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If your toddler isn’t talking yet, you have probably already been told to give it time. That is hard advice to sit with, and it leaves you with nothing to do on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon with your child in front of you.
Here is the part that usually gets left out. The way you talk with your child at home matters for their language, and you can start today. You don’t need a diagnosis first, and you don’t need to turn your day into therapy sessions. What helps is knowing where to look and what to do with what you see.
And to say it plainly, because this is the page worried parents land on: a language delay is not caused by a parent saying the wrong thing, talking too little, or using more than one language at home. Responsive interaction supports development. It is not a test of how good a parent you are.
Parents do a lot of things right. Sometimes they need guidance, and someone to show them what the next step is.
Don’t wait for the rest of this page if…
Your child has lost speech, babbling or social skills they used to have; you have any concern about their hearing; or they are not meeting communication milestones. In any of those cases, ask for guidance now. Jump to when to ask for an evaluation.
On this page
- What late talking means, and how to read a milestone checklist
- What counts as a word
- What to look at alongside the word count
- Will my child catch up?, and things to try at home
- When to ask for an evaluation, and how to get one
- Questions parents ask me
What late talking means
Late language emergence, often called late talking, means a child’s language is developing more slowly than expected, without another diagnosed developmental condition. It may affect expressive language only, or both expressive and receptive language, meaning what a child says and what a child understands.
One widely used clinical criterion at 24 months is fewer than 50 spoken words and no spontaneous two-word combinations. That is a reason to look more closely. It is not a diagnosis by itself. There is no biological cliff between 49 and 50 words: the number has to be read alongside word combinations, comprehension, the rate of vocabulary growth, and the rest of a child’s communication.
Children whose understanding is on track tend to have a better outlook than children whose understanding is delayed as well. That is useful information, and it is a reason for cautious encouragement rather than a reason to stop paying attention.
How to read a milestone checklist
You have probably read one at midnight. Two things are worth knowing before you do it again.
The CDC revised its checklists in 2022, and each milestone now describes a skill that at least 75% of children can do by that age. They are not averages. Missing one does not diagnose a delay, and it does not mean your child has fallen behind half of their peers.
The checklists are also designed for developmental monitoring, and the CDC is explicit that they are not a validated screening tool and not a substitute for an evaluation. Missing a milestone is information worth raising with your child’s doctor, particularly alongside any other concern, and a reason to ask about a proper screening.
What counts as a word
Before you decide how many words your child has, sit down and write the list. Parents are usually surprised in one direction or the other, and either way you end up with a real number rather than an impression.
A word doesn’t have to be clear to count. If your child says “baba” every time they want a bottle, and only for the bottle, that is a word. Consistent approximations count as spoken words, and so do meaningful sound effects used the same way each time, like “moo” for a cow.
Signs are meaningful expressive language and they matter. If you are comparing your child against a spoken-word milestone, though, keep spoken words and signs in two separate lists, because that milestone was built by counting spoken words.
Pointing, showing, giving and pulling you by the hand are important communication, and they belong in the picture. They are not words, and they don’t go in the word count.
Three things that put the word count in context
The word count still matters. These are what a speech-language pathologist looks at alongside it.
How much does your child understand?
Can they follow a simple instruction when you don’t gesture, find an object you name, point to a body part, recognize the names of familiar people?
Strong comprehension is an encouraging sign and is associated with a better outlook. On its own it does not rule out a language delay, and it does not remove the value of an evaluation. Parents often say “he understands everything,” and much of the time a child is reading the routine, the context, your tone and your gestures, which is clever of them and not the same as understanding the words.
Is your child getting messages across another way?
Pointing, showing you things, giving you objects, pulling you by the hand, waving, nodding, and shifting attention between you and an object to share it with you. A child doing plenty of this is communicating, and words have somewhere to land when they arrive.
Why this matters: early gesture use is associated with later vocabulary growth. It is one useful part of the picture, not a stand-alone predictor for any individual child.
Is the list growing?
A single word count is only a snapshot. Tracking growth over several weeks or months adds information that no one count can give you, and it is the part you can gather yourself. A child adding words steadily and a child sitting at the same ten words since the spring are two different situations, even on a day when they have the same total.
Will my child catch up?
Many late talkers do. ASHA reports that roughly 50% to 70% of children with late language emergence reach the typical range by late preschool or school age. Even among those who catch up, some go on to show subtler differences in language later, so “caught up” is not always the end of the story.
What no one can do is predict with certainty which child will. There is no single test that sorts them in advance. Comprehension, gestures, the rate of vocabulary growth, hearing, family history, social communication and a child’s broader development all go into shaping the picture.
Which is why home support and professional guidance are not competing choices. You can support communication in everyday routines while also arranging an evaluation or agreeing on a clear monitoring plan with your child’s doctor. One does not replace the other, and starting the first does not commit you to anything.
Things to try at home
Ordinary moments, no materials, no lesson plan.
Get close, then leave space
Position yourself where your child can easily see and hear you, without asking them to look at you. Say what you want to say, then leave a little more time than feels natural before you say anything else. The silence you feel tempted to fill is often the moment a response was on its way.
Model a likely word
When your child points at the fridge and vocalizes, offer a word for what they seem to be communicating: “Milk. You want milk.” One or two words, clearly, at the moment it is relevant to them. You won’t always be right about what they meant, and a reasonable guess still gives them a word attached to something they cared about.
Talk about what they are already looking at
Follow their attention rather than redirecting it. If they are watching the dog, talk about the dog. Words attach more easily to whatever a child has already chosen to care about.
Shorten your sentences in the moment
When you are modeling a word, aim just above where your child is. If they use single words, model twos and threes, so the word you want them to catch isn’t buried in a long sentence.
This does not mean every sentence needs to be short. Use brief models in the moment, and keep speaking naturally and richly for the rest of the day. Children need to hear real, full language too.
Create low-pressure chances to communicate
Offer two choices, pause during a familiar song or routine, or put a favorite non-essential item within view. Accept any intentional response, whether it is a look, a reach, a gesture, a sign, a sound or a word, then respond to it and model the language that goes with it.
Please don’t: withhold food, comfort, or anything your child actually needs in order to make them speak.
When to ask for an evaluation
It is worth speaking to a speech-language pathologist or your child’s doctor if:
- Your baby isn’t babbling with consonants by around 9 to 12 months, or the babbling has stayed limited and hasn’t become more varied
- Your child isn’t waving or showing you things by around 12 months, isn’t pointing to ask for things by around 15 months, or isn’t pointing to share something interesting with you by around 18 months
- There are no words by 16 months
- There are no two-word combinations by 24 months
- Your child seems to have difficulty understanding words and simple instructions
- Your child rarely shares attention or interest with you, for example by showing, pointing, vocalizing, or looking between you and an object
- You have any concern about hearing. Ask for a hearing check as part of looking into this even if your child clearly responds to some sounds, because a hearing screening is a standard part of assessing late talking
- Something feels off to you, even if you can’t name it
And separately from all of the above: if your child loses speech, babbling, or social skills they previously had, at any age, ask for an evaluation right away rather than waiting to see whether it comes back.
How to get one
In the United States you do not need a doctor’s referral or a diagnosis to start. Early Intervention is a federal program under IDEA Part C, it runs in every state, it covers birth to age three, and the evaluation itself is free. Parents are allowed to refer their own child. From age three it moves to your local school district. The CDC provides contact details for each state’s program.
Outside the United States, referral routes vary. Contact a local speech-language pathologist, a child development service, or your health provider, and ask whether families are able to refer directly.
An evaluation may include a conversation with you about your child’s history, observation during play, formal or informal language measures, and a hearing screening. The format and the length vary by program and by child. It is not a commitment to anything that follows, and it is not a verdict on your parenting.
Questions parents ask me
He understands everything. Isn’t that enough?
It is an encouraging sign, and it is associated with a better outlook. On its own it does not rule out a language delay or another area of need, and it does not remove the value of an evaluation.
Boys talk later, don’t they?
Boys are more likely to be identified as late talkers. Being a boy is not a reason to use different milestones, and it is not a reason to postpone an evaluation.
My doctor said to wait. Should I?
Pediatricians see a great many children, and watchful waiting can be a reasonable plan when it is an actual plan. Ask what should change and by when, and agree on a date to review it, so that waiting has a shape rather than being open-ended. If you are worried in the meantime, you are entitled to ask for an evaluation now, and in the US you can refer your child to Early Intervention yourself.
Could it be because we speak two languages at home?
Growing up with more than one language does not cause a language disorder, and it is not a reason to stop using a family language.
A bilingual child’s vocabulary is spread across their languages. When you estimate how many words your child has, count across all of them: 25 words in English and 25 in Hebrew are 50 words. Their vocabulary in each single language may therefore look smaller than a monolingual child’s, while their combined vocabulary is generally comparable to that of monolingual peers.
Broad milestones, like beginning to combine two words around age two, follow a similar timetable. Mixing languages within the same phrase is a normal part of bilingual development.
A language disorder generally affects all of a child’s languages, though it may not look identical in each. An evaluation should take into account every language your child uses, how much they hear of each, and the situations they hear and use them in.
There is a fuller answer on two languages at home.
If I teach signs or encourage pointing, will he stop trying to talk?
Using gestures or signs does not prevent spoken language from developing. They give a child another way to communicate while speech is emerging, and they can reduce frustration without removing the motivation to talk.
Where to go next
If your child is under a year, or you want the whole picture from the beginning, start with your baby’s first-year communication milestones.
If you want something to do this afternoon, there are ten simple at-home activities that build language, all of them using things you already own.
The full guide
From Babbling Baby to Talking Toddler explains how early communication and language grow, and gives you practical ways to support them during everyday routines, with six printable pages to keep track. It is written for general parent education, and it does not replace an individual evaluation or a treatment plan.
About the guideMore on early language
- Your baby’s first year, what unfolds month by month, from the first smile to the first word.
- Two languages at home, why a bilingual toddler can look behind on a one-language checklist.
- Screens before two, what the current guidance says, and what actually helps.
- All the language tips.
About the author and sources
I am Michal Reshef, a speech-language pathologist licensed in Israel. I have worked with young children and their families since 2010, and I am a mother of three. I write about early language development for parents, and I am the author of the picture book Moving Soon and the parents’ guide From Babbling Baby to Talking Toddler. I am not licensed in the United States. Where this page describes American services, it is describing what is publicly available, not offering clinical advice about your child.
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Late Language Emergence, for the definition, the 24-month criterion, the 50% to 70% figure, and what is examined alongside the word count.
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Communication Milestones.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Learn the Signs. Act Early. milestones, for the 75% framing and the checklist ages.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Early Intervention contact information by state, and IDEA.
- American Academy of Pediatrics, Young Children Learning Multiple Languages.
- Byers-Heinlein, Gonzalez-Barrero, Schott & Killam (2024), “Sometimes larger, sometimes smaller: measuring vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual infants and toddlers,” First Language, on why bilingual vocabulary comparisons depend on how they are measured.
- Rowe & Goldin-Meadow (2009), Developmental Science, on early gesture predicting later vocabulary.
Written and reviewed for clinical accuracy by Michal Reshef, a speech-language pathologist licensed in Israel. Last updated: September 2026.