12.5 month old daughter not responding to her name

Post Reply New Topic

Hi all,

I am here to ask for your advice. My 12.5 month old daughter is not responding to her name. If we call her name 10 times, may be she responds once. I think the time she responded may just be because of the sound and not because she understands that we are calling her. I am sure she doesn't have problem with hearing although I will request her doctor to check her hearing.

Here are some of the worrisome signs that I observed:
1. Not responding to her name when being called
2. Only say two words "ChaCha", "Ma", and only use them a few times a day. She makes meaningless sounds like "Arrggg"
3. She is really active, non stop until she sleeps. When she hears music or sees cartoons on TV, she would in a sitting position jumps and flaps her arms sometimes for a few minutes (repetitive motion?)
4. She loves watching cartoons and jumps up and down when we turn on the TV. But she doesn't protest when we turn it off. She just accepts it.
5. Sometimes she can play by herself for more than one hour. Sometimes she yelled after being left alone for too long.

Here are some good signs that I observed:
1. She loves to play peek-a-boo, like when I hide behind a blanket, she would jump into the blanket and laugh and looked into my eyes. If I run and hide in the closet, she would quickly crawled into the closet and laughing while doing it.
2. She makes eye contact with us and strangers. Although she might turn away from strangers and acts shy. But she would make eye contact with most people she know like an average kid.

Right now she can walk 10 steps unassisted and not holding onto anything. But she usually falls at the end or sits down. She still move by crawling most of the time.

I am taking her to the Pediatrician for the 1 year check up this Friday. But I am worrying too much after reading the symptoms. Please give me some advice.

Many thanks,
John

an average child will start to walk and speak their first word at one year according to my pediatrician friend.

I don't know the significance of not responding to her name.

You are worrying too much.

I am pretty sure it is normal for babies to do this when they are excited. I don't think it is a sign of autism unless they do it frequently throughout the day, when there is no particular reason for them to be doing it. (I say this mainly from casual observing other people's babies; maybe someone else on the forum who has more experience with babies than I have can confirm this.)

Nothing in your post sounds like a big red flag to me. It sounds like she is developing right on time as far walking, babbling, and saying her first few words. You should probably mention to your pediatrician that she does not respond to her name most of the time and likes to play by herself a lot. Also, if you think she is hyperactive, you might mention that, too. However, I wouldn't stress yourself out too much about it. She sounds like a very cute, happy little girl.

Forget about the kids name and calling that, she knows her name, and is probably sick of you calling her to check she can hear you.
Try ringing a bell, clapping your hands or playing music.
Chances are she just wants to be stimulated and interact with you, and calling out her name is one sided and not very interesting if she's already thinking of other things.
Just because she's young and can't communicate so well yet, doesn't mean she isn't taking it all in.
I have memories of before my 1st birthday, so clearly I was aware of my surroundings then, if restricted in how to communicate.
I would have been bored stiff if someone kept calling my name to see if I was listening.
Stop thinking too much about it, and just focus on something else.

Have you had her hearing tested?

[Moved from General Autism Discussion to Parents' Discussion]

Here is an online screening tool that can be used from 6-24 months: http://forms.brookespublishing.com/store/books/wetherby-csbsdp/CSBSDP_Checklist.pdf

This is the only one in your list I might be concerned about. Bring it up at her 12 month visit.


I believe this is within typical norms at 12 months. I found this online for 7-12 months speech milestones:

From: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/01.htm
Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds such as "tata upup bibibibi"
Uses speech or noncrying sounds to get and keep attention
Uses gestures to communication (waving, holding arms to be picked up)
Imitates different speech sounds
Has one or two words (hi, dog,dada, mama) around first birthday, although sounds may not be clear


A few minutes of flapping when she is excited is unlikely to count as repetitive motion. It's not just about having any particular red flag symptom, it's when there are multiple red flags that you need to worry. My NT daughter when through a brief phase of lining up toys, and then moved on.


This sounds normal. It's good that she's noticing her environment, and good that she can transition to another activity when you turn the TV off.

Many thanks for your advice. I hope I am overreacting but I want to be alert and ready to get help for my daughter. In addition to the things I listed above, she doesn't pay much attention when I and my wife try teach her things.

Yes, I will request her doctor to test her hearing this coming Friday. And possibly request him to refer her to a specialist for evaluation. From what I know so far, I think early intervention will reduce her problems if she has it.

That's because she is a year old. She hasn't really formed an attention span yet.
You should look up normal brain development, lots of the things you are worried about are 100% within norms.

girl_incognito,
I am a bit of a hypochodriac so I hope it is just my active imagination. In the past I have imagined myself having diabetes and heart disease but after testings I turned out to be fine. Just b/c I am a hypochondriac doesn't mean my daughter can't have autism. I am so anxious to see what her doctor says.

What kinds of things are you trying to teach her? She's far too young to engage in parent-directed learning.

Kids at this age are in rapid development but each child develops differently. While some are rapidly developing speech, others are growing in other ways. Unless you see multiple, major, red flags, you could be hindering her development if you are pushing her when she should be naturally developing in areas you aren't seeing. She needs your unconditional love. And play. Keep your eyes open, and a list of your observations so you are ready if those are needed, but try to relax and enjoy this stage of her life. I could be wrong, but it seems to me this is way too early for early intervention. If she is using only a few words at age 2 1/2 or flapping her arms at age 8, then I'd get her checked out. But actually everything you wrote seems quite normal.

She's 12 months old. Most kids that are aren't even saying any words yet. She's probably a bit advanced, certainly not delayed.

Normal range for saying first words is 12-18 months.

My younger son did not really say any words at all until more like 18 months, and his doc was not concerned because he had a lot of receptive language (i.e. understood most of what we were saying).

Also, they don't have to have actual 'words', but if they are using the same sound consistently for the same thing, that counts as a word.

The average age a kid starts talking is 13 months, and you are still not delayed if you are not speaking yet at 13 months. These are just the norms.

Babbling is a good sign.

Just adding: I don't think any of us mean to squash out your concerns, and certainly you should speak to your doc about them. But, at this age it would be hard to tell given your list anyway, I think. Most kids that age have 'selective hearing', she probably just doesn't feel like responding to you. Test her with something she really wants to hear, like 'juice' or any other thing she would be super interested in hearing. If she likes tv, try 'elmo', or whatever character she likes. If she responds, that's a really good sign.

Many really bright kids start speaking late. As far as your list, she doesn't seem to have missed any of her milestones. Also, kids that age tend to be super, duper active. There was a study where they had athletes try and maintain the same activity level as toddlers, and the toddlers beat them.

It's also really normal to have a lot of concerns for your child. Especially if you know other kids their age who seem more 'mature', but a lot of these things (talking, walking) just have to do with personality and willingness at this age.

Good luck.

I think you probably worry too much, but that's normal. We thought our child would never talk. Won't shut up now. Children vary a lot. You might want to check for hearing issues. One of the relatives had a similar problem and lack of response to sound can be associated with not hearing... (Which is problematic, because not hearing stuff means that speech is harder to pick up...)

--Argyle