How To Identify if Your Toddler’s Speech Delay Is a Concern

Every child develops at their own pace, but it's important to know when your toddler's speech delay may be something to be concerned about.

Medically reviewed by Bree Lustre, MDMedically reviewed by Bree Lustre, MD

There is a wide range of what's considered "normal" language development in toddlers. Children hit milestones at different times and many factors can influence how much or how clearly a young child speaks.

For instance, children who live in a bilingual home may take a little longer to become fluent in either language (but in the long run, may have significantly better verbal skills than their peers). Toddlers in a family with older children sometimes speak later because older siblings "talk for them." Research also shows that children with ovaries speak earlier than those with testes on average.

Sometimes, though, speaking later than expected or speech that is unclear can signal a developmental delay or a physical problem. The first step is to determine whether your child's speech is really off target for their age. Use this list of speech-related milestones and signs of possible speech delay in toddlers age 3 and under when considering whether your little one's speech is progressing as expected.

12- to 18-Month Speech Milestones

Around the first birthday, baby babble starts to change. As little ones try harder to imitate the sounds around them, the noises they make start to take the shape of actual words.

At this age, toddlers have a wide range of speech sounds. You’ll probably be able to recognize at least one or two common words, such as "baba" (for "bottle") or "mama" (for "mom"). Nouns that are, in a child's view, essential to daily life are usually the first words that they master.

Aside from those key words, your child’s speech at 12 months will mostly be limited to babbling sounds. Over the following six months, though, you should start to see your child begin to develop more advanced communication, such as:

Trying to copy your words
Imitating the back-and-forth of real conversation
Inflecting speech to ask a question (saying "Ju?" when requesting juice) or make a demand (shouting "Ju!" when insisting on juice)
Spontaneously using words, rather than just responding to sounds you make
Using a combination of gestures and vocalized sounds to communicate

Tip

When evaluating your child's 12- to 18-months speech milestones it's important to pay attention to the words or sounds your child is making. Consider whether or not your toddler can follow simple one-step directions such as, "pick up the block."

18- to 24-Month Speech Milestones

There continues to be a wide range of normal in verbal skills during the 18-to 24-month period. Your child’s personality, temperament, and circumstances can play a role in how many words you hear and how often. On average, by the time your toddler reaches age 2, you can expect the following speech milestones:

Increasingly adding words to their vocabulary
Forming two-word phrases, although they won’t be grammatically correct (such as “no go,” “book read”)
Using words to identify pictures in a book or surroundings
Naming body parts and animals and sometimes making animal sounds (such as “moo” for cow)

It's still important to notice how well your child is able to comprehend what you say. Do they respond to you when you ask questions? Can they follow simple two-step commands by age 2? This is known as receptive language.

2- to 3-Year Speech Milestones

After the second birthday, there is usually an explosion in vocabulary and the use of more complex sentences. It's often said that a child's vocabulary grows to 200 or more words during this time. Some of the 2- to 3-year speech milestones to look for this year include:

Saying more words and picking up new words regularly
Combining three or more words into sentences (which may still be grammatically awkward)
Beginning to identify colors, shapes, and concepts, such as "more" or "less" and "big" versus "little"
Singing nursery rhymes and songs or repeating stories from books you've read often together
Beginning to express feelings with words ("I hungry," "Sam sad")

The total number of words your child learns during this time is less important than a consistent increase in the number of words they start to use week by week.

At this age, it's still common for people outside your immediate family or regular caregivers to be unable to understand your child as well as you can. In the coming year, your child’s speech should become clearer and clearer.

Key Takeaways

When determining whether your toddler has delayed speech, you should first evaluate if their speech is normal for their age. You can use speech-related milestones to look for signs of possible speech delay in toddlers. Milestones are broken up by age group and vary from copying words to identifying colors and shapes. Make sure to look through each milestone to determine if your little one's speech is progressing as expected. If you are concerned about your child's speech, talk to a pediatric health care provider about the causes of speech delays and ways you can support language development at home.

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