The first time my son Mak said ‘ma-ma’, I was elated. He was 8 months old.One day, I thought I’d sneak in on him and say ‘peek-a-boo’. He surprised me instead by blutting out, ‘MA-MA’.

Today, he is 22 months and still hoo-la-balooing away. Yes! I have seen it all- the stages of his development from week one, till now, as predicted by the brand-new-mum magazines and DIY baby experts. What the book didn’t say however, was that some babies would choose to hum nursery rhymes over talking. This, I have learned from experience. Mak has not said ‘ma-ma’ again since he was 8 months. He has said nothing else, but…..

At first, when he was just a few months old, our mode of communication with him had developed from watching each other smile, to ‘coos’ and ‘aahhs’, to eventually understanding his different cries. When stuck between the TV stand and the long green couch, he’d give a high pitched scream. High enough to get us running out, straight to his rescue. When hungry, he’d give the low ‘nya nya nya’ cry, as if he didn’t mean it. Likewise, we knew when he was happy and liked something because he always gave a hearty laugh.

In her book, ‘Speech and Language Development in Infants and Young Children,’ Caroline Bowen writes, ‘Children learn at different rates. Some are fast language learners and some are slow, so it is best not to compare one child’s language development with another’s. The important thing to watch is that language development proceeds steadily, not whether it is fast or slow’. Unfortunately, some parents unconsciously still compare their children’s language development with that of friends. This is very understandable, as there is a misconception that children of the same age, should develop at the same rate.

I sometimes fall into the compare-your-child-with-friends category of parents. I remember an episode in Church, where a group of children of similar age as my Mak, touched objects and named them. They would all chant together, ‘CAP’ (for cup), ‘YEYOWW’ (for yellow), tummy, KA (for cat) and all the while my little angel, sat under the table saying, ‘Uh Owww’. At fiirst I wondered if I was the only parent whose baby at 22 months still couldn’t say a word. But then I realised that like every  activity I had seen him improve in, like bringing me things when I asked him to, he would start to talk in his own time.