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It’s one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a parent – you’re trying to get your baby’s attention, and despite calling his name numerous times, he seems to completely ignore you.
Unfortunately, Ignoring parents’ calls may be a sign of autism or developmental delay. Yet there’s a lot you can do to support communication and bonding with your baby at the same time as seeking medical support.
In this post, I’ll cover the importance of your baby responding to their name and some of the reasons why your baby might be ignoring you when you call his name.
I’ll also talk about what you should do and share a couple of tips on how to teach your baby to respond to his name.
When Do Babies Know Their Name?
Most typically developing babies will know and respond to their name between 4 and 5 months and nearly all typically developing babies will do so by 9 months. If your Baby is not responding to their name by 12 months or you are concerned visit your pediatrician.
Importance Of Baby Responding To Their Name
Responding to their name is a sign of early language development and socialization. Moreover, it helps them understand that they’re a separate individual and helps them form a sense of self.
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Generally, babies start responding to their name when they are 9 months old, but some babies would start when they are five to six months old.
Talking to your baby and giving them lots of face to face contact and cuddles from birth is important to help them recognise your voice and feel safe and secure. Its never too early to start reading to your baby, if they can hear normally they will enjoy being cuddled up with you and listening to the sound of your voice or simply being close and looking at the pictures.
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Babies learning to respond to their name can be identified as an important skill for a strong base to develop most of the other skills. These are:
- Develop attention: If someone calls by name that means the baby makes special attention and strives to start communication.
- Comprehension of language: Understanding and increasing ability to gather a lot of information.
- Expressive language: Baby’s communication skills to share wishes and needs with others
- Social interactions
- Self-regulations and safety: Developing an awareness of self-safety according to the frequency of name-calling.
Why Baby Ignores You When You Call His Name
If your baby does not respond when you call his name, it may be a sign of some kind of irregularity or health problem.
However it’s important to remember that some babies take longer to develop language skills or take time to adapt to the language style and vocabulary hence they take longer to respond.
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Babies have not yet learned to associate their name with themselves. If your baby responds to your voice, such as turning their head, looking up and starts to mirror mouth movements and sounds but they don’t seem to respond to their name differently, they most likely have just not understood that they are hearing their name. In which case keep cuddling, smiling, singing and engaging in eye contact and using your babies name when you talk to them.
Here are some of the other reasons why they ignore their name.
When to see a doctor
Although babies develop at different rates, all babies need physical touch comfort, to hear the caring consistant voice of a primary caregiver, and to have lots of face to face time with that person.
Without having these needs met a baby is likely to be less responsive to having their name called. SO, the most important thing to do is to meet the baby’s needs in this way.
At around 7 – 9 months most babies will start to recognise and respond to their own name. If they are not doing this by the age of 1 it’s important to get them checked out by a doctor.
However, see your doctor sooner than this if your baby doesn’t respond to your voice or other noises. As they would ordinarily do this from the first few days showing a startle reflex and from about two months show an interest in different tones of voice.
Attention Seeking Behavior
Older children who have previously responded to their own name may play games to seek additional attention or to continue with a desired activity.
Distractions And Other Stimuli
If he is engaged in some kind of activity or is in a stimulating environment, he may not hear or respond to their name or be so focused on what they are doing to respond. If this is the case get eye contact be close to your child, and then use their name.
If your older child is on a digital device such as a phone, tablet or watching tv. Use boundaries that they can predict before giving an instruction.
For example, go close to your child so they can see your face pause the programme and Say ” after this has finished it’s Dinner time” or “playtime.”
Avoid trying to talk to your toddler or young child about something when there is background noise or if they are watching a digital device, and give clear boundaries to the time they are on devises so that they can hear you clearly and mirror your voice and expressions.
Don’t expect your toddler to respond to their name when they are very involved in something unless you are right in front of them they often simply cannot hear you.
What To Do If Baby Ignores Me When I Call Him
Understanding the situation is very important and should be your first step. You need to carefully examine and understand why they are not responding to your calls.
Are they distracted by other noises, have you spent enough time cuddling, holding and in face- to- face time with them? Do you regularly talk to them using their name? Do they respond to other noises? Are they old enough yet to know they have a name?
If they don’t respond to your voice or other noises at any age see your doctor.
If your baby is over 7 months and not showing signs yet of knowing their name, use their name more, and increase the amount of face to face time you have with your baby free from digital and other distractions, play games, sing songs, cuddle lots, explore silly voices and different tones of voice and USE THEIR NAME LOTS.
If they are 1 year old and not responding to their name see your doctor and get support and keep following the advice above and it will help to give your child the best chance of language and social development regardless of any potential developmental delay.
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Here are some stimulating exercises you can do with your baby:
Always Use Their Name
Keep eye contact and use the baby’s name to them regularly.
This exercise stimulates the baby’s attention to the parents. They will try to understand the body language of their parents when calling his name.
Finger rhymes and songs are great because they support face to face interactions, you use difference tones and pitches of voice, they are repetitive, so your baby gets to predict what happens next which makes them feel safe and secure.
Check out Miss Rachel on youtube and watch it with your baby and copy the songs with your baby without a device. Miss Rachel is fabulous to give you a minute to rest but she can also give you some great ideas to interact with your baby. Your baby needs to see the face of a primary care giver and know and hear their voice, so make sure your baby is getting enough time with you.
Finger puppets can also be great props to encourage play, and help your baby communicate that they want you to play. Use finger puppets that link to songs such as five little ducks.
You can give the little ducks names and point to yourself with your given name “mommy/daddy etc” this helps a baby know what a name is. Don’t worry if you don’t think you are a very good singer your baby will think you are a pop star regardless!
Use Positive Reinforcement
If the baby makes a positive and mild response, you need to make positive reinforcement to encourage the baby’s attempt by clapping and smiling and cuddling.
This encouragement will enhance a baby’s feeling of safety and their social and language ability regardless of any disability, delay or medical condition. SO even if you are seeking medical support don’t stop making attempts to play and have fun with your baby.
Practice Name Recognition Games
Playing games that incorporate the baby’s name can be enjoyable for both the baby and the parent. Repeatedly hearing their name can be surprising and exciting for the baby, as they learn to associate their name with positive experiences.
This can also help the baby to feel proud and special when others pronounce their name with surprise.
Increase The Distance And Distractions
As the baby becomes more familiar with their name, gradually increase the distance and distractions when calling it. This will help them to become accustomed to hearing their name in different environments and situations, such as in a noisy or crowded room, or at a distance.
Moreover, this prepares the baby to respond to their name in a variety of normal home and outdoor environments.
Be Patient
Keep in mind that he might still be learning to process and understand the world around him. Give them the time and space to do so.
If he still isn’t responding, consider consulting a pediatrician to rule out any underlying developmental or medical issues.
Quick Summary
If your baby is ignoring you when you call them consider whether or not you regularly hold and talk to your baby using their name. If you haven’t or feel you can do more make a firm effort to hold, cuddle and talk and play with your baby more and see if they change in a few weeks.
Does your baby respond to your voice? If they don’t at all seek medical support and continue to cuddle, talk and to and play with your baby.
Be consistent and patient. The exercises outlined can help support baby’s development gradually, however they take time and even if there is a developmental and medical issue they are vital to help your baby develop at a rate that best for them.
If you have a toddler that has started to ignore their name, consider what distractions are present, what boundaries you have with devices or why they might be seeking attention in this way.
Ultimately you will have to consult a pediatrician if you baby doesn’t show signs of responding to their name by the age of 1.