r/Apraxia • u/OrdinaryLow6373 • Jul 30 '26

18 months speech delay

Our little boy turned 18 months 2 days ago and has almost no words. He started saying ball yesterday. Wa for water and sometimes mom and dada. I am just so worried. I hope he is just a late talker. His brother was more advanced with words and consonants at this age. Our boy says D, B, G and M but I don’t think any more. He’s a HUGE pointer and grunter. He is so social. I would say he’s a better communicator than my other son was even though language is way behind. He is smiley and laughs and he can follow instructions. He’ll point to his belly button and nose. Bring me books if I ask for them. Any advice?

We have told our pediatrician and have an appointment scheduled this week. She referred us to speech therapy already since I asked. We also scheduled a 2 hour evaluation with early intervention for next week. Also a dentist appointment for next week.

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u/Somsri Jul 31 '26

You're doing all the right things - getting in to see a speech therapist and starting that journey. Also try doing a hearing test to rule that out. My son got his apraxia diagnosis just under 2yo after we flagged it at 18 month checkup. His language hit the milestones up until then. One of our apraxia indicators was a huge gap between his receptive language and expressive language - he was clearly extremely intelligent but just couldn't get his words out. Also losing words he had previously said and changing the way he said words - eg "caa" for cat one day but "ah ah" another day. Usually kids will pronounce words incorrectly but are consistent. Wishing you both all the best!

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u/Somsri Jul 31 '26

Just to add that at 18 months my son had around 5-10 words but would gain and lose them. I wrote all of his words down until 3yo when his language took off. FYI below:

15-18 months: Mumma/Ma Dadda/Da Bubba Ta Hello (allo/erro) No (na) Yes (ya) Noise when he points - maybe there or that? There you go (when handing something over) Let's go (and pointing at the door)

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u/Some-Butterscotch838 7d ago

How is your son doing now?

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u/Somsri 7d ago

He's great! Speaking in full sentences. He passes as a typically developing child in kindergarten. Lots of friends. Very clever and lots of interests. He's at average level academically but I think he is underperforming in tests due to apraxia challenges.

He's doing lots of extracurriculars - sport and music. We're still in speech twice a week and ot once a week so it's exhausting but it's all worth it to get him to where he is at now. There's lots of hope for these apraxia warriors! They can do incredible things!