speech development

mfc2b4

first time parent here. my lo doesn't talk much. he babbles occasionally, but has certainly never said mama or dada. sometimes the "g" sound. The latest babycenter.com e-mail I got for his age says that most baby can do this by 8mo, and my son is 9mo.

He gets read a million books a day, I talk to him all day long, he doesn't watch any tv, and he will turn his head to music, or when I speak, so I am pretty sure he hears well, he also immitates the "aw" sound when I make it. 

while not very vocal, he does crawl, pull up, walk around with a walker, move around the coffee table or chairs on his own, and will "walk" only holding on to one finger, so I think he is certainly developing his motor skills quickly.

Should I just quit worrying about this, or is there something I can do to help him along.  I don't have a pedi appt for a month.

egsquared

I know my LO is a couple months younger than yours, but this is my biggest worry too.  I see a lot of posts on here about LOs that just babble away all the time and say mama and dada.  DD rarely babbles and is showing no signs of being able to say mama or dada (even by accident).  Her motor skills also seem to be on par, so I'm not worried about that part.  The pedi wasn't worried about the lack of 'talking' at 6 months, but I'm not sure what he'll say at 9 months, or if I can even wait that long before calling to ask about it.  I'm super interested to see other responses. 

IU_baby

It's definitely not time to worry.  Boys have a tendency to focus on mobility first and speech later.  I'd bring it up to your pedi in a month, but I wouldn't make a special appointment for it.

If it will ease your mind, ask some of the moms on 12-24.  There was a post recently about this same issue, but with older children.

MrsAmers

The first true speech milestone that my pedi asked about was DD having 2-3 "words" at 12 months.  And a "word" is any repeated syllable that indicates something.  For DD it was "duh" for Duck and "kah" for kitty.  She babbled mamamamama and dadadada and babababa by 12 months, but they didn't mean anything yet.

Quit worrying about this.  Talking to him and reading to him are the best things that you can do, and babies can't have a measurable speech delay until 15 or 18 months.

July_2009

I wouldn't worry. Every baby develops at their own pace (I know this saying is getting old). FWIW, my friend's 2 year old son barely talked and the Dr's said he could be autistic. One day he suddenly started talking and now they wish he wouldn't talk so much..LOL.