11 month old behind the norm for development

[SandysBoy]

My son is 11 months old and is not crawling or rolling. He only says "Mamamama" and "babababa" and only says these very occasionally.
I am less worried about the crawling and rolling as he seems to have very strong legs and bears weight very well. I am however worried that he is not even close to saying words and more often than not doesn't seem to understand anything that I say to him (ie "Ben, where's the ball?" when it's right next to him - he looks blankly at me every time). How much should a 11 month old talk and understand? Am I worrying too soon?

Definitely. DS did everything by the book exactly when he should and was a complete performing seal with animal noises etc. but DD1 was very late with everything and really couldn't be bothered (surely you KNOW what noise a doggy makes you stupid woman). DD2 is somewhere in the middle (she's 15 months now and not saying much more than your DS!). Best thing to do is speak to your HV.

my dd2 (14 months today) has one tooth, v little hair, walked at 11 mths, understands "lie down", "give that dummy to your sister" and "no" (and probably countless other things we don't appreciate) and is as happy as larry. they're all different.

Hi SandysBoy. I really don't think you need to be worrying - 11mos is still very. Try not to worry about the developmental stages, I'm sure they're only designed to give mothers something else to feel guilty and harassed about. I've got three and they've all done everything and different times. Keep and eye on it, and talk to your HV if you think she's any good, but don't worry. In 6 months he'll have plenty of words and in 5 years you'll wish he'd stop using them!

Keep an eye for the next 6 months. In terms of language development pointing should begin to start from about 12 months and be fully developed by 18 months. It goes in stages so first children can point to things in books "where's the dog?" then further away and then finally and most importantly- to things that interest them (so they're using the point as "look at that dog mummy". Talking is not important at all at 11 months. My 2 year old ds2 didn't start talking much until 2, but having an autistic ds1 I wasn't worried as he was pointing away etc like mad- and had no problems communicating. Autistic ds1 started talking before 9 months btw! (can't talk at all now- he's 5).

At 11 months a child should be beginning to show signs of joint attention- that means looking where you are looking (not all the time obviously!) and gradually over the next few months will develop the ability to follow a point (again by 18 months).

These are far more important "signs" of developmental progress than anything else.

whoops- ignore the wink!

I have a one year old and know at least 10 others of his age. I don't think any are saying much more than mama and dada. Some understand more and some don't. Most children I know didn't get into using loads of words until about 18 months. The understanding is much harder to "test" though. as you often are playing with the think you then ask them to find.

I have stopped asking HV- she freaks me out because she goes by the book so much. Spent a few sleepless night's thinking about stuff she has said for it to come to nothing.
Son seems to point aimlessly at things. Seems to permanently have his hand in a 'point' formation waiting for things to point at. Not sure if he is actually trying to draw attention to anything at all. Sometimes loks at what I am looking at.