Should He Be Talking?
I know I’ve said before that I don’t care much for milestones. But I’m starting to get concerned. Ben’s 15 months old now, and yet to say his first word…definitively, anyway.
Now, he’ll babble all day long. He’ll listen to what I say and babble back. And he can pronounce “mama”, “dada”, and even the word “hi”. But I’m not convinced he knows what they mean, so I don’t count it. The closest one is “hi”, which he seems to maybe understand, but I’m not entirely sure. Even if he does though, that’s still only one word. And I really have no clue when a baby is supposed to start talking, and when they supposedly are “delayed”.
The only point of reference I really have is other kids, the children of my friends. And as luck would have it, just like with walking, they’re all miles ahead of Ben. I have several friends who have children the exact same age as him, and all of their kids are not only talking, but they’re talking a lot. They can say lots of words. And while I’m not really into the whole “my kid needs to be the smartest, fastest kid on the block!” mindset, I do worry that he’s behind.
There’s really only one reason that I can think of that he might be behind, and that’s because I had him a little bit early. I don’t remember what my original due date was now, but I think I was around 36 or 37 weeks. I had preeclampsia, and the doctors had wanted me to deliver even earlier than that — my vision had started becoming affected, which is when they wanted me to go ahead and be induced — but I held off a few weeks until Matt got home from Afghanistan.
So I wonder if maybe that’s why it takes him a little longer to catch up to other kids his age. But either way, I’ll feel a lot better once real words start coming out of that cute little mouth!
My first was a late talker, but once he started, he never stopped, and he’s 21! He was able to make himself undertood, so that was good but he really didn’t start talking & telling stories until about 3 1/2. It sounds like Ben can communicate his needs & interests and that’s the important ‘milestone’.
That is definitely reassuring!