Expert: James Michael Roan - 10/15/2007

Question
Dear James,

I have a 15 old month daughter that at about 11 months old she was able to say.....Mom, Dad, Nat (her Aunt), bink, baba, and Bye.....along with barking noises when we would ask her what Champ the dog would do.   Now, since about 12 months all she says is "ugh" and "Mama".   I was told be her pediatrcian that it isn't nothing to worry about yet.  She only has one sign he says.   However, now that her appt is over I'm thinking about other things that I didn't realize could be signs such as she likes to spin and twirl and doesn't like playing her toys, she also likes to head butt everyone..  She likes to play with anything other then her toys, bowls, pots pans, dress up in my shoes...etc.  She's very advanced as far as, hugs, kisses, high-5 and she pretty much listens to everything you tell her, if you give her orders to bring something to you she does, if you say "are you hungry?", then she grabs your hand and takes you too the kitchen.  She hides her cup all the time, when I ask her "where's the cup?" she shruggs her shoulders with a big smile then she gets the cup.  She claps, does so big.....but I see that there are some underlying signs.   Do you feel as if this may be something to worry about?
Nicole

Answer
Hi Nicole;

She sounds just fine! Here are the red flags to look for:

6-12 Month Markers:

•   Passivity and decreased activity
•   Extreme distress reactions
•   Fixation on objects

By 12 Months:

•   Decreased positive affect and social smiling
•   Delayed gesture and language
•   Poor or no eye contact
•   Poor disengagement of attention
•   Inability to shift attention back and forth between different stimuli
•   Failure to orient to name
•   Poor imitation
•   No babbling by 12 months
•   No gesturing by 12 months

By 16 Months:

•   No single words by 16 months
•   No pointing to objects or interesting events in an attempt to share them with another

By 24 Months:

•   No spontaneous two-word phrases
•   Loss of any language or social skills at any age

Kind regards,
James