r/speechdelays

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some honest opinions and experiences from other parents because I've been feeling quite anxious about my son.
My son is **20 months old**, and while he has made progress recently, I'm still worried about some aspects of his development.

Here are the things he **can do**:

He responds to his name.

He makes good eye contact.

He brings objects to show me.

He points to things he wants and has been pointing more often recently.

He uses a few functional words consistently, like **"no," "open," and "up."**

He also says other words, but they're mostly for labeling things or repeating familiar phrases rather than using them to communicate.

He understands some simple things like **"no," "wave bye-bye," "clap," "pop bubbles,"** and sometimes **"blow a kiss,"** but I don't feel like he understands a wide range of everyday language yet.

His M-CHAT-R screening score was **2 (low likelihood of autism).**

My concerns are:

His expressive language almost seems stronger than his receptive language, which worries me because I usually hear it's the other way around.

He knows I m his mother and he is affectionate/craves attention from primary caregivers and close relatives but doesn’t refer to us as mama baba or grandpa granny etc

He still has very few functional words for his age.

He doesn't really point just to share interest (for example, pointing to show me something interesting). Most of his pointing is to request things.

He gets frustrated when I tell him "no" and sometimes hits his hands on a surface.

He has **night terrors almost every night**, and I'm not sure if that could be related to anything developmental or if it's completely separate.

I'm constantly wondering if he's just a late talker or if I should be more concerned.

Has anyone had a child with a similar profile at around 20 months? Did they catch up with speech? Were they eventually diagnosed with a speech delay, autism, or something else?

I'm especially interested in hearing from parents whose children had delayed speech, especially if expressive language seemed stronger than receptive language.
Thank you so much for reading. I'm really hoping to hear some real-life experiences.

I know this is a long shot but has anyone else gone through this?

My son is 3 tomorrow, I weaned his last year just before he was 2.5 and this habit started almost right away.. in fact it was also a big reason i even started weaning.

Its been a little over 6 months of me battling this now and it early on turned from the usual post weaning boob grabbing, to him doing it when he gets angry and frustrated. He does it for a reaction I believe as I must have given him a big reaction in the beginning when he started doing it (although I dont remember doing anything but sternly telling him no).

So now when he gets annoyed or is throwing a tantrum he will straight away go to grab my boobs, like a hard squeeze in an aggressive way.

He cannot talk yet, knows more words than ever before but nothing to enable him to even put 2 words together let alone a sentence. His understanding isnt where it should be however im very sure he knows he shouldnt be doing this but still does.

I posted on the toddler subreddit ages ago but nobody is able to help as they are not dealing with a speech delayed child. Many mention talking to him and explaining why its not OK... that doesnt work as he doesnt understand!

I have tried holding his hands to stop him, blocking off my chest and anticipating him doing it and it all turns to a wrestling match where he will persist and keep trying to force his hand there.

I have tried standing up and walking away, he will just stand up and try again on tip toes or follow me.

Iv closed baby gates with us on each side, by that point he is throwing a tantrum and even found his way over the gate one time but either way that doesnt teach him not to do this specific thing.

The only thing that stops it is leaving him to grab and make absolutely no response/reaction but I dont feel like being hurt in the process.

This has become really triggering for me and can get me real angry! I feel like its been 6 months of consistently trying to curb this and its not working!

Anyone gone through this or know how i can stop him? Because I feel like im going to end up paying for a behaviour specialist just for 1 issue which is a waste of money

I have a 12.5 month old. We had her 12 month check up today. She is a curious, busy girl. Hit all milestones physically. Crawled at 7 months. Started walking at 11 and has been non stop everywhere since but I did have a few concerns specifically not always answering to her name, no pointing, no waving. She claps though. She says dada, bye bye, and bubble.

I mentioned that today and was told we need to get her speech evaluated. I was completely shocked. I didn’t even ask a question because that was the last thing I expected. I ended up calling back later being like uh what happened in there because I got so overwhelmed i lost words lol.

Can someone please give me a positive story like this happened to you and everything was fine? I’m very aware she’s still so young but I’m also no professional. I do feel guilty and will feel guilty as hell if she does have a delay because I truly would never have thought that being the case.