Expert: Valerie Herskowitz - 1/28/2011

Question
QUESTION: I have a 10 month old son and I'm a bit confused about babbling. Some say what he is doing is babbling as canonical babble is a minimum of one consonant and one vowel but sometimes I get the impression that babbling is repeating syllables like ba-ba-ba.

My son doesn't repeat like that. He says ba, bo, ga, gi and other sounds that happen to come out. He has once repeated baba after I said it a few times. He has once said mama. But mostly ba, bo, bu, ga, gi and plenty of EEH and other vocal play like raspberries, grunting, yelling, squealing and saying mmmm. He says hey and ney too. And occasionally ffff and bbbb.

He sometimes Very Softly, almost like blowing air lightly with a bit of sound, says bu-bu-bu and p-p-p.

When I ask what the cow says he says mmmmm every time.

He tries to imitate some words like ball and bear and elk. He imitates me in other ways too, touches things I touch, bangs toys when I do, bangs hands on table when I do etc.

He knows when I say uh-oh he will be chased or tickled so he starts smiling and like hiding with a squeal of joy.

He reacts to his name most of the time but not always and knows what no is and knows " not in your mouth".

He knows where the lamp is and where daddy, mommy, uncle, granny, granddad, ball, dummy, bear, puppy, duck is because he looks at the right person/object. He doesn't point with index finger yet but has in the past few days started to put his hand out like pointing with his hand like reaching. He has juuuust started to TRY to wave.. Sometimes I don't know if he's reaching or trying to wave :)

Loves peek-a-boo and plays it with us :) Covers his face with anything :)

LOVES other babies and gets sooo excited when he sees one, wants to touch and play and "talks" to the baby with aaaa and oo and eee and such.

Doesn't crawl but excellent walker with support of our hands, can stand unsupported too for few seconds, pulls up, drinks from sippy cup, puts food in his mouth himself with his hands.

Laughs when we laugh or play silly with him. Smiles ALOT, especially when he sees me or someone else he knows, returns smiles, excellent eye contact and checks in with me by looking at me in unknown situations and sometimes during play when something excites him.

Please do explain to me a little about babbling.. Some mom's tell me their babies started around the year or later and some say they never had the ba-ba-ba.

ANSWER: just answered

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I'm sorry I'm not following you, I don't have an answer from you already? What do you mean?

I would like to know more about this as I have read no babbling is an early sign and I'm worried about what it means.

Answer
Sorry-
Your questions came through twice and I answered it, but it must not have gone through.

What I said was that a child of your son's age should be starting to move past the babbling stage into the jargon stage. This is the time where language sounds like real conversation only with baby talk. The inflections are there as well as the intonation, but not with real words. Then real words come around one year. So the next couple of months are cruxial.

I'm a little worried about the fact he isn't crawling yet. Unless he starts in two months, I would get that checked out. Sometimes there is a correlation to children who do not crawl and speech difficulties as these are both skills that require motor planning.

He's understanding of language seems appropriate for his age.

What I would advise is to watch carefully for the next two months. We want to see a lot of improvement in that time. So please don't get too worried right now and just let's see what the next 2 months bring