Baby Babble DVDs for Kids with Speech Delays

Recently, someone sent us a package in the mail that included a pretty purple gift box full of snacks and treats for me, a book about Autism, and a speech enhancing DVD for Adam called “Baby Babble.” (By the way the package was sent anonymously and I would love to know who to thank, so thank you if you are reading this!!). I had never heard of “Baby Babble” before, and was curious about it so I put it on for Adam and watched to see what he would do.

The first few times he was very intent on it. Baby Babble is very similar to the “Baby Einstein” DVDs in that it is colorful, has music and is fast-paced. After seeing how much he liked it, I decided to start putting it on once a day as a “Speech Therapy” at home kind of thing. The more he has watched it, the more he has learned to do the things on it. He has learned a few sounds, facial expressions, and he even signs with it! I am amazed at how every day he seems to learn more from it.

Soon after, I decided to go on Amazon to check out more about the DVD. I found out that there are two more volumes of the Baby Babble series. I am very excited to get the next two so we can work on those too. Another cool thing is that this first volume is for a wide age range, 3-30 months!

A Little About the DVD
If you go on Amazon, you are going to see a wide variety of reviews on this DVD – most of them great five star reviews, but some of them not so great. The DVD is very low budget and that gets a lot of people upset. Most of the scenes are toys that spin or make music, the speech pathologists using toys, and the speech pathologists signing, or making noises and sounds. You can tell it’s done in their home, and at times you can see the string or the hands “behind the camera.”

I say all that to say this: my son doesn’t care about any of that he’s just a kid and I’m sure he doesn’t notice. It’s not supposed to be anything crazy, it’s supposed to be simple and very much like you would get at a speech therapy lesson. Adam has been attending speech therapy since he was 18 months old and I have seen the different methods they have used.

This DVD is right on and I like that he can have speech therapy right in our living room. He has interacted more with this video at home then he has ever done in an actual speech therapy session and that means more to me than anything! A lot of speech delays are caused by something called “low tone,” which relates to the muscle tone in the mouth and cheeks. Adam has this problem and because of that he needs exercises that help to strengthen those muscles. Blowing, sticking out your tongue, and funny funny facial expressions are all things done on this DVD and are great for developing muscle tone in the face. Adam copies those as well and I know in the past he was physically unable to do things like that because his muscle tone was so low. Through therapy it’s gotten better, and I am thrilled that this DVD works on those things as well.

At the end of the DVD, the therapists give you tips and tricks to help your child learn how to talk. There is also a section for signs so that you can learn along with your child. These tips and suggestions have been very helpful to me, especially as a mother of a child with speech delays.

As many of you know Adam was diagnosed with Autism and SPD recently and speech delay is a big part of that. “Up” has been his only word for several months now and it’s so encouraging to see him interacting and doing sounds and signs with this video. I think this is going to be a big help for him and have already told his speech therapist about it. You can also find out more about the DVDs from their website: www.talkingchild.com.

Here’s a video of my son interacting with the DVD!