Baby rarely babbles?

My DS is 6 1/2 months old, and I really worry because he's very quiet. He doesn't do the bababa and gagaga type of babbling I thought they do at this age.

He only vocalizes like that a handful of times a day, when he's excited about a toy or something he's doing. He mostly uses the "g" sound--- ga, go, gee, gi, etc.

What do you think? Normal or not? I'm having his hearing tested tomorrow as a precaution.

All his other skills seem fine: he was creeping on his belly on his 4 month bday, just started crawling on hands and knees recently, can pull up to a sitting position from lying down, can stand if you give him something to grab onto, good control of his hands when playing with toys, etc.

Re: Baby rarely babbles?

Is this your first boy? I've heard that with the first boy they always have problems developing their speech but no other problems with the other stages of development. Don't even know if it's true or not.

However he is only 6 months so I wouldn't worry about it now.

When he hears voices does he turn around or move his head? DS does that whenever DH walks into the room where DS is and hears him talking, he quickly moves his head to look at him. So if your DS follows voices then I wouldn't worry so much.

Re: Baby rarely babbles?

I don't think there's really much to be concerned about because it sounds like he is just focusing on his gross motor skills right now. He is doing very well in that area and they say that babies focus on one type of skill set at a time. So if he's focusing on trying to crawl he won't be speaking as much and vice versa.

Jake has always been quite the babbler. At 14 months I think he has a pretty decent vocabulary (around 20 words in 2 languages) but he only just recently started walking. He was evidently more interested in talking. It sounds like your baby might just be more interested in trying to crawl, pull up or even cruise at this point.

Still, it never hurts to get them checked out.

Re: Baby rarely babbles?