Common First Words Your Baby Says

Initially, the baby’s communication includes a lot of babbling, cooing or playing with sound before they learn a real language. This is commonly referred to as ‘baby talk’, which is similar to babies all over the world.

Learning to talk is a milestone for a baby. The baby first words will usually occur during the first three years of his/her life, when the brain is rapidly developing. This is a critical time for the baby’s speech development depending on their ‘baby talk’ skills.

In the beginning, the baby talk is non-verbal and they communicate using cries, grimaces, smiles and squirms to express their wide range of emotions like fear, hunger and frustration. Mostly, the baby first words are between 11 to 14 months of age, when the tongue and lip gain dexterity and also the brain matches with name of the objects.

SIGNS TO SPOT A HIGH NEED BABY

The baby learns to talk from the time it is in the womb. The baby first words can be learnt faster when the parents communicate with the child at a very early stage. This is done when the parents talk to the baby, read books, sing, babble, listen to the baby and take turns in the conversation. Following are the milestones in baby talk.

At 3 months: At this stage, the baby watches and listens to you when you are talking, turns their head to any music or noise that they hear around the house. They prefer music or voice that they have heard in the womb. They would be cooing by the end of this stage.

At 6 months: At this stage, they would be responding to their names and also baby talk would include babbling with different sounds like ‘ba-ba’. They also recognise their native language and begin to understand the tone of your voice to tell if you are happy or upset.

At 12 months: By now, they will usually respond to or at least understand short one word. They will be saying ‘mama’ and ‘dadda’ and will know what these words are used for. Other common baby first words are ‘no’ and ‘bye-bye’.

At 18 months: The vocabulary of the baby would have grown to at least 10 simple words; they can also point to objects, people and parts of their body by the end of this stage. They will be able to repeat most of the sounds and words that have been spoken to them.

At 2 years: The baby first words and short sentences are formed at this stage. The baby will be able to make small phrases like ‘Mama Bye-Bye’. They have gone from learning the name of the objects to learning abstract ideas. The initial baby talk stage ends by this stage.

At 3 years: By this time, the vocabulary of the baby has increased rapidly and they try and understand symbolic and abstract language. They will be able to convey their feelings and needs in proper language by connecting four or more words.