My son is showing signs of a late talking child. He is 19 months now and his vocabulars consist mostly "baba", "mama", "gar", "dar" and a few other one syllable sounds. He refers everything as "gar" or "dar". And he doesn't start saying "mama" regularly until very recently. Even now he doesn't call us "mama" or "baba" consistently. His hearing and intelligence is just fine. He understands very well what we are saying to him. He even understand English just by socializing with neibhors. My wife's family seems to have a history of late talkers. My wife herself started talking at age of almost 3 and so is my nephew.
I happened to stumble upon a book "Late Talking Children" by Thomas Sowell which digs into the like of my child. Apparently there is a sub-population among children that talk late that demonstrate amazing similarities.
* They tend to talk late, typically around age of 3. Some much later.
* They tend to have late potty training much too.(May not apply to some Chinese children depending on the training method and timing.)
* They almost alway come from families with background in analytical work or music(engineer, mathematician, doctor, accountant, violinist, etc).
* These type of children have normal to superior intelligence. They tend to be very good at math, mechanics, computer, or music.
* Their understanding of speech is on par or better than their talking peers.
* They tend to be picture thinkers.
* Many of them have socialization problems. Many demonstrate Austism like behaviors.
* Most of them would eventually grow out of it.
If your family fits into this background and/or has a history of late talkers, then you'll have reason to believe your kid might be a late talker too. Although really by 18 months you should have a good idea of your kid's speech expressive and receptive capbility to make that judgement. Should you worry or not is another question. If you suspect your kid is a late talker then I would suggest having him to see a speech specialist independent of the school district. There is a reason for that. Some of these kids have been wrongly diagnosed as having austism and cause unnecessary worries on parents part. Schools have incentive to have as many austism kids as possible. It helps them to get more fundings.
I ordered three books from Amazon. You can buy these books or check them out from the library if you are interested.
The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late by Thomas Sowell
The Late Talker: What to Do If Your Child Isn't Talking Yet by Mary Agin
Teach Me How to Say It Right: Helping Your Child With Articulation Problems by Dorothy P. Dougherty
The first book goes over more details of smart late talking children. The second book goes over a neuro disorder called apraxia. You can google that. Many of the kids mentioned in Late Talking Children actually demonstrate apraxia like symptons. My son shows a little bit too. BUT it may not be as bad as it sounds. Third book supposes to teach your games you can play at home to help your kid's speech abilities.
