4 minute read
When should babies start talking
When should babies start talking? By Andrew Campbell
During the first three years of life, a baby’s brain is developing rapidly which is why this period contains so many critical milestones for their speech development. Interestingly, much of your baby's speech development depends on your ‘baby talk’ skills as well as those of your baby!
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The first ‘baby talk’ is non-verbal and happens soon after birth. Babies grimace, cry, and squirm to express a range of emotions and physical needs, from fear to hunger to frustration. It is important to listen to your baby’s different cries, work out what they mean and respond accordingly.
At the age of 3 months, you’ll notice your baby listening to your voice, watching your face as you talk, and turning towards other voices, sounds and music.
Before babies start talking, they are gathering information. That information eventually becomes the foundation of their first baby talk. And the best way for parents to help their babies make it to those first words – and thrive with language development in the months after – is to talk to them.
At around 6 months of age, you’ll hear your baby begin to babble and
coo, as they play around with different sounds.
This ‘baby talk’ is happy, gentle, repetitive, singsong vocalisation sounds similar the world over, despite the language of a baby’s parents. After 9 months of age, babies can say and understand a few basic words like ‘no’ and ‘bye-bye.’ They also may begin to use a wider range of consonant sounds and tones as they try out sounds and find their own voice. Babies may also be able to point to people, objects, and body parts you name for them. They repeat words or sounds they hear you say, like the last word in a sentence, but they often leave off endings or beginnings of words. For example, they may say ‘daw’ for ‘dog’ or ‘noonoo's’ for ‘noodles.’
Most babies say their first words sometime around their first birthday - possibly ‘mama’ and ‘dada.’ Now, importantly, they know what they are saying. They should also respond to - or at least understand, if not obey - short, one-step requests like: ‘Please put that down.’ Over the next six months, your baby will start to use language in a more recognisable way and you may start to hear them talking. You might find that initially only you and a few of your baby’s favourite people can make out what they’re saying though! By the age of 2 years, babies can string together short phrases of two to four words, such as ‘Mummy bye
The more words children hear, the more they learn.
Here are some fun things to do together to encourage your baby’s speech and language development:
Chat to your baby about the things you’re doing, even if you think they’re boring – for example, ‘Daddy’s vacuuming the carpet to get rid of the dust that makes you sneeze.’
Repeat your baby’s attempts at words to encourage a two-way conversation. For example, if she says ‘mama’ you could say ‘mama’ back to her. Build on your toddler’s words. For example, when baby says: ‘train,’ you say: ‘Yes, it’s a big red train.’
Show interest in your baby’s babbling and talking by smiling and looking him in the eye.
Respond to and talk about your baby’s interests. For example, if your baby starts playing with a toy train, you could say ‘Toot, toot.’
Read, tell stories, share songs and nursery rhymes with your baby.
Praise your baby’s efforts to talk. For example, if your baby points to a dog and names it, you could say: ‘Well done for pointing out the dog, Georgie!’
Infants all develop at a different pace, but if you're worried about your child's speech or language development, talk to your GP or health visitor. If necessary, they will refer your child to your local speech and language therapy department.
bye’ or ‘me milk.’ They're learning that words mean more than objects like ‘cup’ - they also mean abstract ideas like ‘mine.’
Over the course of the next year, your baby’s vocabulary expands rapidly, and ‘make-believe’ play spurs an understanding of symbolic and abstract language like ‘now,’ feelings like ‘sad,’ and spatial concepts like ‘in.’
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