Being slow to talk could also be a sign of deeper problems from deafness to autism.
The average child will know 150 of the words in the Language Development Survey but scores of 75 to 225 are normal.
The 25 words listed are among the most common and the first acquired when learning to speak.
However, if the child is still struggling for words by two and a half, they should consider help such as speech therapy, and certainly not put this off past the age of three.
The Vancouver conference heard that up to 20 percent of all two-year-olds are behind their peers in speech.
Of these, half to three-quarters of kids are likely to be late-bloomers, who will more or less catch up over time. (ANI)
