is my son develpoing properly?

Question

my son is 21 months and doesnt seem to be recognising the difference between certain colours, only counts to ten if he is repeating me, and says a full sentence like a 6 month old baby with only 1 word that you can understand.
please help!

my son wasnt premature, has had ear infections from being 2 months old, and does go to nursery for 3 hours a day.

Answer 1

He is not even two years old yet - give yourself a break! Who on earth told you he needs to be doing all these things by now?? If it was a book then tear it up and put it in a bin. If it was a friend, then see less of them.

I have 3 boys and the youngest is 29 months. He has a good vocab but his legible sentences are about 3 words. I had a friend look after him the last day and she was laughing about how he says 3 words so clearly then the rest is sheer gobblydygook. It is soooooo normal. My 1st could speak better by now but I am by no means worried by no3's development. Even tho he doesn't communicate in fluent sentences, I know he is fine because I call tell him anything and he understands by his actions.

Counting, colour, numbers - an amazing amout of information to learn along with everything else like names of people, things around him, names of the foods he's eating, learning table manners, playing and everything else he does in the normal run of a day and the brain can only take in so much at one time! My 3rd child is not lazy, like someone suggested might be your case, just because he has older siblings. He is just himself!

And don't start getting him referred for tests, etc. This will just put more pressure on him. Let him develop at his own pace and he will be a better learner for it instead of trying to overwhelm him with info that he can't take in all at once.

You're a good mum for being concerned but don't beat yourself up with thinking he's not developing properly. He is.

I watched Robert Winston's Child of our Time last week and the professionals were so concerned by the development of the featured child and were not very pleased when the mother refused to put him through thier tests and help schemes. She said she saw him do things when no one else did and she just knew he was fine and would come on great - and he did! He was amazing by the time they caught up with how he is today. So the professionals don't always know best. Sometimes mother really does know best!

Have faith in your own judgement - and your son. It sounds like you have taught him well so far, so keep up the good work.

Answer 2

Hi just wondering if your child has had any problems such as ear infections? The reason I ask is my now 3 year old was on that same path. He would pronounce words and you could not understand him. It only made him frustrated. My son had tubes put in his ears twice already and may have another set if his come out before winter is over. After figuring out his problem he started going to speech class and it has really helped him. A great way to help him with colors we use the Dora the Explorer candy land game. If you aren't familiar with it you draw cards and what ever color card you get you go to that block. This also will help with counting. ANother counting learning tool is one two buckle my shoe 3 4 shut the door etc... THere is also great shows like elmo and dora, diego that are great to help with learning. Also Barney. My son also loves the movie herbie fully loaded. Everytime he sees a v bug he would get excited so we started asking him what color every one he saw was. If he got the wrong answer then we would correct it and have him say the right answer.He now takes speech classes so he can have the extra help in learning. When we first started speech she questioned me over the ears. When I told her he already had tubes put in twice she said that was most likely his problem. She said if he can't hear it right he can't pronounce it right. Which makes perfect sense to me. I am proud to say he is doing great and knows all colors and is coming along with the counting. We have only been in speech for about 4 months and he can already pronounce almost everything correctly and we can understand him. My second question would be rather you or people he has been a round baby talk him or don't correct him. That is one way that a child could have those problems (I did daycare for almost 10 years).If your child is talked to in "baby talk" or if everything is automatically done for him he is not going to talk more than a word or so. If your child wants something you need to make him understand he has to tell you what he wants and don't forget the please!

Answer 3

My daughter is 22 months old and can't recognise the difference between colours either. I thought she was behind for this but have been told its normal at that age, as children take a long time to be able to distinguish between colours.
She is speaking in sentances now, but 2 months ago she was only putting 2 words together at the most.
She can't count at all either, although if she is holding something in each hand, she says 'two'.
My elder daughter used to say a line of babble then the word she was trying to communicate at the end. It was like she knew we spoke sentances but couldn't do it herself so that was the closest she got.

Don't worry about things. Sounds like he is pretty normal to me. I think you can get paranoid about them not developing fast enough because you compare them to other children, but they are all different and the speed they develop now doesn't have any bearing on how intelligent they will be later.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

He does NOT HAVE TO know these things yet. He's not even 2 yet. Don't worry he's not behind at all. By the way: Which 6 month old baby would tell you a full sentence ???
If you put pressure on him to make him talk, count, read etc. YOU gonna destroy his self-confidence (which is just being started to build up by your help). what he needs now is gentle encouragement and recognition and appreciation for every little improvement he makes.

Answer 5

Hey,

Parents often worry if their child is developing properly some kids excel at motor skills walking, crawling etc and others concentrate on speach, mine did the talking thing!

Visit www.ivillage.co.uk

there are tips on what age your child should be when they do certain things, this can help stop you worrying, however my friends son is 3 and my daugther who is 21 months talks better than him, although there is nothing wrong with him as his parent have been to the doctors etc, its just different with each child...

relax...

Answer 6

Some children dont talk until they are much older than your son. If he has had hearing, eye tests and can make sounds, then stop worrying. If there is colour blindness in your family, check that out - there are dot tests for children too. My daugher was a late talker, and then started speaking in sentences!

Answer 7

We all worry about the first kid waaaaaaay too much. My son couldn't scratch his ar$e without the missus phoning NHS direct. Kid number 2, got a bit of a temperature? Shove some calpol down her neck, open a window, get back to something important like watching the telly. Of course, I can joke about it all now... =)

About the talking. Yeah - boys are v slow. My girl could speak complex sentences at a *much* younger age.

Answer 8

Every child develops at different rates and usually boys are a little behind girls in the race. however if you are worried you should request an assessment by your health visitor and GP even just to reassure yourself. Continue with your interactions with him he will be benefiting enormously from this even if you do not think so - well done for being so attentive!

Answer 9

If this is really worrying you, talk to your doctor and dont go by textbook milestones as not all children learn at the same speed as others. Boys tend to be slower to pick up than girls. He is responding and can do it but he knows he can get what he needs without trying too hard. One day he will suddenly surprise you and you will realise you were worrying for nothing. Ps Your child can more than likely do something better for his age than others because it's more interesting to him.

Answer 10

That is very young to expect him to be able to count and speak in sentences!! Children begin with one word, then they put together two words and later they put together several words.

Relax!! He sounds like a very bright child and I am sure he will learn everything he needs to know in due time! You just keep playing with him, pointing out all those colours and numbers and he will be GREAT!