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Toddlers That Don't Have Much to Say
A Look at Speech Delays Among Siblings
By Renee Roberson
Kristin Cassell, a mom from Huntersville, N.C., is experiencing a similar situation with her youngest son. Her first child began speaking around 16 or 17 months of age and quickly progressed from there. Her youngest son, however, still only says about 10 or so words that Cassell can recognize. Once she had his hearing checked out and found out it was fine, her pediatrician recommended not giving him anything he pointed at until he asked for it by name. It hasn't helped much.
"He still isn't really talking that much at almost 2 1/2 years of age," Cassell says.
Is there any truth to the belief that girls speak earlier than boys? Based on her experience, Rozantes seems to think so.
"Girls definitely process and use language more easily than boys," Rozantes says. "It's just the nature of girls to do a lot of chatting. This helps them process their comprehension and vocabulary. They also tend to be more 'left brained,' which focuses on grammar and speech production."
According to Rozantes, boys, on the other hand, tend to be more restless, which can cause them to pay less attention to vocabulary. They also use their "right brain" more, which often causes them to develop analytical and logical skills first.
According to the guidelines at Zero to Three, a national nonprofitmultidisciplinary organization that educates and supports adults who influence the lives of infants and toddlers, most children begin to put two and three words together between the ages of 18 months and 2 years. Rozantes adds that professionals like to assess several components of a child's speech patterns before diagnosing any sort of delay.
