How do I encourage my 9 month baby from babble to 'words'?

[thekitchenrose]

My 9 month old DS is very babble-chatty. How do I encourage him to go to the next level? I talk to him a lot and read etc, but no idea if that's right or enough?

Also - he babbles loads but hasn't said mamama (annoyingly). Can do nananana daddada etc. Is this because it's harder for him to say?

All babies are different aren't they. I remember getting really worked up because my ds who was my first born did not walk until he was 18 months but he talked early, much earlier than my 3 girls who all walked at 9, 11 and 12 months.

itsallgoingtobefine dont worry, they all talk in thier own time. DD3's word arent clear at all, i know what she's saying though but no one else does. dd2 was slow at talking and at just four has really come along fine. I cant shut her up now

No harm encouraging speech and interaction imo... and i'm not a pushy parent!

Try animal noises to get your LO mimicking the more difficult consonant sounds - 'moo', 'baa' 'sssss' etc.

Just talk to him, he will talk when he is ready.

Sorry didn't mean to sound rude by saying it's not a race!
Just meant there's no rush to get him on to the next level!
Babies all do things at different rates, and you don't need to worry. Babble is great for a 9 month old baby, I wouldn't be expecting much else

Of course there is no harm in encouraging speech and interaction, but if things are following 'normal' development then there is really no need to do anything special. Things like baby signing for example, are lovely and good fun to do, but I don't think it is necessary for speech development. It sounds as though the op is doing all the things that help a baby develop speech (singing, chatting etc) so that was all I was saying.