When parents or caregivers ask about baby development, and baby's first words in particular, it would be terrific to give a really simple standard answer, but that isn't possible when all babies and all parents are different.
So when people ask when a baby will say his first words, I'm tempted to say - well it depends how many words he's heard spoken to him. It's not enough to just have heard words spoken.
The words need to have been related to the baby's needs and experiences. It also depends what exactly we mean by words. If a baby looks at a cup and says " up", is that a word? We know he means cup, and that his mouth just isn't mature enough to say the "c" , Or early baby babbling from around 6 months is full of many "words" but we have no idea what they mean.
This Youtube video shows some baby babbling. Sounds a lot like dadadada!
So when we say "first words" it seems we mean a combination of sounds that we recognize and understand that are related to something we know.
So here are a few tips to help baby get to the point of babies saying " meaningful words"
- Turn off your mobile phone
'hearing' you talking to your friends on your mobile phone are only a tiny bit useful to a baby learning to talk. He needs you to be focused on him and the words you are using need to be focused on an activity he or you are doing. You need to be talking in clear short simple words and repeating the words and the actions. Talking on your mobile phone doesn't help here. - Turn off the TV
often TV's are just left on in a room when no-one is watching it and the sound becomes a background for what other things are happening. As adults we have developed the great skill of being able to focus on what we want to hear and blocking out other sources of sound, so it fades into the background. Young children haven't developed the same skill and the sound from a TV can interfere with hearing all the separate sounds in the words you are speaking. So all that is heard is an even more meaningless jumble. - Play simple games
Playing games is the heart of learning to talk and I use 'heart" deliberately. Joy, humour and laughter speed up learning. When a baby smiles and laughs we know his attention is focused. So the kind of games to play in the first few months that make babies smile and laugh is repeating the same action over and over along with repeated sounds and words. At least 10 minutes of every day should be spent doing action play. - Be aware
When your baby is awake, try to put yourself in his place; imagine what its like to be him, and ask yourself every two minutes, what would I be experiencing and learning? Try doing that for a period of 30 minutes.
