How many words did your 15 month old speak?

[emma96]

We speak Arabic and English at home. My daughter only says two words, mama and mai (Arabic for water). She points at things and says "ma" for everything. She stopped saying any other consonants (she used to make the b and z sounds too, but no more). We constantly encourage her to speak but she doesn't try to mimic our speech.

Pediatrician says she should be saying 4 to 8 words by now. What was your baby like when they were around this age? How many words did they know by 15/18 months?

 

[nari]

@emma96 Our child learns Aramaic and German at home, and one of his first words was also "maye" (meaning water, same as with Arabic).

When he was 15-18 month he also used but a few words. We were also "concerned", but let me tell you one thing: I don't remember exactly when it happened, but i am pretty sure it was before he turned 2 years old. It was like somebody turned a switch: He was learning new words and phrases in a ridiculous speed. Like at least 2 words each day, regardless of the language. I remember i was yelling out "Shit" in German, and within a few seconds he started repeating it. So, yeah, be careful, and don't worry too much about her learning speed. We were also in close contact with other parents, and we had the full range: kids who were slower in picking up words and other who were way faster, but in the end it all evened out.

 

[jsigler]

@nari Shlama/Shlomo! !ܫܠܡܐ

I have a 16 month old daughter and I speak only Assyrian with her and mostly English with my wife(Italian) but I also speak Assyrian with her because she understands a lot. I am wondering how your son is with speaking our native tongue at this point in their life? My daughter completely understands everything I say to her and can even say a few words, ta(come!), birqa(light/electricity), mia(water), along with some English words. My hope is that she will continue to learn both and when it comes to communication later in life, she communicates with me in Assyrian. That is my goal. Obviously when she is old enough to read and write, I will also teach her to be literate (I am).

She has a lot of exposure to my family which also only speak Assyrian to her. I hope that this helps as well.

Push/fush bshayna/bshayno!

 

[wintermint]

@emma96 I think what you are describing is normal. My older daughter said her first word at 16 months and only had a handful of words at two years. She’s now fifteen, bilingual, and in advanced language arts classes in high school. My younger did not have as much of a delay, probably because her older sister talked to her so much.

 

[blessedsingle99]

@emma96 We speak Russian and English at home. Our baby was hardly talking between 12-15 months. But then as he got closer to 18 months, his language just exploded. He’s now 19 months and I can’t even count all the words he knows. It happened really fast for us.

 

[kaririopelle]

@emma96 I was worried sick a couple months ago and my now 17-month old was just like yours. But he has around 20 words now and I'm discovering new ones every day. Just keep following your child's interests, half the words my kid knows are just things that he thinks are cool.

 

[ha6enti]

@emma96 Have you mentioned the dual languages to your paediatrician? Ours knows about it and she adjusts the speech schedule until a certain age and always told me "so at this age, we would expect baby to speak X words but since you are a multilingual household, Y is fine and if they are not saying mama and dada (for example) and do not understand those words, that would be something to work on and let me know about next appointment."

Fwiw, our first was behind on speech until 18 months, and he had a random speech explosion right after that. He is now ahead of schedule, but his doctor tells us that this is, once again, normal- multilingual kids take longer to speak, especially firstborns, but once they do, they learn quicker. Which isn't to say that you're in trouble if this doesn't happen, but there seems to be a ravine preceding the bump, so if it happens, this is also normal.

 

[egm3248]

@emma96 Don't worry about how many words they "should be" speaking. All kids are different. Give her some time.

 

[northee]

@emma96 my daughter who is 1 year old now speaks only 1 word "cá" which is fish and that is her favorite fish. although I know that she understands way more than that word, she only speakings that one out.

 

[tycoon34]

@emma96 First off, it's amazing that you are introducing more than one language at such a young age! I have read that sometimes they are slower to pick up/speak as many words when they are learning multiple languages at once, but not in a bad way. (It's been a while so I can't remember the source, but may be something to look into as a possible cause). They catch up and have the advantage of being bilingual/trilingual or what have you. I wouldn't worry unless you notice other milestones they are not hitting like walking, or if they are really overly bothered by sounds that don't bother others, don't make appropriate eye contact for their age and culture, etc.

 

[environmentalman]

@emma96 My trilingual baby’s first real word was “baby” at 18m, other than “mama” and “papa”.

She is 27m now and has a vocab of well over 150 words, repeats most new words easily and can count to 10 in all three languages. I’m sure your baby will get there too!