Why isn’t my child combining words yet?

We know that around age 2, most children begin putting two words together to make short phrases. But what if your child isn’t? Let’s dive into what to look for!

First...

Research tells us that most children begin combining words once they are saying around 50 single words. So start with counting how many words your child currently has.

Remember that to count as a word, it needs to be…

• Intentional - child says “dada” in reference to their father

  
  

• Independent - child says the word on their own without repeating after you

  
  

• Consistent - you’ve heard your child say this word more than once

  
  

It’s also important to know that the following also count as words!

• Real words (mama, no)

  
  

• Sound effects (beep, boom)

  
  

• Animal sounds (moo, woof)

  
  

• Parts of words (“uhh” for up, “ba” for ball)

  
  

• Signs - any gesture that represents a word counts (child reaches up to communicate “up”, child signs “eat” when hungry)

Ok, so now you’ve counted how many words your child is currently saying…

If your child is saying less than 50 words, we can’t expect them to start combining words yet! My suggestion is to take a step back and continue to focus on single words!

If your child is saying more than 50 words, but is not yet combining words, the next step is to look at what types of words your child is saying. Look at the list you made of your child’s words. Does it mostly consist of nouns? Are there verbs on your list? Adjectives?

When first starting to combine words, children typically put together two different parts of speech - noun + verb (mama eat) or noun + adjective (big doggie). Sometimes, we see noun + noun combinations (e.g. dada car) but these will only get your child so far! 

So if you notice that your list primarily consists of one type of word, try focusing on the others for a few weeks and see if it helps your child to begin using different types of words and combining them!

Want to learn more about your child’s speech and language development and understand what milestones are coming next? Check out my FREE milestone checklist!

Looking for even more support? Get all of your questions answered by a licensed speech language pathologist! Schedule a consultation call here.