Around 18 months, we like to see children using around 15-20 words and we then like to see this grow to around 50 words by 2 years old! So for a 21 month old we would expect them to be somewhere in between these expectations. They are expected to be using single words at this age with the skill of combining words (e.g., mummy car) developing around the age of 2 years also. We want to remember that any sound (e.g. animal sounds) or signs count as a word if the child can consistently, intentionally and independently associate that specific sound with only one concept (e.g. says ‘’ba’’ for ball only, and not using that sound for every word that starts with B.)
