I thought I would ask you guys this question since so many of you have dealt with a wide variety of toddlers: what is the normal vocabulary for a 21 month old boy? My son hasn't been talking and it's starting to worry me. He babbles and uses inflection, tone, and gestures to get his point across but the only words he says is "no" and a garbled "done", "apple", and "again." He hasn't added anything new to his vocabulary since June and has actually quit saying many of the words he used to say...it's now all babble. I've tried teaching him some sign language but the only one that caught on was "milk". He uses that sign for anything he wants. I bring up my concern to his pediatrician at every visit (he has had a few extra lately since we just dealt with another rounf of ear infections) and she always just brushes it off as "typical boy behavior" or typical of a very active child or she keeps saying she will recheck him in a couple months and worry about it later. So now she says if he isn't adding to his vocabulary by December she'll possibly refer him to a specialist maybe check his hearing also. Maybe.

Is she right? Am I just worrying too much? All the other kids I've ever dealt with his age all were saying more words or at least a resemblance of a word for the correct item. Today 16 month old dcg said another new word here and it just reminded me of how different some kids seem to develop. I just might be taking his lack of speech too personally...I feel like a bad parent. I try so hard to do everything "right" to encourage thinking and development and all of my friends and daycare parents proudly talk about how great parents they are because their kids all are talking up a storm...while ds barely says more than "no" most days...

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