9 month old not babberling?

[pisces78]

Hi ladies, my nearly 9 month has not started babberling. He is vocal but mostly quite, has lots of vowel sounds. Also, does mmmmmm alot and mama for about a week than stopped. So, just wondering when your babies started with the mama dada and baba etc. He is very physical with crawling and cruising on furniture. I'm taking him for a hearing test next week to rule out those issues.

 

[Shandelion]

My son is 20 month. He didn't really babble until after a year. He'd say mama only in extreme stress or sorrow, and didn't say Dada until about 15 months. He still doesn't have any words, he just says Zsa in different tones. We figure one of these years he'll just break out in full sentences.

My son was also always quiet. My family had all kinds of dire warnings about mental problems, but we know/knew better.

 

[MindUtopia]

Totally normal. I think they ideally do like to see them babbling sometime around 9 months, but not necessarily before. As he's not 9 months yet, he's still got another month or so and probably a lot will happen in that time. My daughter wasn't babbling when we went for our 8 month development check. The HV said just to keep a listen out for it and maybe give them a call if it didn't start in the next 2 months. Sure enough, just after she turned 9 months she started to babble. She didn't say 'mama' or 'dada' in context until several months later, but she did start to babble like 'dadadadada' or 'bababababa' sometime during 9 months. She said her first word at 13 months (cat) and by 2, she was talking in complex sentences and the HV said her language development was advanced for a 2 year old. So hitting those milestones early doesn't really mean much in terms of longterm development as long as there aren't significant delays. She's 2.5 now and I can literally talk to her about as coherently as I can talk to any adult. She also wasn't that physical either (didn't walk til 15 months), so I'd definitely say she was a talker rather than a walker.

 

[SpringCrane]

My son was really early with physical milestones and late with verbal. I was also concerned about his hearing around the same time. His pediatrician saw fluid in his ears from a recent virus, said it was likely nothing to be concerned with, but referred us fit a hearing test to be done after a trip abroad. When traveling, he started babbling like a mad man. He was 10 months. He spent about a week of the trip with a very verbal 8 month old, and I think that helped. We cancelled the hearing test. His babbling didn't advance much beyond a few words, and at his 18 month check up, his pediatrician said she'd talk about next steps if he didn't have 25 words at his 24 month check up. Well, we traveled abroad again at 22 months, and he literally started speaking in 4-5 word sentences overnight. Apparently my father was the same. Just waited until he could get it so together My son's pediatrician was blown away by his language at his 24 month check up, and he went from being the least verbal of his peers to the chattiest. He's 28 months now and he's communicating very well.

Language guidelines are important, but they're just guidelines. I'd communicate with a pediatrician, to ease worries, certainly, but know it's normal where he is now. Get him around chatty kids, sing a lot of songs, narrate what you're doing, read a lot, and he'll get it. I'm a firm believer in their brains focusing on mental or physical in phases, so he's probably just now interested in moving around right now

 

[_Meep_]

My nephew never babbled. He didn't say a thing until he was about 2.5, and even then, he sounded like a foreigner! He's now 3.5 and has an enormous vocabulary of enormous words, and while his pronunciation is still off at times, he's certainly improving. He's also ridiculously intelligent.

I think some kids just understand far more than they have the capacity to express, but once they do, they will surprise you with their intelligence. My sister (his mum) was the same and is a highly academic, near-genius in mathematic ability, works as a copy-editor and is a recently-published fantasy author. She can also speak fine now.