I have this discussion all the time with my pelvic floor physical therapists (gotta talk about something while she's working, and my anxieties about my toddler's verbal development are always an easy topic). My daughter is 18 months. Has mama, dada, and 6 additional words (not used consistently, and one of those words is a tongue roll, which is her most frequently used "word", but is the sound our cats make. She makes the same sound every time she sees a cat). Our pediatrician wanted mama, dada, and 8 or more additional words by her next appointment. Needless to say, I'm very anxious about our 18 month visit this week. But, my physical therapist is always looking at me like "why?" She doesn't specialize in kids, but obviously has a medical degree, works with tons of moms and sees all of their kids when they don't have childcare. Her response is always "she's interacting. She knows what's going on. She makes eye contact. She listens to and follows some directions. She's ahead in other areas. She's fine". I honestly suspect that she's slightly behind verbally because of the pandemic. She was born during stay at home orders. I'm a SAHM, so she's not in daycare. We've barely left the house her entire life. She doesn't go in stores. We stopped going to library story time when they brought it indoors. We stopped going to most of her parent tot classes because none of the other parents wore masks and it made me nervous once Delta hit. She hasn't had as much verbal stimulation as kids did in the past, so of course she's going to be a bit behind.

My nephew was diagnosed with a speech delay. At 18 months he had nothing. No mama or dada. Just babbling. But he gestured, he knew to spread his arms when people asked how big he was. He just took his sweet time talking. He's been in speech therapy for half his life (he's 3 now). He's still a little bit behind. But some of the things he knows go far beyond the level of.a typical 3 year old (he can identify all upper and lowercase letters, tell you what sound they make, and can also identify numbers). He'll likely be fine as he gets older.

I've noticed a lot of toddlers just seem to put their effort and attention into one place and not others, but will catch up eventually. My daughter has ALWAYS been ahead on gross and fine motor skills. She's always been slightly behind on verbal, but not enough that I would be worried if my pediatrician didn't bring it up (and even the pediatrician admits she's likely not even behind enough to qualify for early intervention)