When Do Babies Start Talking?
Few baby milestones are as thrilling as your child’s first words, so it’s no wonder parents eagerly wonder, ‘When do babies start to talk?’. Read on to learn about the stages of your baby learning to talk, from babbling to those first words and beyond.
When Do Babies Say Their First Words?
It’s impossible to know exactly when, but sooner or later – usually around your baby’s first birthday – two or three baby words may start to emerge from all the babbling. Your baby’s first words might be ‘ma-ma’ or ‘da-da’ for example, but it’s also common for these first words to include something else like the name of a family pet, a familiar object like ‘drink’ or a favourite toy. Around this time, much of your child’s communication will still be babbling or other cues like laughing, crying, pushing and pointing, but your baby will probably understand much more than you think, and they will be learning new words from one week to the next, opening up a whole new form of communication for your little one.
When Do Babies Start Babbling?
Babies often enjoy repeating the same sounds over and over again. This kind of ‘babbling’ or ‘baby talk’ may sound similar to speech, with rising and falling intonation as your child experiments with their voice. Babbling often starts sometime after around 6 months of age, when your baby learns to put different sounds together to make ‘sentences’ – for example by combining vowel sounds like ‘ooh’ or ‘aah’ combined with a consonant (a hard sound, like ‘k’ or ‘m’) to make a ‘ka-ka’ or ‘ma-ma’ sound. But that’s not all that’s going on: At around 6 to 9 months old your baby may start to understand things you say in certain situations. For example, your child may now respond to their name or wave if you say bye-bye.
At What Age Do Babies Start Talking?
As mentioned above, every baby develops at their own rate; however, it’s common for babies to start talking and say their first word around 12 months. It takes time to build up a vocabulary though and develop the muscles necessary for forming words. You may also be wondering when babies start talking in sentences. As with saying their first words, the timeline for forming sentences can vary greatly for each child. In general, toddlers can join two or three words together to form a short sentence by the time they’re 2 years old. It’s important to remember that it’s normal for your child’s pronunciation to be a little unclear at this stage – in time this will improve.
How Do Babies Learn to Say Their First Words?
Even before your baby begins to talk (talking is known as ‘expressive language’), they understand more than you think (understanding is known as ‘receptive language’). Before they say their first words, they’re communicating effectively in a number of ways: They cry to let you know they’re hungry, coo when they’re happy, point at a toy they want or turn away from food they don’t like. This type of gestural and vocal communication lays the groundwork for the development of speech and language. Babies learn to talk by listening to you and others talking. Babies prefer listening to the human voice over other sounds, and your baby will especially love the sound of your voice because it’s the most comforting for them. Generally, babies prefer high-pitched voices. This is why you might find yourself talking to your baby in a higher pitch than you would when speaking to adults. This higher pitch, exaggerated pronunciation, and playful facial expressions you probably use all capture your baby’s attention and also contribute to helping develop their speech and language skills.
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What Are a Baby’s Talking Milestones?
Below are some of the stages of learning to talk, with the approximate ages when your child might reach them. Keep in mind that these aren’t set in stone. You may see your baby or toddler reach certain milestones earlier or later than what’s described here.
Early sounds: 0-6 months
Babbling or ‘baby talk’: 6-12 months
First words: 12-18 months
Learning to talk: 18 months and beyond.
If you’re ever uncertain about whether your baby is on track or have any questions about your child's speech development, ask your health visitor for advice.
Language Development Milestones: 0- to 6-Month-Old Babies
Your baby will start responding to speech and other cues from a very early age, and you’ll probably notice them paying attention to your voice and looking at your face. Even your newborn baby makes a variety of different noises – like crying, sighing, burping – to express different things – like hunger, discomfort or contentment. The sucking noises, burps and contented murmurings you hear when your baby is feeding, for example, all help your infant learn how to control the air passing over their vocal cords. Sometime between 2 and 4 months old, your child might start reacting to your voice – perhaps crying if you make a sudden loud exclamation or gurgling with delight if you make a sound your baby finds funny. The sounds your baby makes at this stage may not be intelligible, but they’re still important – your baby is already learning how to control the flow of air from their lungs and starting to flex those little vocal cords. As your little one gets better at this, the repertoire of sounds will start to expand with a variety of ‘cooing’ noises, such as ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’. Besides being unbelievably cute, this ‘cooing’ marks an important milestone: Your baby is developing the muscles needed for speech. A bit later, your infant may also start experimenting with using their lips to make different sounds.
Language Development Milestones: 6- to 12-Month-Old Babies
During this period, babies begin to understand the basic mechanics of language. They start by listening and reacting to the sounds around them. By about 6 months, babies often start combining vowels and consonants to repeat sounds such as ‘baba’, ‘dada’ or ‘gaga’. This is known as ‘babbling’ and often resembles speech. Around 9 months, they usually begin to understand simple words like ‘no’, ‘bye-bye’ and their own name. By the age of 12 months, many babies can say one or two words, and they are adept at using gestures, such as pointing or waving goodbye, to aid their communication.
Language Development Milestones: 12- to 18-Month-Old Babies
At this stage, your little one may understand more commonly used words, especially when you use words in context, like ‘food’, ‘yummy’ or ‘hungry’ during dinnertime. Around their first birthday is generally when babies say their first words, but this may happen later in many cases. Your baby will likely combine their first words and babbling to communicate with you. It’s likely your baby comprehends and responds to simple instructions at this stage, such as ‘Bring me your ball’. By 18 months, they may enjoy imitating familiar words they hear you say.
Language Development Milestones: 18-Months and Beyond
By 18 months, many children can say about 10 to 20 words. These words often refer to familiar people, animals and objects, as well as actions relevant to their daily lives – some words they’ll likely say more clearly than others. If you’re wondering ‘When do babies start talking clearly?’ It’s difficult to define ‘clearly’, as your child’s speech and pronunciation will continue to improve for months and years to come. Children also start to combine two words to form simple phrases, such as ‘more milk’ or bye-bye mummy’, reflecting their developing ability to communicate more complex ideas. After reaching 18 months, toddlers increasingly combine two to three words into short sentences. Their ability to understand language also deepens significantly; they can follow two-step instructions and recognise the names of familiar objects and people. By the age of two, vocabulary growth is explosive, with many children knowing at least 50 words. Read our article to discover more about toddler language development milestones.
How to Help Your Baby Learn to Talk?
Wondering how to encourage your baby to talk? If you want to help encourage their speech and language development, here are just a few ways you can help your baby at different ages:
0 to 6 months
Get in close. Babies love faces – and especially yours – so hold your baby and look at them from close range while talking.
Keep up a running commentary. As you go through your daily routine of nappy changes, feeds and baths, chat about what you’re doing.
Sing to your baby. This is a great way of bonding while exposing your little one to the rhythms of speech right from the start.
Copy sounds that your baby makes. Repeating sounds to your baby can help with listening skills and teach them about taking turns in conversation.
6 to 12 months
Play games. Games like Peek-a-Boo and Round and Round the Garden are a fun way of grabbing your baby’s attention and improving listening and turn-taking skills.
Point things out. Introduce new words by naming things that you see as you point at them. For example: ‘Look, a bird’ or ‘There’s the little doggy’.
Open a book. There are plenty of baby books with just pictures, but even a story book aimed at older children will do: Just talk to your baby about what you can see on the page.
12 to 18 months
Demonstrate the right way to say words. If your child gets a word wrong, let them know the proper way to say it, but without criticising or correcting. For example, if your toddler says ‘po’ instead of ‘potty, say something positive like ‘You want to use the potty? Well done for telling me!’
Double up on new words by offering choices. Why teach one new word when you can introduce two at the same time? Just offer alternatives whenever you can. For instance, when it’s time for a snack say: ‘Would you like a pear or a banana?’ while holding both in your hands.
Try out some action songs. Doing the actions while singing nursery rhymes like Incy-Wincy Spider or The Wheels on the Bus helps your child remember words and phrases more easily.
18 months and beyond
Practice simple instructions. By now your toddler can usually understand simple instructions like ‘Open the box’ or ‘Get your blanket’.
Repeat words to make them stick. Using the same word several times in different sentences can make it easier for your child to remember. Here’s an example: ‘Do you want to wear a hat?’ ‘What about this yellow hat?’ ‘Wow, that pretty hat really suits you!’
Ask where things are. Ask your child to point to their nose, foot, ears etc. – or other things around the house – using sentences that start with ‘Where’s your...’ or ‘Where’s the...’
Help with sentence building. Babies usually start putting words together to make sentences sometime around 2 years of age. You can help this along by filling in the gaps: If your child says an incomplete sentence like ‘eat toast’, say something like: ‘That’s right, we are eating toast’.
Can Being Bilingual Have an Effect on Babies?
If there’s more than one language spoken in your home, this is more of a benefit than a hindrance to your child. If a child is exposed to two languages from a very young age, they may be able to learn both at the same time, especially if using both consistently. It’s natural for one language to be stronger than the other during a child’s language development or for words to get mixed up. But over time, a child may be able to distinguish more clearly between the two languages and communicate well in both. So, when do bilingual babies start talking? In general, bilingual babies start talking around the same time as monolingual babies. As we mentioned earlier, every child is unique and they all develop at their own speed.
What Happens if Your Baby Doesn’t Start to Talk?
Some children develop language skills and a vocabulary at a constant rate, whereas others take a while to become talkative. A toddler who is quiet may know just as many words as one who is talkative but chooses not to use them. It may just be the case that your baby is a little shyer and more reserved. Still, if you feel your baby is behind in language development or could have problems with speech or language, it’s best not to wait or ignore it. Raise any concerns you may have with your health visitor.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Babies typically start to say their first words around 12 months of age. However, some babies may begin to speak a little earlier, around 10 months. The earliest signs of talking involve simple words like ‘mama’ or ‘dada’, which may initially be used indiscriminately.
The Bottom Line
Although you may be eagerly awaiting your baby’s first words, it’s best to be patient. Like many of your baby’s development milestones, starting to talk doesn’t happen overnight and may not happen when you expect it to. Eventually, your little one will surprise you with those first baby words, and before you know it, they will be talking and asking questions as a way of exploring the world in a whole new way. In fact, speech will soon be such a big part of your child’s personality that later you may find it hard to imagine what it was like before they could talk. Discover more about your little one’s development milestones, such as their first smile and more. And before they start talking, why not try your hand at baby sign language!
How We Wrote This Article The information in this article is based on expert advice found in trusted medical and government sources, such as the National Health Service (NHS). You can find a full list of sources used for this article below. The content on this page should not replace professional medical advice. Always consult medical professionals for full diagnosis and treatment.
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