# Speech: Only First Syllable



## thehighernest (Aug 11, 2009)

I'm curious, as I'm a little obsessed with my DS's speech development (and the other thread on speech here made me think): how common is at around 18 months for toddlers to only say the first syllable of multi-syllable words?

DS can now say "sit,"car," etc. just fine, but for instance, he only says "a" for apple and "coo" for cookie.

He's also trying to say "helicopter," which I realize is a more complicated word, but only says "hel." For most 2+ syllable words, he's only saying the first. Typical?


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## crunchy_mommy (Mar 29, 2009)

Yes... well at least that's what my DS did when he started talking.







I noticed after a few months, multi-syllable words became easier, and just recently he had another verbal 'jump' and everything sounds much cleared but especially the mult-isyllable words. But for the longest time, I think one of his only 2-syllable words was 'pagun' (playground), almost everything else was "choc" for chocolate, "yum" for yummy, etc.


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## mckittre (Jan 15, 2009)

My son did that too (sometimes the first syllable, sometimes the last, always just one). I was amazed at how much he managed to get across that way though, since he'd use signs along with the words for the less clear ones. A few months later, he's now quickly picking up multi-syllable words. I think it's normal.


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## MamaPhD (Jul 30, 2009)

DD did that too for a couple of months before her language explosion. She also said animal sounds (woof) rather than the animal name (dog) for a while. I think a lot of kids do that at first so no worries. Just a phase, like so many others!


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## jellybeanandkids (Jun 14, 2010)

DD does this too, today for exaple she was saying "pumpkin" as "Pah".


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## funnygrace (May 24, 2005)

DS was in speech therapy at 18 months and the therapists actually shortened words to their first syllable for him. That kind of speech was encouraged.


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## treeoflife3 (Nov 14, 2008)

My kiddo does that. The only two syllable she does is 'uh oh' which she only recently started doing. For a long time it was just 'uh' which sounded more like 'ut' I THINK she has said 'daddy' a couple times (da DEE) but mostly she just signs daddy still. She doesn't talk a lot though honestly. Right now she really only says 'mine' (my) uh oh and ma (which is usually more like MAA! haha) She isn't big into talking yet.


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## karika (Nov 4, 2005)

my dd2 is doing it too. dd1 was talking in clear, enunciated, independent thought sentences at 10 mo. dd2 is still mostly saying 1 syllable at 22 mo. I am her interpreter.


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## physmom (Jun 15, 2009)

DD (21 months) definitely does this too. It's much better now but there are still a number of words that she only says the first syllable for. However, she's at least trying to include other syllables now but many times they are very difficult to understand. She speaks in sentences so it always takes a bit to decode what she's trying to get across!


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