9 month old not babbling at all

[234cps]

Hi everyone
I'm a FTM to my 9 month old daughter. She is very loud with lots of screeches, shouts, grunts, raspberries etc but nothing close to babbling at all. If I try to make sounds for her to mimic such as mamama she just laughs back at me.
She was starting to clap when asked but seems to have stopped that (although I may have just bored her to death asking her to do it!)
She is trying very hard to crawl at the moment but not there yet.
I mentioned to my HV I was concerned and she told me to wait until 10 months and call back if still no sign of babbling.
I don't think she has a problem with her hearing as she responds to her name, toys, loud noises, daddy coming into the room etc.
She is a great eater and sleeps 12 hours a night but am getting worried about her speech particularly as all my friends babies of the same age seem to be babbling away.
Has anyone had any experience of late babbling or advice etc? Am I just being over anxious?
Thanks

[Jannt86]

I had a similar issue with my now 2YO. Clearly very bright. Receptive language and all other skills pretty ahead but didn't babble til nearly a year old and even then it was like she was under water. If it's any consolation mine is a chatterbox now although still not very clear.Tbh the best and only thing you can do at this age is insist on getting her hearing tested. No clinician or therapist will even want to consider any other diagnosis at such a young age. Don't assume that because she seems to hear sounds it's not an issue. They need really in tune hearing to pick up on the subtle differences in sound needed for speech. I'll warn you now though that dealing with hearing services can be frustrating. Mine went for multiple hearing tests and always had 'satisfactory' hearing but always had congested ears. I'm not convinced that glue ear hasn't played a part tbh. I think at this age this is all you can do tbh especially with lockdown happening. If in a few months you're still concerned (ie; by 18MO) then I think that is the point to start involving other services tbh as this is when signs of other issues eg autism become much more obvious. Be vigilant but be reassured though that the majority of children do level out by age 3-4 and are talking fine by then. In the meantime I found a website called //www.teachmetotalk.com very useful for advice on encouraging speech. Good luck and enjoy your baby. Chances are she's totally fine xx

[234cps]

Thanks so much- will have a look at that website. I think because of the lockdown I'm worrying about this more but as you say if I get her name for a hearing test then that's something. Thanks again.