The Second Baby

When it comes to speaking, I think it is the opposite. My grandmother told me that her youngest, my uncle barely spoke until he was nearly 5. The reason was, the other 3 older children spoke for him all the time. I found this to be somewhat true when I had my second one. My oldest child was carring on conversations and using complete sentences when he was 18 months old. The youngest, spoke hardly at all until he was 3. (Now he won't shut up and he's 16 so of course he knows EVERYTHING now LOL j/k). It's apparent that your child has no communication issues when it comes to letting you know what she wants or needs. Unless you fear there is a hearing issue, I wouldn't worry a whole lot about it. She'll get around to it, but she probably doesn't feel she has to right now because she's getting along ok doing what she's doing. Good Luck!!

I think it really just depends on the kid and their activity level. My oldest, didn't really speak much until he was two, but you would never know that now, he's three and reads and writes, and has a very large, developed voacab. so I really don't think that late speaking is much to worry about. He was just so focused on playing, that he didn't have time to bother with speaking. (: My youngest (16 months) already knows more words than his big brother did, although he doesn't use them often, because his older brother usually speaks for him, and he always has a binky in his mouth (something we will hopefully be breaking him of soon). He says no, yes, I did it, oh yeah, this, jesus, up, down, uh-oh, etc. Most of those his big brother taught him. He mostly just jabbers though, he doesn't use his words much.. he's getting better at it the more we take away the pacifier though.. so we'll see. i've heard it both ways, and I think there really is no way of telling which you will have. IF the five year old is doing all the talking, that could be why the 20 month old doesn't say much. Good luck to you!

If you are concerned my best response would be for you to get your youngest child evaluated. If you have early intervention in your area it's free. If your child qualifies you can even get services for articulation. Articulation has nothing to do with intelligence by the way. Just call your local health department and ask for the number to EARLY INTERVENTION. Every child is different, whether they have older siblings or not! But, I wouldn't worry too much. The biggest red flag is if your child WAS using more words and then LOST the ability to use them. BIG RED FLAG on that one. But if I were you, I would look into an evalutation, it can't hurt :)