18 month old hand leads instead of talking

[Jrrobbie]

Hi guy I just wanted to see if anyone had experienced anything similar with their toddlers
My son will be 18 months in 3 weeks and im a bit worried because he isnt talking at all no words yet. So his way of communicating is grabbing my hand and taking me to the kitchen when hes hungry or thirsty . If he wants to go outside (which he always does) he’ll take my hand and lead me to the door and wait for me to open it . This is pretty much all he does all day is grab our hand and leads us to do something for him or just to sit and play with him
Is this normal

 

[Jrrobbie]

By the way he has perfect eye contact whenever he grabs someones hand hell look up directly at you and smile

 

[Jrrobbie]

Bump

 

[AngelUK]

Mine didn't do that but one of my twins had no words at 18 months either. He started talking at 20 months and by 2 years he never shut up lol.
We did get an appointment with a speech therapist but by the time the referral came through he was talking in 7 word sentences. If you are worried I would talk to your Health Visitor or your GP (if you are in the UK) who can refer you. But it seems to me that your boy has found an effective way to communicate and that seems to me, is the most important

 

[Jrrobbie]

Mine didn't do that but one of my twins had no words at 18 months either. He started talking at 20 months and by 2 years he never shut up lol.
We did get an appointment with a speech therapist but by the time the referral came through he was talking in 7 word sentences. If you are worried I would talk to your Health Visitor or your GP (if you are in the UK) who can refer you. But it seems to me that your boy has found an effective way to communicate and that seems to me, is the most important

Hey thanks for the reply. Thats what im hoping for that he’ll just surprise me one day and start talking. I was thinking about getting a speech therapist

 

[Babybump87]

Id just keep modelling back . So when he takes you to the door to go outside say something like do you want to go outside, I will open the door so you can go outside etc . I’m sure you probably do this anyway .

Give him choices too so when he wants a drink offer two options when he picks one just say orange juice please

It’s all about just modelling things back to them that’s what DD1s speech therapist told us when she used to go . Giving them choices and time to take it all in!

Like Angel said he knows how to communicate and tell you what he wants . I bet he’s just one of those kids that’s taking everything in and will just explode with language one day .

Has he had a hearing test done . This is one of the first things a speech therapist will ask
You !

Good
Luck!

 

[Jrrobbie]

Id just keep modelling back . So when he takes you to the door to go outside say something like do you want to go outside, I will open the door so you can go outside etc . I’m sure you probably do this anyway .

Give him choices too so when he wants a drink offer two options when he picks one just say orange juice please

It’s all about just modelling things back to them that’s what DD1s speech therapist told us when she used to go . Giving them choices and time to take it all in!

Like Angel said he knows how to communicate and tell you what he wants . I bet he’s just one of those kids that’s taking everything in and will just explode with language one day .

Has he had a hearing test done . This is one of the first things a speech therapist will ask
You !

Good
Luck!

Hey thinks for replying! I have been talking to him so much more now and hes starting to babble more, some even sounding like words , hopefully he’ll catch up soon

 

[Babybump87]

Aww fantastic ! That’s it just talk to him all the time even when your just cooking , cleaning explain what your doing etc !

He will be talking non stop soon!
X

 

[Bevziibubble]

That's great progress

 

[Sander]

My son was just like this at 18 months - I worried about it a lot. I even got him a referral at a speech clinic but there was a huge waiting list, then COVID happened so we still haven’t even heard back from them.

Anyways, he turns 2 at the end of the month and knows tons of words now. Letters, numbers, colours, food (pizza is a favorite, lol), drinks, requests you name it.

What helped me was to write down how old he was and what words he could say - then I could visually track his progress and know if I needed to be concerned.

 

[Babybump87]

- Dobby did you mean to post your above post in this thread ? xxx

 

[DobbyForever]

I sure did not lol

I’m on a muscle relaxer so o was a bit out of it lol

 

[Babybump87]

Oohh gosh ! Lol

Just thought in case you where wondering why no one replied and kinda doesn’t fit in with this thread I was like hmmm lol haha xxx