Red Flag #9
Red Flag #9: If your toddler just doesn’t ’sound’ like other children their age by the time they turn three, it ’s time to contact a speech pathologist for an evaluation.
You definitely don’t want to get into a habit of comparing your child to other children, but if you notice that your toddler is just not sounding like others his age or that there is a drastic difference in how your toddler talks compared to others, you may want to consider a speech-language evaluation.
Yes, children do reach their developmental milestones (crawling, walking, first words, etc..) at different times, but their is a general window of time in which they should be reaching them. That’s why I suggest a comparison with other toddlers at this point. By the time your toddler turns three, he should be using at least 3-word sentences and is pronouncing about 80% or more of his words fairly clearly.
But, please, please, don’t get into a habit of comparison! Your child is unique and is going to walk to the beat of his own drummer. But if you have concerns about his or her speech/language development, by all means, get an evaluation!