Ok..since you were all so helpful with my developmental worries yesterday in regard to my son not yet crawling or even trying to as of yet, I wondered if any of you had experience with your child grunting as a form of communication. My son says dada and occasional baba's but never mama. His babbling comes and go's but when he's tired or wants something, he grunts repeatedly like a grumpy old man. When he's nearing nap time, the grunting can go on for a good 40 or more minutes when he's complaining about everything I'm putting him down to play with. It's really one of the most annoying sounds to me because he does it every day. My mother-in-law commented that she'd never heard a child grunt before so of course that made me concerned. My question...did any of your kids do this prior to talking? He doesn't babble as much as it sounds like he should, but he does babble and his hearing is VERY good. He can hear my bracelet jingle across the entire house and complain until he can get to me. Thoughts?

By Jann on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 12:04 pm:

We used to call that the "hellen keller' stage. ;)

By Trina~moderator on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 12:08 pm:

Sounds normal to me!

A great web site:

Speech and Language Development

By Mrsheidi on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 12:18 pm:

PamT is a member here and she should be able to give you some speech advice. My son is only 7 months, but I have heard the grunting at that age from my nephew. It does sound normal!

By Chicagorn2 on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 01:28 pm:

Thank you guys! I'm really glad I found this board yesterday as it's helped to alleviate some of my worries. I especially like Jann's analogy that this is the "Helen Keller stage" since it's obviously been common enough with other parents that they dubbed it that name. If this grunting is a precursor to how much my son is going to talk, holy cow am I in for trouble soon! ;) Thanks so much guys!

By Jann on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 02:49 pm:

Glad I could help!
I have had friend have great luck teaching their babies to sign. Baby Signs is a good book.

By Imamommyx4 on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 03:36 pm:

I've read where it helps to verbalize all of his grunts and they will eventually get passed it. Like if he is grunting for cereal, don't say 'do you want this?'. Say 'do you want the cheerios or the Tony Tiger cereal?' Don't make a big deal to him about the grunts. That just gives them power to continue it. And the signing helps alot of parents.
I haven't had any grunters, but I have had them in my toddler classes at church up to the age of 4. I get frustrated in the short time I spend with them when I can't get them to do anything but grunt. So I sympathize with your frustration. It's not uncommon. There's probably nothing wrong with your child. It's a phase and they will outgrow it.

But do be on the lookout for other signs. If you make really loud sounds behind them with no reaction or calling them by name gets no reaction, you might want to get his hearing checked.

But for the most part, it's probably just a phase.

By Chicagorn2 on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 03:49 pm:

Thanks for the feedback. I don't have the slightest concern that he has hearing issues. In fact, we've nicknamed him "nosey Rosey" because if he hears ANYTHING in the house that he's not directly involved in, he's craning his neck in the direction of the noise to find out exactly what it is. Hearing isn't the issue in this case. The grunting, however, is tough to take on his particularly fussy days. He only seems to do it when he wants something or doesn't like whatever the current situation is. When he's happy and fed and perfectly content...then he does the baba's and gaga's (although still no mama ) I actually bought the signing book but never tried it. I would like to believe the grunting would pass before the time it would take me to teach him to sign. Great feedback about verbalizing the grunting. I actually started doing that just this morning. With each spoonful I feed him I say "apple?" and things like that. My thinking is that if he can even learn random words to help express what he wants, it may alleviate the grunting sooner.

By Jann on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 04:01 pm:

Great idea about putting words to the grunting! I had forgotten that I did that. I remember how hard it was to learn to make a running commentary on everything I did and talk out loud all the time.

By Imamommyx4 on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 09:51 pm:

My dd is 4 and I still sort of do that now just so there is not miscommunication. I also do it to keep down fussiness because she has control within my boundaries. Like I won't accept uh-huh for a yes or no answer. I ask for a yes/no so I don't do the wrong thing. And I don't ask open ended questions that give her the world to find an answer when I'm in a hurry. I don't ask what she wants to wear, I ask her if she wants to wear jeans and Barbie shirt or purple outfit today. I have control of the situation but she has control within what I'll accept. I don't ask what she wants for breakfast. If I'm in a hurry I give a choice of waffle or cereal. If it is a stay at home day, I'll offer pancakes or eggs. I read that somewhere when we were having a lot of fits and started it on her. The books say that even very small children want some control of their lives so I give her some.
Raising kids is a challenge, but the hugs and kisses make it all worth it.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 11:23 pm:

My kids definitely went through a stage when everything was "eheh!" I was so happy when they could finally indicate Yes or No, since it was the end of the "eh eh" stage!

By Kim on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 11:43 pm:

Kayla communicated largley with sounds. SOme were grunts, blowing, sinus noises, lots of things. After a while I knew what they all meant. They weren't usually an answer to a question though, they were feelings or emotions. I also have a child at daycare that does this. Both Kayla and S. could talk on time. Kayla, to this day, has a hard time expressing herself in words, especially if frustrated. She still uses noises that express her frustration. She is very intelligent, so she is not lacking the skills. I liked when she did this. I also bonded to S at work very quickly because I responded to her with the same noises and have learned what they represent. It was really funny. The first time she made her noises I did them back to her and she looked at me like "HEY! you know this???" I'm sorry it irritates you! Maybe I am weird, I always thought it was neat that we could communicate in a base kind of way. I bet it won't last much longer.

By Palmbchprincess on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 11:44 pm:

My kids had their "twin talk", and grunting, but didn't really blossom verbally until well past a year. Like Dawn mentioned, they would gesture and make an "Eh!" noise when they wanted something. My DS will still occasionally do it, so frustrating! They were definitely late talkers, and are still not totally up to par, but are not seriously behind now. (They are 2.5) Putting words to their grunts definitely improved their verbal skills, also trying to coax them to say something they wanted. The only weird grunt my DS made around that age was a clucking sound with his tongue, he did it almost non-stop!

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:33 am:

Once they knew words, I didn't tolerate grunting anymore! LOL! Sometimes, it was like they forgot or were too lazy to talk! I would say, "Use your words!"

By Chicagorn2 on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 02:23 pm:

Kim,
I think the reason it can get so irritating is he does it non-stop on his fussy days. On those days, NOTHING makes him happy and the grunting goes into double-time. It isn't quite so noticeable on his good days. Unless, of course, I'm not spooning food into his mouth as fast as he'd like me to!! I've even incorporate giving him a Cheerio between each spoonful of food because it keeps him occupied enough that I have time to take a bite of my own food without hearing the grunting. I'm glad so many of you have heard of this. My mother-in-law acted like she thought something was really wrong since she'd never heard a child grunt so much. I just figure he must have a LOT to say and just hasn't figured out HOW to say it yet! Thank you all so much!