Speech Milestones by Age: When Should My Child Talk?

Most children say their first word between 10 and 14 months, and combine two words between 18 and 24 months. But these are averages, not deadlines. The normal range is genuinely wide, and a child who starts talking at 16 months is not behind.

What matters is not the date of the first word but whether your child is steadily moving forward: adding new skills, understanding more than they say, and trying to communicate with you by whatever means they have — pointing, looking, making sounds. A child progressing slowly but steadily is in a completely different position from a child who has stopped.

Speech milestones from birth to five

Understanding always comes before talking

Before your child says a single word, they have already understood dozens. This is why 'how many words does he say?' is misleading on its own. A child who follows your instructions, turns to their name, points at what they want, and brings you things when asked is building language — even without speaking it yet.

A child who doesn't understand, doesn't point, and doesn't gesture deserves far more attention than a low word count. Pointing at 12 months is one of the strongest early indicators that language is developing as it should.

What about children hearing more than one language?

In Lebanon many children hear Arabic at home and French or English at school — sometimes all three. The worry we hear constantly is that the mixture is delaying speech. The research is clear: bilingualism does not cause speech or language delay.

What actually happens is that vocabulary distributes across languages. A child may know 'كلب' in Arabic and 'cat' in English. So counting the words in one language and judging from that is simply the wrong measurement — you count the total across all languages. Counted that way, bilingual children fall within the normal range.

When to see a speech therapist

You don't have to wait for a red flag from the table above. If you have a feeling something isn't right, that is reason enough. An assessment that finds nothing wrong is not wasted time — it's the clearest answer you can get.

• No babbling, pointing or waving by 12 months
• No words by 16 months
• Fewer than 50 words, or no two-word phrases, at 24 months
• You can't understand them most of the time after age 3
• Strangers can't understand them after age 4
• Losing language skills at any age — seek advice immediately
• Your own concern, at any age, however small the reason seems

Early intervention is consistently more effective than waiting, and the difference between starting at three and starting at five is substantial. 'He'll talk when he's ready' is common advice and sometimes turns out to be right — but it is a bet, and it's the child who pays if it loses.

If the question holding you back is what an assessment and therapy actually cost, I've set out the profession's official fee scale in one place. If your child hears more than one language, read why bilingualism doesn't cause delay before counting words in one language alone. And if screens are the explanation you've been given, what the research says about screen time is more nuanced than either the reassurance or the alarm. If your child talks but has started repeating sounds or getting stuck on words, that is a different question: when stuttering starts and when it needs help. And if your two-year-old understands well but says very little, late talker or language disorder sets out how I tell the two apart. For a single page on the decision itself, at every age and for every reason, not only late talking, read when to see a speech therapist.