Talking and not talking

[Beaker]

DS just turned one. He started talking at 7 months. He can say 5 words now. However, he never says them. He said "bye-bye" maybe five times and "hi" just twice. That was weeks ago. He said "dada" off and on for a few months but now he calls DH "mama". "Mama" and "uh-oh" are the only things he says regularly. He knows that DH is called "dada" because he will point to him or look at him when you ask where "dada" is. Why is he doing this? Is it normal?

[happymommyto2]

This is totally normal mama. Sometimes they may use a word and forget about it for a while. I have a list of Addie's words. It has about 26 words on it and some of them she only rarely uses. But at least I know they are part of her vocab. You would only have a reason to be concerned if he went from talking and using words to saying nothing at all. I would just work on encouraging him to use words and imitate.

[jewelzbird]

As long as he is still making eye contact, responding with his attention and body language... I wouldn't worry about it just yet. I suspect in the next few 3-6 months he will start to talk a lot more.

[clechatelier]

DD knows that I am "mama" but also uses it when she's hungry, wants more of something, etc. She too recognizes many words/phrases that I use with her daily buy has yet to say anything intelligible besides mama. But we use two languages with her so I expected a language delay of some sort. I figure she'll sort it all out in her head eventually!

[Psychomom]

I think it's normal. When my kids were babies and the pediatrician asked about words, he marked it as a word even if they'd only said it one time and not again.

[fish3737]

Totally normal especially at this age. The guidelines are 20 words by 20 months.

When you are developing in so many areas - cognitive, social, gross motor, fine motor, speech and language it is a back and forth in all these areas.

Kinda amazing if you think about it.

Totally normal to be worried. I was really worried about my son, but he finally hit a stride at 18 months. The kid could climb cupboards and counters at 12 months, but barely said any words.

Now things are evening out.

[mbsr76]

Very normal. My son does the same thing. I haven't heard "ball" in ages but there was a time he would say it all day long. Now it's "shishies" (fishies).

[house-of-boys]

How's his receptive language developing? It's typically normal to have a huge receptive language (what he understands) vs. an expressive language (what he says) at this age. Eventually his expressive lang. will catch up with his receptive lang. and then you can expect him to begin talking more.

Bennett is almost 15 months and is only saying mama, ball, and bye-bye. He understands a ton of things though- like where's your blankey, go get in your high chair, find your shoes, let's get in the tub, put it away, etc.