9 month old with no Ba Ba's!

[Flossam]

Or dadas, mamas or anything else for that matter. He is tongue tied and I'm really concerned that his lack of talking is due to this. He has been screeching, screaming and generally making all sorts of rackets at passer bys for months, and has always had a lot to say in his own little way. He copies screams and wooo noises, but will not copy others. Are there any other late babblers out there not related to tongue tie, or anything else that will stop me fretting about this!

PS I have tried to get him reffered about the tongue tie. I can only assume it is lost in our NHS administration system.

What do you mean by 'tongue tied'? Is there an actual physiological problem? I have heard that being 'tongue tied' can cause late talking, but truly tongue tied babies are quite rare.
The milestone books say they 'should' be babbling dada baba etc by his age, but probably not in a 'meaningful way' (ie you would not expect most 9 month old babies to be able to say 'dada!' everytime they saw their daddy.)A 'woo' noise would count as a consonant sound, so perhaps he is just starting with a less obvious noise that the baba dada thing.
My dd was a late talker. She started babbling more or less 'on schedule' (7 or 8 months) but a true baba or dada sound was quite rare until she was 12 months. She had maybe two words until she was 19 or 20 months old (no and mama. She is 2.5 now and talks really well for her age!
If you think he is really tongue tied, chase up that referral, otherwise don't worry just yet. If he copies you etc it is unlikely that he is autistic. I don't know if it is possible to do a hearing test at his age. Maybe leave it for now, and if there is no improvement at all in his babbling abilities by 12 or so months, you could have his hearing tested?
I really would try not to worry so much! At 9 months, you have a long way to go before you have to get worried about speech delay.

Neither of my older two babbled, jsut made ltos of other noises. dd was very early learnign to talk, loads of words by a year, and could have a proper conversation with her by two. Ds was very slow, was still on single words at 2. Now he is three and is managing sentances. So I don't think babbling really makes any difference, though if he does have tongue tie, maybe you need to get it checked out.

U mgiht be able to self refer. I had to go to ultrasound and personally demand scans for my dts after two referals got me nowhere.

Hi Flossam. How is your son's hearing? Some children with hearing problems (persistent glue ear etc) can be late to babble.

My ds is almost 1, he copies the odd "mama", but other than that just carries on jibbering in his own little world!
I wouldn't worry, every child does things in their own time.
I'm forever a victim of "competitive mum" syndrome from my friends with little ones. But I have realised it doesn't matter as long as they're fit and healthy, alert and active.

If you're really, really worried get on the phone to your HV, GP or Health centre, and tell them how concerned that you are.

Thanks everyone. Have seen the HV today who is going to see if the SALT can advise us of any excercises we can do with DS to get him babbling! Having said that he hasn't stopped raspberring all day, so perhaps he is just a little slower!

you won't know whether the tongue tie affects him just yet.

You don't need to use your tongue to make some sounds, including b and m. So being tongue tied would not prevent babbling with baba or mama sounds. Talk to him lots, use clear lip patterns but don't over exaggerate. I'm sure he'll be fine.

Hi Flossam. Sorry to come back with this, but how is your DS's hearing? The reason I'm asking is that my DS did a bit of babble, raspberries etc despite having a profound hearing loss. I don't mean to worry you, just to alert you to hearing problems. They are even more difficult to diagnose when the hearing loss is slight (e.g. due to persistent glue ear) because the child responds to some sounds, enough to not worry the parent. Our DS wasn't diagnosed till 8 months, and then by chance, because we weren't looking for any problems. Good luck and I hope it's all fine with your DS.

neither of mine have been noisy babblers .. no mamamama no dadadadada

DD now starting to mamamam and she's just hit 15 months

DS talked in sentences by the time he was 18 months

I have never worried too much as they have both been able to vocalise - screams, shouts and point at things (by about a year)

Thanks, Twiglett, Mogwai and Christina. He had some kind of sonic hearing test when he was born - testing if his brain responded to the noise. That was fine. We are able to have screaming conversations together and he definately hears me when I am trying the whole 'NO!' thing - just chooses to ignore me! He should be having his check within the next few weeks where they check for the hearing anyway, I think I'm right? We are spending lots of time babbling at him (DP mainly saying DaDa and me mainly saying MaMa perhaps the poor little thing is confused!). I do feel like the raspberry blowing can only be a good sign and hope he will progress from there. He has been quite early in the crawling and cruising, so it could be that he has just been busy with other things.

Hi Flossam. If he had the OAE screening test at birth then his hearing must be fine (as it's a screening test it can sometimes be wrong but I think this one is 99% accurate). At least you know you can rule out any hearing problems and just wait for babbling and speech to happen naturally.

Hi Flossam

My ds is just over 10 months and still no proper babbling - I think we may have had an odd 'mamamam' in the past week but don't know if that's just my wishful thinking!

I'm trying not to get too stressed and am babbling away at him like an idiot!! Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know you're not alone!!

Hi Flossam

My dd is 8.5 months and we haven't had any babbling either. However, lots of high and low noises, raspberries and grunts. HV didn't seem concerned at all when we saw her 2 weeks ago. DD obviously knows what her voice is for and uses it in different ways so I'm not worried either. Just wanted to let you know you're not alone!

sorry flossam, should have added that I am a speech and language therapist!

If you are referred, bet your life it will take months, and your little one will be just fine by the time you see the SLT!!

Well, DS as behaved in a way to make me proud, as soon as I have been back to the HV on thurs we have had a few bo's do's and go's. So fingers crossed things will progress from here on. Thanks for all the advice and help everyone.