Babbling

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I'm starting to get a bit concerned that my DS2 isn't babbling really - he's just turned 9 months. He has done the odd "de de" or "ge ge" this week, and has been doing random single syllable consonants for a few weeks (not all that often at all, not even daily, but I have definitely heard the odd "ma" "ga" "ba"). He says "ha" a lot but again, only single, not "ha ha ha".

He smiled early, before 3 weeks, and was laughing at 9 weeks, and has always been very smiley / easy to get him to laugh. He's been able to clap since he turned 8 months too, actually even earlier but the co-ordination wasn't quite there for a proper clap until 8 months.

Should I worry? Is this quite usual? I feel like all the other babies this age are babbling.

For context, I also have DS1 who started saying "da da da" at 8 months, he was always very vocal. He's now nearly 4 and there is a chance he's on the spectrum, or has another neuro diversity, although the jury is out and I don't even think we'll get to an assessment at this point (he is quirky for sure, but has never had any delays and seems to be doing well at nursery). This has fuelled my worry.

My DD is 3. Didn’t really ever do the repetitive babbling thing. She’s an amazing talker now though. Some of them just seem to skip that stage.

Any other milestones that you are concerned about? Unless it’s part of a bigger picture it doesn’t sound like something to worry about.

Thanks for replying! Not really, he isn't crawling and I did think he'd be on his way by now as he rolled at 4 months, sat up well dead on 6 months, but hopefully he'll get moving soon.

My main concern really is because of my DS1, although he was babbling da da da loads at this age!

How is he with tummy time? My DD always hated it, and never did crawl, she went straight to walking.

I wonder if perhaps because he’s your second you expect him to do things in the same order as your first? (Saying that as someone that only has one, so I could be talking complete and utter rubbish!) I’ve also heard that 2nd children can be later to make the effort to talk because you are better at interpreting them, so they have less motivation, but once they start they learn faster because they have someone else to practice on.

He's not a fan of being on his front for too long but he just rolls all over the place anyway. He has gotten onto all fours a few times, from his tummy and lately from sitting. I'm not worried about the crawling really, hopefully it will come!

It's the babbling I'm more concerned about. In the last week he's definitely uttered "da da" a few times, but he's not doing it in imitation etc.

How is his receptive language? Does he turn towards his name? You say he is good at clapping - will he do this as a response to an instruction, or just to copy?
(Asking to get an idea of how good his hearing and comprehension are)

Yes he definitely knows his name and has done since about 6 months. He claps along to music etc and will often clap on instruction (eg if I say "DS2 clap!"). Not always, but then again he is a baby!

So hearing and receptive language are fine. Unless you see anything else that concerns you, I suspect he’s just like my DD and isn’t fussed with babbling. To reassure you, she had a receptive vocabulary of several hundred words by the time she was 1 and was speaking 10 word phrases by 18 months. Her language is totally fine, she just didn’t fancy babbling it seems! He’ll do it if he wants to, but if he skips it, it really isn’t a problem.