Do bilingual toddlers speak later?
It's hard to say what this “acceptable range” is simply because language starts from birth and every child is so different, but for the most part, children will usually say their first words sometime between eleven and fourteen months, regardless of whether or not they are bilingual.
According to Expressable speech therapist Fab Leroy, M.S., CCC-SLP, “bilingual children achieve their developmental milestones concurrently with monolingual children. If a child experiences a speech or language delay, it will be evident in both languages, but it's not a result of acquiring two languages.
Most multilingual children use their first words by the time they are 1 year old. By age 2, most multilingual children use two-word phrases. Phrases like “my ball” or “more juice” can be expressed in one or more languages.
But being bilingual does not necessarily slow down or confuse children when it comes to reading. In fact, bilingual children can even show some advantages over their monolingual peers when developing important reading skills.
The Second Year
At approximately 24 months, a bilingual child should be using two-word phrases (e.g. "dada work") and be understood by others approximately 50-75% of the time. A vocabulary ranging from 200-300 words (between all languages) is also expected.
Children learning two languages simultaneously go through the same developmental stages as children learning one language. While bilingual children may start talking slightly later than monolingual children, they still begin talking within the normal range (11).
Bilingualism has cognitive and social advantages.
Learning and speaking two or more languages can also broaden children's perspectives and give them easier access to other cultures. There's no valid reason to be worried about bilingualism as several studies have already concluded that it doesn't cause speech delay.
Between the ages of 2 and 3, most children: Speak in two- and three-word phrases or sentences. Use at least 200 words and as many as 1,000 words. Ask questions that start with who, what, where or why, such as "Where is mommy?"
By conventional standards, most children should have these results at the listed ages: 12 months (1 year): Speak their first words. 24 months (2 years): Have 50-75% of their words be understood by familiar people. 36 months (3 years): Have 75-100% of their words understood by familiar people.
A 2 year old should be talking clearly at least half of the time. Learn more about milestones for talking clearly, and when to expect toddlers to speak clearly 100% of the time here.
Do bilingual kids learn to speak slower?
Some people may mistakenly believe that raising a child in a bilingual household (meaning they speak more than one language) puts them at risk for language delays or a “silent period” when they might not speak at all. Language delays can still occur in bilingual children, but bilingualism itself is not the cause.
Results indicate that bilingual two-year-olds have separate but nonautonomous phonological systems.

It is not surprising that bilingual children know fewer words in each language than monolingual speakers of one of the language (e.g., Oller, Pearson & Cobo-Lewis, 2007).
Delays in language are the most common types of developmental delay. One out of 5 children will learn to talk or use words later than other children their age.
A typical 2-year-old can construct sentences of two or three words, often without a verb. For example, a child might say, "There cat" for "There is a cat." Gifted children, however, will often be able to speak in fuller sentences at age 2. By age 3, a gifted child's language may already resemble adult speech.
There are several reasons why a 2-year-old is babbling but not talking. Sometimes, it may be because they are shy or introverted. It can also be related to hearing loss or other developmental delays. In most cases, however, the cause is unknown.
While speech delays are very common among children with autism, they are common in children without autism as well.
Abstract. Between 5% and 12% of children ages 2 to 5 years are diagnosed with a speech or language delay. Fifty percent of these children experience delays that persist into adolescence, and face educational and occupational challenges later in life.
Signs of a speech delay
Signs that an older toddler is missing their speech milestones: Age 2: uses less than 50 words. Age 2 1/2: doesn't use unique two-word phrases or noun-verb combinations. Age 3: doesn't use at least 200 words, doesn't ask for things by name, hard to understand even if you live with them.
The most common causes of speech delay include: Hearing loss. Slow development. Intellectual disability.
What counts as speech delay?
by 2 years: can only imitate speech or actions and doesn't produce words or phrases spontaneously. by 2 years: says only some sounds or words repeatedly and can't use oral language to communicate more than their immediate needs. by 2 years: can't follow simple directions.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association classifies late talkers as those with late language emergence, which is defined as “a delay in language onset with no other diagnosed disabilities or developmental delays in other cognitive or motor domains.” In other words, late talkers are those children who are late ...
Einstein syndrome is a condition where a child experiences late onset of language, or a late language emergence, but demonstrates giftedness in other areas of analytical thinking.
For young kids with apraxia, they will have issues with lots of different unrelated sounds, including vowels. Sounds may be present in some words but not others, depending on how complicated the mouth movements in that particular word are.
So if your toddler is 2 or 3 years old and isn't yet talking, it's vital to go ahead and speak with their pediatrician, or with a speech-language pathologist. They will likely recommend a speech evaluation in order to assess your child's current abilities. Early intervention is so important in these situations.
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