BABY NOT BABBLING

[michellebeau]

o.k. this is my last post today I promise! I just LOOOOOVE this site! It's so informative! Not too much information in Las Vegas about cleft palate.
One of many worries I have...my daughter is not yet babbling at six months. She squeals and giggles but noooo baba dada stuff. Is it common? My pediatrician referred us to an ENT but I can't get her in until January 9th. The pediatrician thinks it could be her hearing.
(She will be getting her soft palate repaired at 10 months.)

[mia's mom]

mine is 6 months too with a bilateral cleft palate...same thing....no babbling. Gosh I didn't even think it might be a problem.

[Linda S S]

Does she/he appear to respond to noises? Turn to look toward the source of the sound? Has your child had many ear infections?

[jacksmom]

It probably has more to do with the cleft if she responds to sounds and you think her hearing is okay.Jackson's hearing was affected by the fluid build up until he got tubes. It was amazing the difference they made! He still never made any actual "sounds" until after his repair in April. He always just squealed a really shrill squeal and laughed. About a month after his repair he was saying Mama, and now he is starting to say other things like Bubba, Bye-bye and Nana...still no Dada! We are in speech therapy once a week, it is slow going but I want to make sure he has early intervention to try and prevent as many problems as possible. For now he uses a lot of sign language to tell us what he wants. Our main goal right now is just to keep him from getting frustrated. But I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point! They will all catch up!
Allison

[mookie59]

allison,
I have a question for you, please?

I noticed your little one was born in June of '06 so that makes him about 19 months old, correct?

My DGD (we have custody) is 14 months old and had her lip repair at 4 months, her soft palate repair at 6 months and her hard palate repair at 10 months. Her hard palate developed fistulas and we are looking at surgery to repair them on March 14th.

She never babbles. She shows NO interest in repeating or mimicking words. I read, talk to and name objects for her but nothing. The only clear word she speaks is Mama. She mutters Nana, meow, dog-dog (gog-gog) and uh oh. You have to listen hard to understand them.

I just wonder if I should be concerned yet. Do you think it's related to her hard palate still being open? Or do you think she needs evaluation?

I know you are just a mom but you've just been through this age and I thought you might offer advice from experience.

Thanks,
Jennfer

[Linda S S]

Consider teaching some basic sign language to give her a way to communicate while working on/waiting for speech. It reduces frustration. There are lots of "baby sign" books and videos/DVDs, check your local library. My nephew (non-cleft-affected) was a late talker and on a visit I taught him the sign for "more" which reduced whining. My sister then taught him and his brother, also a late talker (and non-affected) some other ones.

As far as hearing goes, you can observe as to whether the child looks toward the person who calls his or her name, startles to a loud or unexpected noise. Responds if music is turned on or off.

[jacksmom]

Jennifer, we are having the same issues with Jackson. His speech is VERY limited, and he is 19 months. We are in speech therapy once a week, but I am learning that at this age, there is not a lot they can do really. Our therapist brings toys and books and tries to get him to imitate her, but he really has no interest in any of it. She seems to think he is just stubborn. I am to the point of being very concerned! I asked our pediatrician about it at our 18 month check up, and he wants Jackson to see the ENT and have his hearing re-checked, and his adenoids checked. We go back to the cleft clinic on Feb. 7th, so I decided to wait until then. I am worrying like crazy that he may need something additional done to his palate. It can't hurt to go ahead and be evaluated by speech. At least if they start now, it won't be so foreign to them when they are older. I'll let you know how it goes with the PS.
Allison

[mia's mom]

I just had Mia evaluated for the early intervention program (a state run program that provides services to kids between the ages of 0-3 who have a developmental delay or a physical condition which has a probability of resulting in delay). Cleft palate is a condition which automatically qualifies a child for early intervention. Then speech therapy or whatever else is needed is completely free. Its a very helpful program. Mia doesn't babble at all but they didn't seem concerned with it at all. They said she was okay for how old she is (7 1/2 months). I thought she was making grunting noises and they were like "oh listen, she's making vowel sounds...there's the "a'" and honestly I just thought it was a grunt. I agree with allison that it can't hurt to get evaluated. It made me feel a lot better re: the speech for now. She will be re-evaluated in a couple of months.

[GWH1]

[quote="jacksmom"]Jennifer, we are having the same issues with Jackson. His speech is VERY limited, and he is 19 months. We are in speech therapy once a week, but I am learning that at this age, there is not a lot they can do really. Our therapist brings toys and books and tries to get him to imitate her, but he really has no interest in any of it. She seems to think he is just stubborn. I am to the point of being very concerned! I asked our pediatrician about it at our 18 month check up, and he wants Jackson to see the ENT and have his hearing re-checked, and his adenoids checked. We go back to the cleft clinic on Feb. 7th, so I decided to wait until then. I am worrying like crazy that he may need something additional done to his palate. It can't hurt to go ahead and be evaluated by speech. At least if they start now, it won't be so foreign to them when they are older. I'll let you know how it goes with the PS.
Allison[/quote]

My son is 30 months old and pretty much sounds just like Jackson. Matthew just had a cleft lip/alveolus......no apparent clefting of the hard or soft palate. He seems very shy and has a limited vocabulary. He can repeat words, but seems unmotivated to talk on his own. We have him in early intervention with speech therapy 3 times per month, but I cannot really see much progress. He knows absolutely everything and has no problems with comprehension/receptive language. Maybe he is stubborn as well, but I am also worried.

His words now pretty much consist of mama, daddy, ah-oh, yes, no, okay, night-night, bye, etc...

Hopefully all the speech therapy will eventually catch up and he will catch on.

[heather]

Eyson is almost 15 months old now and he still can only say mama. He had hearing issues because of the cleft in his palate. He also had fluid build up in his ears but once he got his tubes put in he was doing much better. He passed all hearing tests after his tubes were put in. As long as there is response to sound there's really nothing to worry about. He does very well responding to verbal commands but he doesn't repeat anything. We are getting ready to begin speech therapy. It is very common for cleft babies to have very limited vocabulary. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Once the palate is repaired then you can start working on more speech. But Eyson didn't do much babbling at that age, either. It's very common.

[jacksmom]

GWH1, If you don't mind me asking, what part of Alabama are you in? We live in Birmingham and use the cleft team at Children's. Just wondering if maybe we were close......
Jackson started saying Shhhh and ball just this week, so hopefully things are getting better!
Allison

[GWH1]

We are in Huntsville and also use Childrens in B'ham. Dr. Gardner did Matthew's lip repair, but he has since left to start his own practice in Florida. We are now seeing Dr. Grant.

The ONLY thing I am worried about with Matthew is the talking issue. He seems like he knows everything, but he just will not initiate. He will repeat most anything, even repeats the alphabet....but not much more. He calls out to Mama or Daddy when he wakes up in the morning or when he is looking for us, but if I ask him what my name is he just stares at me! It is so frustrating!!! I don't how anyone can "force" a child to want to speak. I know he can.....apparently he just doesn't want to. Not sure if Early Intervention is helping or not.

We are thinking about having him tested for other problems, but his pediatrician doesn't believe he is autistic. Childrens did a chromosome test right after he was born, but all that was normal.

I think I have a stubborn child. He is definitely shy so I wonder if that is part of the problem. He might be stressed about the whole thing because I'm sure he knows how much we want him to talk.

Oh, well......we'll just keep doing what they tell us to do and pray that he starts showing more progress.

[Babyk]

Avery babbles all the time but nothing intelligible at this point. Everyone keeps asking if he's 'talking' yet and we just say yes...his own language. lol

The OT and ENT ask if he is making vowel sounds, not if he is talking so not sure of the significance of that. He did come out with mamamamamamamamama one time but nothing else.

He will have his palate repaired in July so I guess we'll see what happens after that. He laughs and squeals just fine though!

[michellebeau]

I originally posted this message 5 months ago & still no babbling progress. No babbling, no vowel sounds yet. She just squeals & giggles. Kylie's now 11 months old. It is reassuring, however, to hear that many of your babies are experiencing the same. Kylie's speech therapist said it's normal and to keep working with her on repeating baa baa, daa daa, maa maa, etc. and have her watch our lips when we do. The tubes seem to have made a difference. She definitely hears clearer and responds to sounds and she doesn't seem to be in her own world as much.
I guess we'll be patient & it'll happen. Early Intervention appt. this week.