How Many Words Should A 17 Month Old Say

How many words should an 18 month old say?

eighteen month olds usually say between25-250 words.

There is a huge range of what is "typical" at this age considering each child has their own developmental pathway. At this historic period some toddlers have spent a lot more than energy on one area of development than others. For example, one toddler might have spent near of their try learning motor skills (running, climbing), while their toddler friend used most of their developmental energy learning communication skills. These 2 toddler friends may look very different at 18 months, only they volition both develop skills across all developmental areas and begin to expect more alike from a developmental perspective in preschool and elementary school.

Regardless of how many words an 18 month old can say, nosotros as oral communication therapists expect for children who are 18 months old to be learning new words regularly. This is a time of rapid vocabulary growth for toddlers!

Knowing how many words your little one says is often harder than we initially retrieve. I will include a link to our free Vocabulary Tracker below so you can hands count your toddlers vocabulary size and give them credit for all the words they are proverb.

Become a re-create of our Toddler Talk Vocabulary Tracker!

Keep reading for a more detailed answer about when babies showtime talking, learn about vocabulary benchmarks throughout toddlerhood, and what you can do if yous're worried about your child'southward vocabulary development.

When will my baby start talking?

Great question! Offset nosotros need to respond the underlying question: what does itmean to "learn to talk?" Does that mean the kid tin say a single word? A few words put together? A single word but information technology has to sound actually expert? What about if itsounds like a real discussion, but you lot're non sure that'southward what the kidmeans? When you have a young child, many or all of these questions may be running through your caput.

When your young kid is sitting in their high chair, the remains of luncheon in their hair and on the dog, and your child says says "dah!", you may be wonderingDid you but say something?

Well, the reply is,maybe. In that location is no official concrete rule that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) employ to define a first give-and-take, but there are some common criteria. Used together, you can say with relative certainty that something can be counted as a discussion:

The kid says the same sound combination (or baby sign) to hateful something specific AND
They tin can say it on their own without having to directly copy someone AND
They have washed this iii times

And so when the child (spontaneously) says "dah!" and is looking at your sweet puppy, dutifully licking baby food off of the ground, information technology is possible they are sayingdog. Later that 24-hour interval, the dog barks at the mail service carrier and your child once again says "dah." And last, your child watches you cascade kibble into a dish in the evening while your dog looks on and they comment, "dah." In this example, the child did not use "dah" for lots of other stuff during the day (a sippy loving cup was NOT called "dah", nor was a diaper, shoes, blanket, etc.). They said it on their own without having to copy you. Once they said it three times, congratulations! It is official! Your child has said their first word!

Sometimes early words might sound like each other. That'due south considering babies and toddlers are still learning and practicing, so their speech communication doesn't sound dandy nonetheless. For instance, "dah" might apply to other words that sort of sound the same, like "Dada." That'due south okay. Information technology takes some fourth dimension before their talking starts to sound better. All new skills take exercise!

Okay, but when will my child start to talk?

Well, the quick answer to this question is that a first discussion (every bit defined above) usually appears between x and 14 months.

Before that, you volition (typically) hear babbling. At first, babbling will exist sort of simple and it will be the same syllable repeated (ba-ba-ba). Then, it will get a little fancier and some of the sounds volition go inverse up (likeba-ba-da-da-ba-da). And so, the child might starting time adding some tones (ba-da-ga?) and yous get to that stage where parents think,wow, that sounded similar a real sentence!

Blathering volition continue while they are starting to say real words also. Sometimes, blatheringsounds only similar a real word merely perhaps isn't still (you think to yourself, he just said "da-da-da-da-da" and his daddy isn't even here!). Await to count it equally a word until you can tell for sure that that is what hemeans.

When volition my child first putting words together?

The quick respond is 18-xx months is when many childrenstartputting words together.

Past 24 months, an SLP would want to see frequent word combinations of at least 2 words, only some combinations might be longer.

To count every bit a word combination, the words in the combination accept to be learned separately. For instance, when children say "all done", is that one give-and-take or ii? Usually, kids learn "all washed" every bit asingle word/ thought. This is chosen afrozen phrase. Although adults know that there are *technically* two words in there, the child only always hears them together and their brain knows it as a single thought ("AllDone.")

They might combine AllDone with other words though ("water AllDone", "AllDone cereal"), making some nice two-word combinations. Another common frozen phrases might be I dearest you, where'd it get?, I see you lot!, thank you.

The more diverse a child's vocabulary is, the more types of combinations they tin brand. As nosotros all learned in school, it's hard to make a sentence without a verb! If your child only knows how to say nouns, they will exist pretty express in the types of sentences they can make ("milk cup", "mama boat"). Beingness able to use enough ofhelping words (similar "more than", "help", "please", "done" as well as activeness words like "eat", "wash", "cut") is prissy in guild to make a larger variety of sentences ("more milk", "go motorcar", "doggy eat", "assistance shoe", "wash foot").

Okay, now permit'due south review our toddler vocabulary benchmarks.

Past 6 months one-time…	…babbling starts (and continues fifty-fifty later on words announced.)
By 10-14 months old…	…outset words announced.
By 14-18 months onetime…	…vocabulary starts to develop. Typically children use at to the lowest degree 20 words past xviii months, but many will have xl or fifty-fifty more than.
Past 18-20 months former…	…uncomplicated discussion combinations start to announced.
By 24 months sometime	…children are often combining words in 2-3 word sentences. They have expressive vocabularies of at least 100 words, but many will have over 200.

What should I practise if I'm worried most my child'southward talking?

First of all, you are not alone! Many children are late talkers and benefit from some extra aid to learn to talk. Kids equally young as eighteen months can start to get speech communication therapy with their parent to learn some tips and tricks to speed upwards the talking. Early intervention for linguistic communication is extremely beneficial to help reduce frustration (for kids and their caregivers) and helps kids get on the right track for when they later go to school.

You can inquire for a referral from your pediatrician for a spoken communication-language evaluation. There are besides many (frequently free!) early intervention services throughout the land for kids under the age of 3. You lot can search "early on intervention YOUR City/COUNTY/Land" to find these services. Unlike states/counties have named their programs differently, but well-nigh have a organisation in place to become a child evaluated and potentially provide free speech therapy, equally well equally other early on intervention services.

Anticipating your child's first words and early vocabulary is an heady time! Exist encouraged that as your child begins to make sounds (babble) so say occasional words, and then as you hear words/phrases more frequently, these are all wonderful foundational steps to having a consummate conversation with your toddler.

Cardinal Take Aways:

Babies start talking, or say their start word, around the time of their first altogether.
Toddlers most oft get-go maxim 2 words together between the ages of 18-twenty months.
If y'all are worried because your child isn't talking even so, be sure to talk to your pediatrician. They can assist you effigy out if a speech communication and language evaluation could aid support your kid's development.

Don't forget to download our costless Vocabulary Tracker then you tin can exist certain your kid meets their vocabulary benchmarks!

Written By: Stephanie Burgener-Vader, MA, CCC-SLP

                      © 2020-2022. Stephanie Keffer, MS CCC-SLP. All Rights Reserved.

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