When will baby speak ?

01 April 2023

As with walking, talking is something that goes relatively unnoticed to be taken into account in a baby's first year. 

Most use one or more words that make sense (even if they are mispronounced) by the end of the year.
However, you have probably heard the saying "Baby who walks early, talks later", which suggests that while babies are ahead in their physical development, they are less so in their language development.

Babies don't always follow this rule:

         ◆ some will have a few words and be trotting along by the end of the year

         ◆ others will still be working on both skills, and that's fine

Although your baby may not be talking by his first birthday, his language development and communication should be well underway. In fact, he's been communicating with you in some form since birth, even if all he did was scream for the first three months. Even those cries had meaning – the hunger cry was different from the sleep cry – and if you listen to baby talk experts, newborns actually use their own lingo to give you a clue as to what they want before they cry.
For example, a "neh" sound means he's hungry, while a "heh" sound means "I'm uncomfortable". 

 

At around six months of age, baby makes sounds such as grunts, "agoo", laughs, squeaks and chants. He may even say 'mama' or 'papa', but don't get carried away: it has no meaning at this stage and could just as easily be 'vava', 'yaya' or 'baba', depending on which consonant he currently prefers. They also learn to communicate non-verbally by smiling, waving, pointing, and showing that they are hungry or full,

In fact, starting to talk at around one year of age is the end point of the language development that baby has been working on for the past six months, and he understands much more than his few words suggest. 

At six months, Baby probably knew his own name and would turn to look at you when you spoke.
By eight months, he was probably crying if you sternly said “no”.
By the end of the year, he should be pointing to a picture of a book when you ask, “Where's the cat?” (as long as there's a cat in the picture – don't be too tricky); he should be responding to simple requests such as “Go get your ball” or “Can I have that?”; and when you ask “Where's your nose?”, he should be showing he understands by answering, “In the middle of my face, where it always is, Mummy.” Oh, no … we're getting carried away, he'll just put his finger on it ;o)

 

Encourage language development by reading, singing and talking to your baby. The more words he hears, the better. Tell him the names of objects, people and body parts, and point out things when you're out and about. Tell her what food is on the spoon that is going into her mouth. Make a comment while you are doing mundane tasks such as changing a nappy. It helps to keep things simple by using one-syllable words. 

Baby may start out using his own words for familiar things, but they are often far removed from the actual word. "Ba-ba' can mean bottle, sheep, ball, or all three (last I heard, 'na' meant no less than six different things to a child). You will soon learn to recognise what he means – you will probably be able to tell if he wants his bottle rather than a toy.
Don't be tempted to adopt his word. Instead, use the appropriate word in your response.
For example: “OK, Mummy will get your bottle”.

If you adopt his language, he will never learn!
And one day he will be totally embarrassed at the bar when he asks for a ba-ba of beer…

 

 

 

MyNursery 2022, adapted and translated from the free text Wells Erica 2010 "The survival guide for rookie moms