Babies start communicating almost as soon as they are born—be it the first cry, gurgling noise, cooing, all are the ways babies tell you something, mostly what they need. In the initial few months, a baby communicates non-verbally. However, by the sixth month, the baby starts communicating verbally. As a new parent,it is only natural to be eager to hear your baby’s first word.However, with babies,verbal communication does not mean full words or sentences. It still means more sounds and gestures.
0-3 Months: Babies communicate through crying from the moment of their birth. They cry when they feel hungry, have a tummy ache or are sleepy. Crying is the only way for them to tell you how they feel. Around two months of age, they also start cooing and smiling at their mother’s voice. They also use different crying pitches for different reasons. For example, they cry the loudest when hungry but may cry mildly when bored.
3-6 Months: Rudimentary language develops during this stage. They start understanding and responding more to your instructions. They laugh when you play peek-a-boo with them. They squeal with delight when you make funny faces. In this stage, they communicate also by blowing bubbles in the mouth. Talk to them while maintaining eye contact and they may respond by blowing raspberries. This is a good stage to introduce picture books to them. Also, expect your baby to coo more in response to your or any other caregiver’s voice. They would also cook their toys.
6-9 Months: At this stage, babies usually start uttering a combination of vowels and consonants. They can put together two syllables. It appears more like they are babbling incomprehensible words such as ‘gaga’,’baba’, ‘ma ma’, ‘pa pa’ etc. As many languages use “ma” as the noun for mother and ‘baba’,‘dada’ or ‘papa’ for father, there is a high possibility that you would hear them call you by that for the first time during this phase. They also try to copy certain words that you speak to them.
9-12 Months: Known as the ‘jargon’ stage, babies add more sounds to their vocabulary. They are not necessarily proper words but are more of two to three syllables put together. Some of these may sound quite similar to the real words we use. For example, they may say ‘booboo’ to describe their favorite bear or ‘moomoo’ to meanmilk. This is the stage when they know their name and respond to it when you call them. They also understand the instructions better. They may use the word ‘no’ to express displeasure and nod their head when they agree to something. The frequency of their babbling increases and you may hear them do it in most of their awake time.
Every child has a different learning curve and not all babies start speaking at the same time. Some may pick up words earlier than others, while others may start speaking only by the time they turn one year old. For some babies, it may take even longer. In case you have any concerns about your little one’s speech development, go by your mother’s instinct and consult the pediatrician during your child’s next check-up.
Author Bio: Prapti Chauhan is a freelance content writer by her profession and has over 11 years of enriching experience into blogging and article writing. Over the years, she has gained popularity as a content creator who specialises on topics such as pregnancy, parenting and new-born childcare. However, she is also writing articles on baby stem cells, benefits of stem cell banking, cord blood banking, stem cell therapy and research.