could our grandson have hearing problems?

littlerock

We are becoming concerned about our baby grandson who is nearly one year old. The family live in the States at present so we do not see them very often but ever since he was born he has been a very clingy baby.He will not be parted from his mother at all and if she leaves the room as soon as he realises she has left he starts crying .. he is nearly a year old now and has been like it since he was born He can just about be left with his father for brief periods but he never laughs rarely smiles and the only sounds he makes are when he cries.

It was a very straightforward pregnancy and birth and my dil is a very good mother. He has not had any illnesses and has had all the usual developmental tests and physically he is doing fine for his age, he crawls, he can stand, i bought him a fisher price playmat and he played on that quite happily. He has an older sister who was alway lively and talkative and enjoyed being read to etc from an early age. He is quite different.

They were here for a week last december and my sister commented to me that he did not laugh or smile and seemed behind in his social skills. I mentioned this in a roundabout way to my dil who said they thought he was a serious and fussy baby and very demanding. My son hinted they were concerned about how anxious he was.

We saw them again last week as they were passing through the uk and became more alarmed. My husband now commented that something did not seem right and we wondered if he might be deaf. I know he has all his developmental tests and has passed them to date. He does not have temper tantrums and he seems alert enough just very serious. but we would have expected him to be babbling by now. Would these tests pick up a hearing defect in a very young baby?

I do not want to worry his parents unnecessarily if I am just being an over anxious grandparent. Does anyone else have experience of a similar child?