Speech development in my 22 month old

[AllexandHannahsMom]

I have a 22 month old little girl that really doesn't speak much. She says "uh oh", "momma", "dada", "cat", and "hi". She is very intelligent in that she knows almost all of her letters and loves to read books. She will bring you anything you ask her to bring you and is beginning to learn her colors and shapes. She even knows most of her books by name.

My husband and I have tried to make her speak by holding thing's back from her and telling her when she says the word, she can have the item, but that hasn't worked. I have been thinking that she doesn't speak because she doesn't have to (we give in to almost everything) but now I'm not so sure. My son didn't speak until he was a little older, but since he's 9 now, I can't remember exactly how old he was.

Should I wait this out and not worry so much, or get it checked out? Any advise would be very appreciated!

[sixstarrs]

my eldest child had this problem and so does my firend who has a 2.5 year old that is still doing that.  we wre both told by a speech therapist that if the behavior persists ans speech is not developing between 2.5 and 3 years to bring them in for an evaluation.  she could have some hearing loss or difficulty in other areas.  also, we were both told not to give in to them---ie.  if they want the teddy bear, they have to make some effort to say "bear"--even if it's just the beginning sound "b".  this will certainly result in tantrums, but be strong.

my daughter actually went into speech therapy at 3.5 after all this and after 8 months, she was fine.  she's 5.5 now and top of her class.  she just wasn't ready to speak as a toddler and then as a preeschooler, she messed  up a lot of words pretty badly.  it took someone who could tolerate the hissy fits to snap her out of it.