8.5 month old not babbling, when to worry?

[opilye]

Hi, I’m a FTM to an amazing 8.5m ds. He came after many losses and is incredibly special! He was born at 35 weeks.

He doesn’t babble, is this worrying? I always see baby’s babble waaay before now, and he doesn’t. He sometimes makes noises like ooooo and ahhhhh and maybe a handful of times he’s sounded like he’s said mum but I think that’s in my head. He blows lots of raspberries and smiles and laughs when we sing / talk to him, he doesn’t copy us. Sometimes he looks us right in the eyes when we’re talking and goes ‘oooo’ as if he’s trying to speak but nothing comes out. Is this normal?

he’s reaching other milestones, rolling both ways, crawling, pulling to stand, holding his own weight holding onto something

any other late babblers out there? I’ve been worried about this for months now! Thank you

perfectly normal! There’s a wide range - my baby didn’t really babble until 11 months. She’s still not as good at talking as the other toddlers I know her age (she’s 21 months now), but is definitely catching up/normal developmentally.

As long as your baby is developing and growing, it’s usually a good sign. You can always ask at your health check up - I think I saw the health visitor for one at 11 months? I remember bringing it up with her, and she said she’d check on it in a month - and that was the month my DD started to babble!

He's too busy trying to walk! Thats what all mine did - 'eff talking, I'll just go and get it myself!'

He sounds like he's making the right noises, anyway, and the babbling will come (or just clearer words). Mine were all walking by 12 months and talking at 24 months.

All babies are different in how and when they develop different skills. I remember having the same worry about my now 12 year old. She never babbled and just went straight to her first word at 1. Now I wish I could shut her up 🤣

@opilye hello! My little girl is very similar. Did your boy start babbling in the end?

My oldest didn't babble until she was at least ten months. I spoke to a friend who is a speech therapist and she said up to 11 months was in the ordinary range. DD was an early walker. It all evened out in the end, her reception class teacher described her as very articulate which I took as code for never shuts up 😁

Do you think he can hear? Really hear? Not just smile when you chat because he reads from your face that you are happy. Not just look towards something because you do.
If you are not 100% sure he can hear then be sure to get him checked.

Don’t look for things to worry about, honestly. My son didn’t babble at all (and didn’t roll over in either direction until 10 months). He’s now in gifted and talented and is good at several sports. Worrying about him would have been a huge waste of my time.

It sounds like he’s just focusing on physical rather than verbal development right now, so I wouldn’t be too concerned. It could be worth speaking to your hv about checking hearing though. My daughter was a bit like this, and it turned out she had glue ear. She had started to make some ooh / aah type noises but then stopped entirely around 5/6 months. It cleared up on its own and she was saying her first words around a year old.

Yes mine walked very early (9months), but didn’t really start talking until 2+ years. By 2.5 years he was talking in full sentences. So he never really babbled, but waited, absorbed everything and then talked fully.

Another 35 weeker here that never babbled and was late to hit all milestones. His first word was just before he turned 2 and only really began properly trying to talk at 3. Worried for ages and now wish I hadn’t as at 4, he never shuts up.

My DD was babbling on time and at 2.5 is chatting in full sentences. All kids are different but I remember the worry well!

I have a very chatty 2 Yr old now, but didn't babble much at 8months.
Keep doing what you are doing, reading to them, lots of chat and naming things and saying simple sentences, talking through what you are doing all the time
I did baby sign classes with mine (not because I was worried) but it did have the benift of reassuring me that they could communicate because they would use the sign even if couldn't say word ( more, medicine and pain) were the main ones learned and few animals.

First word was cat at about 11 months and then tor for tractor and mum and dad. But they never did the bababba babble!

My son was like that and we checked whether he turned to our voices which he didn't. After a hearing test it was discovered he had a conductive hearing loss. He had grommets fitted at 16 months and his speech developed normally.

hello! My son is now 11 months old and has started babbling this month :) it’s not constant, but it’s his own babbling. He definitely says mumumumum, mmmmmm, ahhhh, ooohhhh, baaaaa. but rarley all together and just as and when he feels like, but he used to be completely silent and now he’s always making some sort of noise when playing/crawling/in the pram. I’d say he’s still ‘behind’ other babies we know, but he’s developing in his own way! Not long after I posted we had our HV come out to see us and she said he was very very quiet and referred us to speech and language therapy (our appt is in Jan) we’re still going to go even though he’s started babbling to see what they say but he’s come so far since I posted this! Lots of our friends and family have said how much more vocal he is. Try not to worry, even though I know it’s easier said than done. Xx

He can definitely hear! He started babbling this last month :)

@opilye thank you for taking the time to reply! That's great he's making progress and good to hear about the HV referral. We'll have our 10 month review soon so will see how things progress by then.

Our little girl can be quite vocal, just not in the babbling sense, although weirdly this morning she has started doing a few more ba sounds, not connected but it's progress ☺️

Hope the S&LT goes well and your son continues to progress!

For anyone interested in speech development there's a fantastic book by Sally Ward called "Baby Talk". It gives a really easy to read overview of language and play development up to the age of five years. Also has ideas to support language development. It's designed for parents not professionals so is jargon free. You can pick it up for a few pounds second hand as it's possibly out of print now. Thoroughly recommend.