Keira Understands, But Does Not Want To Talk

Two days away to turning 2 years old, and yet our little munchkin is still taking her own sweet time to talk. She babbles alot for sure, but she just does not want to engage with us in proper sentences.

Sure, she has her usual lingo like "akkkaiii" or "khaaaiiii" or "kherrnngggg" or "apppaapppaaapaaa" (when she holds the phone to her ear as if talking to someone" or "ouuuwww" (if she falls or feels pain) or "yayaya" (for when she wants her milk cos we have a habit of asking her every few hours if she "aiy nenen?"). 

She also spits out new words like "duck", "cat", "goal" (when she kicks the ball), "three" (from counting cats from the recent week - one, two, three) and a number of other words once in a blue moon and she can imitate animal sounds too.

But the moment she realizes that we heard her say a word and clap/prompt her to repeat it or to say for more words, she immediately shuts off (with that "oops, did I say that out loud!" expression) and pretends that it never happened/moves on to doing something else.

I know she understands everything we say. Her level of comprehension is impeccable as she hears our commands and responds by pulling our hand and pointing to whatever it is that she wants. She also gets emotionally involved when watching movies/shows and will close her eyes or runs to hide when she senses that something bad is coming up. She's very observant and musical too! She LOVES Hi-5 (the Aussie version) and she follows their gestures including putting her hand out when they say hi-five!

She sings (or rather hums to herself) everyday though. I have this strong feeling that she will end up singing before she officially talks! Just like how mommy learnt to speak Malay during her teenage years, through listening and learning KRU's songs.

I brought the point about her reserved behavior in embracing speech/talking with her pa-ed the other day during her recent check-up, and his advise was:

1. To push her to speak words by ignoring her gestures/sounds/cries etc. (basically, force her to talk if she wants something, instead of giving her the reaction that we know what she wants), then...

2. To get her hearing checked, then... 

2. To engage her with a speech therapist

But is speech evaluation therapy really necessary for a 23 month old? C'mon!

I feel that it's not like she can't talk, but she's just lazy to talk! Simply malas! 

Just like she's malas to hold her own milk bottle. When mommy or nani is around, she will get mommy or nani to hold her bottle for her. She will take our hand and place it on her bottle, then with both her hand free, she will clap as if applauding us for a job well done in holding it for her. But when daddy feeds her, she shows off to him that she can hold her own bottle, single-handed too, from start to finish. What a little chickadee, this one!

Both Kevin and I feel that we should not jump into panic mode and we should let her blossom and develop in her own time and when she's ready. But I do wonder if other parents in similar situations feel the same? 

At this point, I still think we have no reason to be overly worried and just let her grow in her own time and when she's ready - just like when she wanted to crawl, she mastered it within a day. Same for when she wanted to walk. The moment she was confident to take that first step, she started running... forget walking, just jump straight to running!

I know of friends who have children who started speaking at 4 years old and there's nothing wrong with them. I also know of friends with kids of Keira's age who are already talking sentences.

I guess it's only part of human nature to wonder whether there is a need to be concerned at this point (if early intervention is necessary) or to just let it be...