9 month old not babbling

[EvanMom]

I have just realised I have not taken ds2 who is nine months old for his eight month check yet. Looking at his health record book it says that a 7-9 month old should be babbling. It has just dawned on me that the only sounds he makes are crying and laughing. No babble at all, just occasional cooing. Do you think I should be concerned? I can't remember (as always) what ds1 was like at 9 months.

[Jimjams]

well watched ds2 like a hawk (he has an autistic older brother) and at 9 months he was only cooing- ahh ehhh etc. HV saw us again and within a month he had started with consonants - da da da da. He's was 2 in January and I think he has verbal dyspraxia - his langauge is fine though- understanding fine and he is putting words into sentences- just incredibly unclear and a lot of sounds are still missing.

It is worth keeping an eye as his speech comes in as late babbling can indicate things like verbal dyspraxia. They don't do much with it until 3 in this country though.

Ds1 (autistic) did babble on time- mind you he also talked at 9 months (but isn't talking now he's 5!) The early speech sound development isn;t that important- its the overall langauge that's more important- but that starts to kick in after around a year usually.

So it is worth watching lack of babbling, but not worth getting too worried about iyswim.

[expatkat]

There were several threads on this in the past year, which shows how often the babbling milestone isn't met. Lots of us, me included, were worried that our kids weren't babbling at 8 or 9 mos, but most of them immediately started babbling by 10 months, later developing words fairly normally. So, jimjams is right that it's not worth getting worried about even though occasionally it can be a red flag. Much more often it seems to be a case of "they babble/talk at their own face." Hope this reassures.

[expatkat]

Sorry: "pace" not "face."

[EvanMom]

Thank you both - I have been avidly searching Mumsnet and have been re-assured by some of the previous threads about this. ds2 is alert, has a great sense of humour, loves peekaboo etc. but does not babble at all. I spoke to my HV this evening and she did nothing to make me feel better; "... he should certainly be babbling by now...". The previous threads on this and your responses have helped me see that I am not alone in this and it will probably just take him time. I shall start to REALLY worry if we are in the same boat in two of three month's time. Thanks for your help.

[expatkat]

Sorry your HV has been worrying you. Different HVs seem to have different views on this. Mine basically said, "We'll follow it, but I'm sure dd will be babbling in a month." She was right. Best of luck.