Delayed speech...no attempts to mimic speech

[Bekkie32]

Hey folks..

Our little baby girl has just turned 10 months.
We live in Germany so the community language is of course german. I am english and speak english at home with her. Her father speaks german to her WHEN he is here...he works until quite late and is often away on business. She will go to kindergarten in december/early january, but will she be ok if she has only really heard english until then ?(she will then be 16mths!).

The second issue is that of a possible speech delay.. she is not making any attempts to imitate our sounds. I know babbling should start as early as 4 months..I remember she babbled a little bit then but now it seems to have stopped. She seems to hear us well..reacts to sounds and looks for her daddy if I ask where he is...she also likes to play peekaboo. She just seems a very quiet baby. She will be getting her 10 month check up here soon (U6) and I can mention it then..incase there is a medical issue involved. Just wondered if anyone else has experienced this? She does makes no proper speech sounds at all no d, g, p etc.. not even dada mamam babab etc..??!

Discuss it at the next check up. 10 months is still very young, some babies don't start making 'dada' sounds until a bit later.

It's good that she can seem to hear you.

As for going to kindergarten - I'm sure she'll be fine! It will be good to help reinforce her german.

dadadada, babababa and perhaps mamamama might be expected. Def no g or p.

Check hearing and give it time? Should be coming along any day now.

10 months?! That is very young, our Dss didn´t make any attempts to immitate sounds until 2, really! (tri lingual)

Don´t worry, but if you do, see your GP!

she is in hospital right now...they are giving her a top to toe checkover..not sure how long she will be in for. We have other issues concerning development too - and feeding and drinking issues and not gaining weight. The speech maybe connected to this or it might not - but thanks for the comments folks..will keep you updated..

Poor you - hope the hospital stay is not too traumatic for you or her.

And that she just turns out to be doing things in her individual way rather than due to any underlying problem.

10 months is too young to worry about talking I'd say. 16 months is fine to start the new language - they have such a tiny vocab at that age that they catch up in the second language in a matter of weeks really. Hope everything else is alright though.

...you are all cheering me up heaps thanks!

All the medical tests in the hospital are coming back ok so far..just waiting for the hearing and throat checks (she is having difficulty swallowing too although she has no infection..so she could have pressure in her ears or something - due to fluid). Feeling happy she is being looked over though.

If all is well, maybe the language will materialize later like you say. I will keep you all posted over the next few days.

Home now? Hope so.

Nope not home yet..she is still in hospital having various checks. Her ears, nose and throat seem ok. according to the doctors and she can hear. What we do not know is if she has any brain damage (central nervous system) - she had an MRT scan today and we are awaiting results - had to be done to check what might be causing her developmental delay and of course possible speech delay.

Will post again soon when we have more results through.

How many days has she been in hospital? Or are you taking her in and out for appointments?

Due to her food refusal and no weight gain I decided to get her admitted. She has been in since monday..so far all checks ok..just waiting for the MRT brain scan results.

Just hoping there is no correlation between her late development of motor skills, speech and eating (i.e what could indicate a disorder of the central nervous system or something).

Will keep you posted..not sure when she will be out..depends on the MRT results and the other outstanding tests.

ok ...MRT scan was normal. Hearing also normal and all other tests ok. She is now out.

She will be going to see an osteopath for physiotherapy - so we will see if there are any neck muslce problems which could affect speech. What fun!

Other than that I will just have to be patient..I guess if she is late in other areas developmentally, then speech may well be delayed too. At least we are keeping on top of it all.