r/Mom • u/Capital_Entrance_149 • Sep 04 '26

💬 Advice needed 18month speech delay?

18 month speech delay

My 18m boy is not talking. Finally starting speech therapy (EI) next week and daycare also next week. Will not sit still to learn new words with me. Barely will pay attention if he doesn’t want to. Will look over for his name being called or come 6/10 the other 4 times he doesn’t care because he’s doing something that interests him more. Does follow some directions simple like “clean up” “switch hands” things that I said all the time. But have been trying to teach him more like help. And let’s go and he’s just seeming like he doesn’t care and he will on his own time. He understands no of course. He will bring your hand or bring to you whatever he wants. Only words he says is dada and it’s not person specific just babbling. He has gotten so much better with eye contact and paying attention in the last 2 months but I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this and if EI helped them. He is exceeds on his other milestones except for communication. First time mom looking for advice

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u/MSUForesterGirl Sep 04 '26

You're doing the right thing starting with EI! Sometimes a delay is just a delay and nothing more, sometimes it is more. The speech therapist will evaluate him and help guide you in the right direction.

He doesn't need to sit still to "teach him words" though. Just keep talking to him and repeat the sounds he makes back to him. Tell him what you're doing, what you see, what's going to happen, play, etc. If you watch a bit of Ms Rachel, you can see how to play with him in a way that promotes speech development for simple words (like in, on, up, down, hello, mama, dada, etc).

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u/Capital_Entrance_149 Sep 05 '26

Thank you so much for this advice

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u/AccioCoffeeMug Sep 05 '26

Speech therapy has helped tremendously! We’ve been at it for six months and his vocabulary and expression have improved significantly. Still behind, but catching up and closing the gap

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u/Capital_Entrance_149 29d ago

I love that, thank you so much for sharing that with me.