Saying Mamma and Dadda

My twins started babbling with the da-da-da-da at around 9months. At first it was just an occasional, now its all the time. They havent really started saying mama yet ( they are 10.5 months) My advice would be just say it to him a few times a day. He will get it. Dont worry about it. Soon he will be saying it so much you will be looking for the off switch!

I'm pregnant with my 7th child right now. I have a bit of experience under my belt (grin).

Some of mine didn't "babble". I had one who, literally, went from the VERY occasional "mmmm mmm mmm baaa" to FULL sentences. There was NOTHING wrong with my child! Just liked to figure it out before showing off to the family (STILL does this. Won't see this one try anything or practice, and then one day will do it like a pro!).

Keep doing what you're doing. Talk to him. Read to him. When he jabbers to you, repeat the noises he makes back to him. If you respect his current "language" (jabbering), he'll learn to use yours, as well. Trust me. It will be fine.

PM me if you'd like to talk or think you're at your wits end. And ignore that pediatrician. They tend to go by "guidelines" and forget that all children fall within a bell curve!

The best thing that you can do for verbal development is talk to your child like he's an actual person using general inflection and appropriate contextual tone.

ie - no 'goo goo gaa gaa' and if you are just repeating the word mama he doesn't understand that it's not just babble.

So, talk to him out loud constantly about yourself in the 3rd person and his dad. Whatever you guys are doing. "mama's going to open the fridge and get your bottle. Daddy's home - let's go say hi. mama's going to do laundry" etc etc etc.

Good Luck!

He sounds normal but I'm concerned by the fact you think he is watching high quality DVDs. I know you dont mean he watches tv all the time, but I have to say: all the experts and all the research warns that under age two should not watch ANY TV. Baby Einstein is marketed toward an age group that CANNOT benefit from watching it! infants learn by touching, smelling, tasting and experiencing. dont take away his valuable time learning about the world by letting him sit in front of a TV before age two.

As long as your doctor says your boy is all right physically, just keep cool about it. Talk to him, read to him, sing to him, and enjoy any noises he makes.

Some babies simply do not read the right child-development books. They take a longer time to say their first words. Then, once they start, you can't shut them up! It will happen.

(P.S. Just read the other responses, and they're good ones. I used the running-commentary technique with my children. One of my granddaughters has benefited greatly from using sign language before she started talking. There are a number of web sites that can tell you more about this.)

Don't worry yet - he's only 9 months! To encourage talking I talk to my child (now a 20 month old) constantly. I tell her what we are doing, or what we are about to do, or point out things to her...basically a running commentary. I also do baby sign language with her (just 10 or so signs). She is good at using her signs to let us know what she wants. I also read to her a lot...many books each day. Just talk to him a lot. Tell him what things are. Tell him what colors are. Count things with him. Get books on pets and farm animals and construction trucks and go over the names of each one. Go over all the animal sounds each time. If he has an interest get plenty of books on that subject (my son LOVED musical instruments and construction trucks. Our daughter loves animals and animal sounds and trains). Read nursery rhymes. Starting at around age 12-14 months our daughter started getting really interested in books. Sing lots of child songs throughout the day too. Don't worry. Your son will be talking your ear off before you know it!

I just read the book "Nurtureshock" which talks about the latest research in child development. They covered Baby Einsteins (worthless), talking to him (fine and good, but won't help him all that much), and how to respond to his sounds so that he is encouraged to move to the next step of verbalizing. I found it very interesting, and all based on actual recent scientific research.

A speech & language pathologist gave this to me recently, I found it helpful.

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/01.htm

I think he's probably just fine. Both of my toddlers didn't start saying mama until close to 15 months, I'd say it over and over and for some reason they just didn't say it...I worried for awhile but now my 3 year old talks up a storm. My first ped told me the same thing, that my kids should be saying more...I brought them to a different ped who told me they were fine, I even had them evaluated only to be told that they were developing completely normally! I think you reading and talking to him a lot is the best thing you can do!

I think you are doing everything right, just add what Brenna said. I used to always talk to my daughter about what we were doing. I would do it so much that I would do it when she wasn't even around (which can be a bit embarrasing at the grocery store). My daughter did everything late, including talking. Check out www.readystart.org. I don't know if they are just in Texas, but they came to our library and they examined my daughter free of charge. They also gave me a bunch of materials to help with her development. Maybe you can find some of these materials on their website. Now that my daughter is 2, I get comments all the time about how well spoken and articulate she is. It took her longer, but once she figured it out she was able to express herself quite well.

One thing you could do to assuage your worry is to listen for patterns. My DD's pediatrician said that words that weren't actually words "count" at this age. My daughter had a word for baby (I'm ashamed to say I don't remember anymore what it was!) that didn't sound at all like baby but she used that sound consistently when she saw a picture of a baby. So she was showing verbal skills and using "words," long before she said a "real" word. Listen for patterns instead of for words--neither you nor your pediatrician nor anyone else can predict or prescribe what his first word should be. My daughter's first "official" word was bubble, and it was a long time after that before she started saying Mommy.

My brilliant :)...if I do say so myself...4 year old didn't say mama till he was over 18 months old. He was talking in 2 word sentences before he said "mama." I wouldn't sweat this at all! By the way, I don't think that videos are useful for child development. They do keep them occupied, but they don't really teach them anything...they learn everything they need from watching and interacting with you and other people.

My son took a long time to talk too (at least in my head and comparing him to others lol). He was my first child and I was SOOO worried. He eventually caught on. Now he's 4 1/2 and wants to talk and ask questions ALL THE TIME! LOL I wouldn't worry about it, all kids are on their own time lines. We, as Moms, have to chill out some times and go with it...though I wouldn't have wanted to hear that when I was worried about him...