Watching and hearing babies speak their first words is a moment of joy for parents. The anticipation of listening to their babies speak can also lead to a worry about whether their little munchkins will reach their milestone on time. Do not fret. In this article, we list the top 5 tips to encourage babies to speak.
Speaking in babies doesn’t happen overnight. Throughout their first year, they learn through imitation, understanding, and comprehension from the people around them and trying to imitate what they listen. Initially, the sounds babies make have no purpose. Babies are simply playing with their vocal cords. As they grow, they understand that they can communicate through sounds and gestures. By their first birthday, most babies will be able to speak a word or two.
In This Article
- At What Age Should Babies be Able to Speak?
- How Do You Help Babies Learn to Speak?
- Top 5 Tips to Encourage Babies to Speak
- When Should I Worry if My Baby Doesn’t Speak?
- FAQ’s
At What Age Should Babies be Able to Speak?
At close to 3 months, your baby start taking interest and turning slightly to hear the multiple sounds occurring near them. They will also start “cooing” in a gentle tone. Don’t get puzzled when your 6-month-old baby starts saying words like ‘ba-ba’, ‘da-da’, and so on. They make these sounds without knowing their meaning at this stage, but after 12 months of age, they utter them by knowing what they mean.
Here is a rough timeline for when babies will be able to speak and how this skill evolves
Crying
Crying is the most basic mode of communication for babies. Newborn babies know only to cry whether they are sad, hungry, restless, anxious or need company.
Babbling
As babies reach their second month of age, they start the pre-babbling stage followed by the babbling stage once they reach 4 to 6 months of age
Imitation
During the 5 to 7 months period, your baby may start imitating the sounds you make, like coughing, making clicking noises or laughing. They also start imitating words and stringing together sounds that they learnt during the babbling stage
First Words
At 7 to 9 months of age, they start stringing multiple sounds into meaningful simple words such as a-tha, tha-tha, ma-ma and dada and try to communicate by combining words and gestures. Most babies can utter their first words by the time they are a year old.
While this is a rough timeline babies can be different. Do not panic if your baby is not able to say simple words by their first birthday. Some babies may be naturally delayed than others in many milestones.
[Read : When Will My Baby Speak Her First Word?]
How Do You Help Babies Learn to Speak?
Communication is the key to help your baby learn to speak. Talk to them as much as possible. Here are a few tips for you.
- Talk to them throughout the day.
- Story time and rhyme time are excellent to help babies hone their communication skills
- Buy them sound-making toys and books.
Top 5 Tips to Encourage Babies to Speak
Weave magic to your baby’s vocabulary and make them speak by following the tried and tested tips.
1. Keep Talking to Your Baby
We already know that babies learn through imitation. To let your baby learn speaking quickly, it is important to keep talking to them. Talk at every opportunity you can. Remember that baby talking doesn’t count. Talk to your baby like would talk to an adult. Use varied vocabularly.
[Read : 10 Tips To Communicate With Newborn]
2. Let Them Socialize
Exposure is vital for babies to pick up and learn many skills, including speech. Let your baby mingle with people of all age groups – kids, adults, grandparents, etc. Take them to a park and allow them to get comfortable with everyone. You can even arrange playdates with babies and toddlers of similar age group. This exposure will help your baby pick up necessary skills and encourage them to speak quickly.
3. Read to Them
Babies and toddlers love story time. Having regular story-reading sessions with your baby will expose them to a lot more vocabulary and repeating the same stories regularly will help them understand and retain the same words. The more words the babies are exposed to during storytelling, the more confident they feel of trying to mouth simple and easy words that they learn.
[Read : Reading to Your Baby]
4. Have Singing Sessions
Whether it is a nursery rhyme, or a song, or even a lullaby, sing to your baby regularly. Encourage them to sing with you. Though they may not be able to mouth the words, they will be able to produce some sounds which is an excellent start. Nursery rhymes are especially best for kids as they are simple, easy to retain and with multiple repetitions, babies will slowly be able to memorize them.
5. Limit Screen Time
Spending time on TV and mobile phones can be detrimental to your baby’s development. Screen time causes babies to develop a passive viewing habit where they end up concentrating on the moving objects without paying attention to the songs or stories. One research study published by the National Library of Medicine establishes a direct correlation between excessive screen time and speech and language delay.
Let your baby spend more time in self play with sounds books and musical toys, create a bonding environment with your baby where you talk, read and sing to them, and let them mingle and play with all age groups and you will see that your baby will pick up speech skills in no time at all.
When Should I Worry if My Baby Doesn’t Speak?
If you find that your baby is still stuck at using gestures for expressing their needs and not speech even after 18 months, call a doctor. Moreover, if they don’t produce their own words and simply imitate others’ speech even at 2 years of age, or cannot speak more than their required needs, see them as red flags.
The best kind of environment is when babies get to hear different languages under one roof. It boosts their language development.
FAQ’s
1. Is it Normal For a 2 Year Old Not to Talk?
No, it may not be normal, the toddler may need an evaluation and speech therapy. Talk to a pediatrician if they seem to be just babbling rather than using actual words or phrases.
2. At What Age Do Babies Start Speaking Properly?
By 12 months they will say their first words with an understanding of their meaning. It can be ‘mama’, ‘papa’ or the name of their beloved toy, and so forth.
3. What is the Disadvantage of Speaking to a Baby Using Baby Talk?
Baby talk may not be very good for your baby’s vocabulary skills. It is important to introduce babies to as many words as possible. While this may seem too much, babies actually pick up vocabulary this way and will be able to frame sentences with ease once they start talking.
4. Is it Normal For 3 Year Old Not Talking?
It is not normal for a 3 year old to not talk. Most toddlers must be able to speak short sentences by this time. You may need to see a speech therapist to get your little one evaluated. They may diagnose the condition as a speech delay or a language delay after conducting tests and evaluation and draw out a therapy plan accordingly.
5. What Age is Considered Speech Delayed?
Your baby may be considered as speech delayed if they can’t utter simple words such as ma and papa by 15 months of age, understand simple instructions such as yes, no or stop by 18 months of age and talk small short sentences by three years of age.
Read Also: Top 5 Tips to Encourage Babies to Walk
