Should I be worried?

[GGS01]

My 14 month old boy doesn't babble much and only says baba, papa and kaka. He doesn't ever say mama and doesn't refer to anything or anyone by name. He does understand when we say certain words like mom, dad, milk and water. He also doesn't clap, wave or point to anything and doesn't imitate us much. The only times he imitate us is when we cough or when we say kakakaka.

He is otherwise a happy baby and walks well. He also eats and sleeps reasonably well. We are a multilingual home and he is exposed to 3 languages. Should I be worried? Does this signify a speech delay?

I was told that bi/multilingual children often start speaking later than those only exposed to one language.
A friend of mine has a bilingual dd and she said she started talking later, but the words she did start saying first were always mixed up, almost like she would take the first half of the word in one language, the second half in the other language and mix it together. When she did start talking she progressed pretty quickly.
I would say don't be worried, children learn at their own pace. And if he is exposed to multiple languages maybe he just hasn't figured out which ones to use for what yet. But if you're worried you could always speak to your HV

I'd just keep talking with her down on her level. So she can see your mouth too as much as possible. Repeat the words in context. So instead of saying do you want milk? Hold the milk or biscuit and say it's name a few times. Or Mia's biscuit whilst handing to her . Mummy's biscuit. Daddy's biscuit. Yummy biscuit. One biscuit. They need that over the top repetition to learn to recognise the word before they can even learn to say it.

Obviously with 3 languages it will be slower. Really keep your language simple 1 or 2 words. My DS has a speech delay and I must admit I didn't do this, I just spoke to him in long sentences and I don't think that helped. I've been corrected since and your DD is still at the perfect age to not get behind.

You can do it with picture books too. Point and say duck or dog etc. Or Mia find dog. Mummy find dog ( and you point) it's all learning until they get to the stage they can start copying you.

Good luck

Sorry i mean your DS. Oops

Thank you for the reassurance. I will try getting down to his level and repeating single words for a couple of months. If that doesn't help then I will take him to the HV.