My baby doesn't babble. Should I worry?

Atali

Mon, Dec 08 2008, 12:02 pm

My DD is 4.5 months old now. She first started making sounds at about three months but only says "uh" and only does so rarely (about once a day) and does not respond verbally when I talk to her (she just smiles in response).

When my other kids were this age, they constantly practiced "talking" and would try to imitate sounds when I talked to them.

Did anyone else have this issue? Should I be concerned?

sunshine!

Mon, Dec 08 2008, 12:09 pm

My daughter did not babble until she was about 5 1/2 months. We were very concerned (unjustly) and were convinced that she didn't hear. The doctor kept telling us that she would start babbling at her own pace, but us being neurotic parents, scheduled an infant auditory screening (Btw her hearing was tested in the hospital before we left and she passed-though that wasn't reassuring to us because a niece also passed the screening in the hospital and was diagnosed with moderate hearing loss at AGE 2. What alerted her parents was developmental delays.) By the time our appt rolled around, our daughter babbled plenty. Sometimes infants need their own pace to reach "milestones" we expect from them!

Atali

Mon, Dec 08 2008, 12:11 pm

My DD also passed the newborn hearing test and sometimes (but not always) responds to sounds.

anon

Mon, Dec 08 2008, 3:31 pm

According to developmental norms, children should be cooing (vowel-like gurgling noises) by around 3 months. Sometimes they go through periods where they're more vocal than others...for instance, if they're going through a stage where they're demonstrating a lot of physical development, they may put a hold on the speech development for a little bit. But overall, you do want to hear some vocalizations from her.

Babbling, where they create consonant sounds like ba, da, ga, should begin around 6 months. You can give or take a couple of months, since that's an estimate of when they should start.

However, you should also trust your instinct. If you feel that something might not be quite right, it could be worth looking into. When therapists do evaluations, they don't just look at a single skill. For instance, if your child is 8 months and still not babbling, a therapist will look at a range of skills to determine if the child is simply a late babbler, or if perhaps there is something more going on.

Speaking as a parent now, I seem to remember that when DS was a small infant, he did not consistently respond to speech and environmental sounds, but he responded often enough that I wasn't worried. I guess he was sometimes just caught up in his own world and not interested in responding ?

sped

Tue, Dec 09 2008, 3:30 am

I really believe that parents know best. If you feel like ther amy be a problem, check it out. I know of quite a few cases where the mom felt something was off, insisted on findingh help even though profesionals said everything was fine, and really saved the child (developmentally). I also know the other way... So if you are concerned speak to someone who knows infant development (probably not your pediatrician).

RachelEve14

Tue, Dec 09 2008, 4:58 am

Avraham Tzvi was a *very* late babbler. He very rarely made vocal sounds, and I was starting to go from "concerned" to "worried" B"H just Sunday he came out with not only the vowel sounds, but gaga, dada, googoo, mamamama, etc. He went from Silent Sam to Chatty Cathy in one night.

If you are worried, by all means check it out. But if you are inclined to wait it out, wait it out for a while longer if you want.

RichWithNachas

Tue, Dec 09 2008, 6:33 am

I had my baby evaluated, he was making different sounds but I wasn't sure if up to date. I nearly cancelled the eval. bec. I thought there wasn't a point as he was really babbeling to a degree. In the end surprisingly, I was told that he did have delays, although not enough to warrent therapy. He will be given a reeval. soon and then we will see from there.

It's always good to check it out, without the worry of course ( and which mother doesn't worry )

ss321

Tue, Dec 09 2008, 7:41 am

Atali wrote:

But she IS smiling. Its not like if you say something to her she doesnt even look b/c ch'v she isnt hearing it and subsequently processing what she hears and reacting. That is significant.

Look, on the one hand, I will tell you that kids develop differently. And the milestones are called milestones, not "deadlines." there is a reason for that! There are kids who might reach a milestone far before the "average" and kids who reach it much later. Of course it is worrisome for a parent. If she wasnt saying "uh" at all, your situation would seem more worrisome. she might not be the biggest talker. Additionally you said she DID start talking at 3 months, which is different than a kid who just never started making any noises whatsoever.

My DS is a major, major babbler, but about a month ago, he went through a period for about 2 weeks, where he was really quiet. Just stared intently at his toys, smiled alot, panted, but not much of his regular "goos" and "gees." Also during that time, he went through a little growth spurt (gained about a pound, also got a bit taller, and his face changed a bit). So sometimes, since they are "busy" with their physical development, they might seem to "fall behind" for a bit in a different are of development. This is very common and should be a reason to worry.

On the other hand, YOU are the parent. and YOU know your kid better than anyone in the world. So if you have a gut feeling that there is a problem, you should get her checked out, if, for nothing else, for your own sanity. Best case scenario: they will tell you nothing is wrong, and you can breathe easy. Worst case scenario: well you know the worst case scenario, you seem to be fearing it. But at least it would have been caught early and hopefully remedied.

PS. dont compare her to your other kids. It wont do anyone any good. Each kid is different. Every parent does this (at every stage of life- not just infancy/toddlerhood) to some degree, but just try to remember that they are each their own little person - some might be bigger talkers (and it seems like ur DD is not one of those), some might be bigger crawlers, runners, some might be more aggressive with their toys, some might do better in chumash and some might do better in math, etc etc etc.....

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!