step-nephew was similar. He did not say much of anything until almost 2 1/2 years old. They had his hearing tested and it all came out ok. His mommy and others were really worried. He would just grunt all the time. Well, when he started talking, it was non-stop!! It was like he was building it all up! I have heard to help with language skills to read a lot to them, point out things and tell them what they are, carry on a dialogue during the day with them, even though he would not be responding. It helps them learn what things are and how to make the sounds to say the words. I know it is hard, but I would not worry just yet. I have also heard that many times boys are later to develop speech than girls.

As far as the registering issue, you can contact Spike via the "Letters and Comments" section. If you go to the main Parents of Toddlers page, or any other forum main page, and scroll all the way to the bottom, you will see the link. I have contacted Spike that way before, and he has always been very responsive.

Thanks, Karla!

My son (nearly 2 1/2) is a slow talker. He also was a slow crawler and walker, so I've learned to not worry and just let him grow at his own speed. There's things that he excels with (the little tyke can build with Legos designed for 7 year olds!) and things he's lagging in (a two-word sentence is beyond him).

The ped evaluated him (going thru a long list of "milestones", things he could or couldn't do) and also had his hearing checked. Everything is normal except for the language development.

First: Never, ever compare your son to others. My son is EXACTLY 20 minutes younger than his cousin and it sure is hard not to compare them, lol! But she's a girl and there is a huge difference in the two of them. She was graceful and flying around the house like a ballerina while my guy couldn't crawl 1 foot to get the cookie that she dropped. But then, she can't build a car out of Lego's either, so neener! Hee, hee...

As a mom, you'll be able to notice that he is improving in little ways that a ped wouldn't see. You may want to keep a notebook of his progress, for example, the words he can say, the words he repeats if you say them, the words he understands. (He may surprise you with what he does know. Or he may surprise you with how much progress he makes in a small amount of time.)

For example, I have written:
He asks for a "na-na" when he sees the fruit bowl
He repeats, "yeah, yeah, yeah" when he hears it, tho, he doesn't know what it means
He runs and gets his shoes when I ask him to (he couldn't do this at his last ped check-up)

Keeping up with things like that helped me see that tho my guy isn't talking, he is improving nearly everyday. Just this weekend, he pointed to the door and said, "dar!" This was after months and months and months asking him to close the door at every opportunity.

Read-read-read and talk-talk-talk to your son! Talk to him in the grocery store, even when people start to stare, hee, hee..."Here are some green beans. Oh boy, this can is heavy. Here is a smaller can, let's get this one. Oh, we better get 2 cans, daddy eats a lot. You eat a lot too, you're getting to be such a big boy..." babble like that, hee, hee...

Also the Richard Scarry type books are excellent. They have lots of pictures with nearly everything labeled. I find the stories kinda flakey so I ignore the story line and just point out all the things in the pictures (millions of them!) Regular story books are excellent, especially the the ones that rhyme! English is a wonderful language, enjoy reading outloud and inspire him in the gift of language : ) Sing too! One of my son's first words was "E-I-E-I-E-I-E-I-E-I-E-I..." from our version of Old MacDonald. (There's a thread on the Parent's of Infants titled, "Lullaby, Lullaby" with song ideas.)

Hope this helps!

My son was the same way at 17 months. At 2 he still wasn't talking much. At 29 months I can't shut him up! It sounds like he is on the right track. Just keep talking to him, asking him questions, reading to him etc...

I know you are probably doing this but Have you bought any books with realistic pictures of thing, like a ball, bed etc. usually these items are in picture books in room and outside situations. You would not believe how a young child, if these pictures are realistic looking will connect the picture to the item with you going through each page and perhaps he/she trying to mimic what you say. Working on one page at a time. As his questions about the page. What is this? What is that?

You possibly have already done this, but I was just trying to be helpful. Perhaps he will catch on quickly. Good luck!
~Lynn~

I don't want to trivialize your problem, but kids usually do things in their own time. The more you push, the more they will fight you. Do you "baby talk" to your child or does anyone else do that? That might be the problem. By not using real words for different things, like saying BA-BA when you're talking about a bottle, your child isn't actually learning the real words. We never "baby talked" to our daughter and never let anyone else do it either. At 3 1/2 her vocabulary is amazing. But you can't compare your child to anyone else. Kids do things when they're good and ready, but I agree with you, if he's not using "real words" soon to communicate, I'd have him checked out. Also, you could try this... If he wants his cup, and grunts for it or doesn't say cup, tell him what it is and keep repeating it until he says it. Don't give him what he wants until he uses the correct word for it. There will be tantrums, of course, because little ones want what they want when they want it. But maybe this will work for you...Sorry is so-o-o-o-o long. :)

I totally agree about the baby talk. I think that is very bad for even young children. The child may mispronounce words to start with- but you can keeping saying the word correctly and in time the child will learn it correctly, unless he/she has a bad speech problem. If that's the case you will need attentional help from a speech teacher or speech pathologist.

I do think every child starts talking at different ages, but if you don't use repetition and talk alot to your child she/he will not pick up the language easily from just being around you. Not to say you aren't talking to your child, you could be talking all the time to the child and the child still not responding. But some adults don't understand that repeating words and working on words saying them over and over is the only way a child will learn to have a vocabulary-along with reading books to him/her.
And as the poster said above never baby talk. You want the child to pronouce their words correctly so that they don't develop a habit of saying words wrong that might be hard to break. Young children need alot of interaction in learning words.
~Lynn~

My son is now 4 1/2. He wasn't talking 'til after he was 3. His hearing is OK. He would do things that I asked. He just didn't want to communicate. We had him checked out by a speech specialist. One of the 'many' reasons for my son late development could be heritage. I didn't speak until I was about 5, and now you can't shut me up, and my son is a little chatter box also. My 2 1/2 year old daughter is doing the same. She's not talking, but does her baby talk.
I think one of our problems was that we were doing the talking for my son. So he would say "milk" and we would get some milk for him. We didn't encourage him to ask "May I have some milk, please"...type of deal..

In my case I would repeat his questions, until he got the hang of asking. Be a role model, kids love to learn from us, and repeat from us.

Hope this helps out a little.

Yvette