Need information -- worried about 13 month old's development

[Anonymous]

Hi -

I need some benchmarks and information from any parents willing to share. My daughter is 13 months old. She only has four sounds (b, d, g and m). She laughs and squeals but does not really babble. We believe she may say "b" for book but not consistently. We think she says her brother's name but it's all vowels and it could just be a happy noise. She does not follow any commands -- for example, if you say "give mommy the ball", she does not do that. She does not seem to have any word recognition. For example, if I say, see the doggie? She is not looking for a doggie. This is very different than our son at the same age. She is however very curious and very physical. I'm curious what other 13 month old kids are doing. I am concerned, so please no nasty responses.

[Anonymous]

Call your county infant and toddler group (Infant and Toddler Connection in Fairfax County) for an evaluation. Does she respond to her name?

[Anonymous]

OP here -
She's being evaluated next week in DC but I thought having some benchmarks from other parents might help me prepare my observations. She responds to my voice, but I'm not sure if it's her name in particular. Maybe. She can definitely hear.

[Anonymous]

My DD was like this at 13 months - she walked early (a couple days after 11 months) but her language development was slower. I asked her doctor about it and what he said was that sometimes kids put a lot of their developmental energy into gross motor skills at the expense of language skills. He wasn't worried about it and once she became a really good walker (around 13.5 months), she started developing linguistically really fast.

Good luck with your evaluation. I hope you get some answers.

[Anonymous]

Don't discount a hearing problem even though she responds to sound. My DC did end up needing intervention for various issues and they didn't involve hearing, but we were strongly advised to test hearing (and we did). Many parents of children with hearing problems are shocked to find out because their kids had enough hearing to respond to sound (but not enough to faciliate development of language).

[Anonymous]

My DD is 13m and very similar. She has started saying "UhOh" but it doesn't seem to have any particular meaning attached. She was a preemie, so she's been getting regular developmental evaluations. The doctors have said that her language development is normal for her actual age-definitely not ahead, but also not delayed. They said to give her another couple months to get a word before getting concerned. She is in a home daycare and is similar to or ahead of the kids her age in terms of her language.

[Anonymous]

PP here, sorry I also posted basically the same thing in the other thread-read the other one and thought my post had gotten eaten.

[Anonymous]

You should still get her hearing checked. It is a free service provided by the county. Even if she can hear she may not hear well. Also, I know my DS was referred for speech therapy at 15 months b/c he had no words including "mama" which most kids are saying by that age. He also didn't have a lot of variation in his babbling. He could follow single step commands by 15 months. I can't remember if he was by 13 months but I think most can.

[jsteele]

This thread was posted twice. Please use the other one:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/205539.page