Expert: Valerie Herskowitz - 11/26/2011

Question
Hello, we have keeps a "word book" of things my son has learned. And have come to realize that he only actually says about 3-6 words out of the aprox. 15-18 he has learned. It seems to me that when he learns a few new ones he forgets the older ones. Some of the older ones are regularly used words like "bye" or "hola". The only ones he is using right now are "bub" (bite), "uh oh", "hello", "da" dad or dog, every once in a while "mom" or "jat" for jack. He has learned so many more that I wasn't sure if that was normal. The pediatrician noticed he was behind verbally but said it could just be because he is part of a billingual family. I just wasn't sure if forgetting so many words was part of that?

He plays well, he loves being around other children. Makes connections between things (key to door.. dog lease to dog). He walks.. runs! He UNDERSTANDS things.. like the word "no" and even gets upset sometimes hearing it. He does not listen very well at all when we tell him to get down from climbing things. He knows what the word is but consistantly climbs objects, regardless of being disciplined.

He speaks in babble with various syllables and holds up a conversation this way. He babbles more than actual words. He grabs my hand and pulls me to the kitchen when he wants a snack, even though I try to express to him to say "snack" and even understands what the word means when he hears it.

Answer
Hi Mariana

Thanks for writing.

I am going to recommend that you go and get a speech evaluation for him. The two things that are making me concerned are the fact that he appears to be forgetting older words and that he has to pull you to what he wants, which is not part of normal speech and language development. Start there-it may be just that he needs a little speech therapy to get him on track.

The good sign is that he understands things. This is very important when we talk about developmental delays. This is a very good thing!!

Keep me in the loop.