16 month old with his own language

[kickassmama]

My son Indy, just turned 16 months and only says a word or two (mainly papa, dada, mama, but not really when appropriate, just kinda randomly ).   He seems to understand everything that i say or ask of him, and follows directions very well.  Not entirely true.  He doesn't seem to get the word "no", and is very ornery and determined.  (but i will search the discipline forums first, before i ask about that).  Anyway,  he is very vocal with his own funny language, and you can catch him in his "cage" (8 panel gate), talking to himself quite a lot.   Mostly, different variations of da, ba, and funny sounds with his tongue.  He will even look up at you jabbering away as if to communicate, and looks confused when you don't understand.  Now, I can ask him to simple tasks, like go get your shoes, your sippy cup, a certain toy, and there is no hesitation.  He goes and does exactly as asked, so I know his little brain is clicking away.  

My concerns are this:  He drools terribly, and has since 5-6 months old.  He also has an overbite, not too bad, but noticeable, at least to me.  Now this may change once all of his teeth come in, but he already has 12, so not sure it will make much of a difference.   Could these 2 things contribute to his lack of word usage?    My daughter, at his age was a verbal communication genius.  At one year, she had a 75 word vocab, and by 16 months was using 3-5 work sentences with ease.  I wouldn't have believed it myself, had i not written everything down that she was able to say.    She on the otherhand,  was nowhere near as coordinated as he and wasn't able to stack blocks, rings, put little things in containers, use a fork/spoon as well as Indy does.   They have definitely developed differently. 

Is he fine and dandy?   I guess i have sort of answered my own question with this post.  But is it possible, that the shape of his mouth (overbite) and the drooling, could be a cause of his lack of words??   Thanks for any feedback. 

[lucy_v]

I don't know about the overbite, but my DD is 15 months and just started doing the same babbling! She has a pretty decent vocabulary of individual words, but the monologues she's doing now don't seem to include any of those words! She's very physically agile though, and climbed up onto the kitchen island stool next to me as I wrote this.... :)

[chel]

My dd is the same. The family swears she truly sounds like a real language, just not English!

[lovelylisa]

My son is the same way and he's almost 2.5. He does speak quite a bit now, but there are sometimes when he just babbles in his own language. It's funny because it sounds just like he is responding to you, it's just not English (or any other recognizable world language lol)

Its funny because when he was around 16 months old I worried that he was behind because he babbled so much. Then all of a sudden he just started speaking sentences. I guess their little brains just have to work out the words.

[FrugalGranolaMom]

My DS is 21 months and he still also babbles in his own language quite often. He does have a pretty good vocabulary, but it has only been the past few months that he has really exhibited all the words he knows. At 16 months he was still mostly being a little sponge and absorbing it all.