From Babbling to Words: A Comprehensive Guide to Baby Language Development

Many parents watch their babies grow over the first year and wonder when they will start speaking and what they will sound like. Yet, your baby understands your words far sooner than you understand his words. How does all that babbling and cooing turn into comprehensible language?

Baby language development begins at birth, when babies start listening to and watching speakers. As a baby grows, his language increases rapidly, from perceiving differences in sounds and tones to babbling to pronouncing syllables and joining them together.

By understanding how your baby's language develops, you can recognize what he's working on and provide focused practice at the right level. This guide barely scratches the surface of baby language development, but it will undoubtedly get you started!

The Stages of Language Development

Language development begins long before your baby says her first word. In fact, recent research suggests that babies may already recognize their mother's language before they are born (source). How neat is that?

Let's dig into the stages of language development. How a baby develops her listening and speaking skills is different, so we will look at each skill progression separately.

Listening Development

At birth, an infant's brain can already discern the sounds that make up all languages, which is approximately 800 unique sounds (source)! By the time an infant is six months old, he enters the "sensitive period" of language development, which is when the baby's brain begins to understand those sounds as language.

The six-month-old infant's brain first learns the vowels of his native language. Around nine or ten months old, that brain will start learning consonant sounds (source). You know your little one is working to understand those sounds by hearing his babbling (usually with syllables beginning with p, b, or m).

Though a newborn can discern the difference between all the phonemes that make up the world's languages, he doesn't narrow them down to his native language's phonemes until the "sensitive period."

If you've ever heard that babies and toddlers are more likely to become fluent in a second language than teenagers or adults, it is because of this "sensitive period." Babies who regularly hear another language spoken around them are actually able to achieve fluency in that second language relatively quickly until age seven.

Of course, they can still achieve fluency in that second language later, but their mind won't be shaped as readily by input from the second language, so it will take a lot more effort to learn it.

When Will My Baby Understand What I'm Saying?

Most babies will learn to interpret your facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice before they understand the meaning of the words you speak. Generally speaking, your baby understands her name by six months old, but won't understand simple commands until around her first birthday.

Understanding your baby's ability to comprehend what you say to her will help you set your expectations for obedience. Becoming overly frustrated at your baby's "disobedience" will only shut her down, scare her, or make her feel insecure.

Patiently continue to speak clearly, use gestures, and facial expressions repeatedly to reinforce a rule. For example, if your baby is drawn to electric outlets, you can pull her away from it, point to the outlet, shake your head, and say, "No, baby. That's not safe for you. Let's play with this toy instead."

State the rule and redirect. Yes, this is exhausting, and you will have to do it dozens of times a day. However, your message will click eventually!

Speech Development

Babies pick up on language with remarkable ease, but actually learning how to speak it takes time. While a baby has been listening to his native language since before birth, it takes a while before he begins purposefully experimenting with sounds.

Delving into a detailed breakdown of specific syllable development is not within the scope of this article, so here is a basic breakdown of speech development.

Did you know babies can learn some simple sign language as young as six months old (source)? It's incredibly helpful! Learn how to teach your little one basic signs and which signs to teach in Baby Sign Language vs. Verbal Language: Which is Better to Teach Your Baby and When?

Should I Speak a Second Language Around My Baby?

Yes! Even though your baby doesn't understand the words, she recognizes that it differs from her primary language. If your baby grows up in a bilingual household, she will pick up on both languages. But if you simply want to teach your baby a second language, you can start from the get-go!

The main thing to know in exposing your baby to a second language is that it won't stick if the language is simply heard through recordings, cartoons, or screens. Babies pick up on language significantly better when it is spoken around them often by kids and adults, especially when those speakers interact with the baby while speaking (source).

Will Hearing a Second Language Confuse or Slow Down My Baby's Language Development?

No! Some parents in bilingual environments think their toddler or young child's switching between languages is a sign of linguistic confusion, but that isn't the case.

When a child switches terms between languages while speaking, it is called "code-switching," which is a normal bilingual practice. This code-switching may occur because one term is easier to say than another, or because the child hears that term used more often than the other. It is typically a purposeful choice, not confusion (source).

Even bilingual infants know the difference between their two languages and are not confused when parents switch between languages (source). So, if you are raising your child in a bilingual environment, don't hold back!

When Should I Suspect That My Baby Is Not On Track Linguistically?

If your baby does not pay attention to music, loud sounds, or look in the direction of your voice in the first three months, tell your pediatrician right away. It's possible your baby has a hearing problem, which will affect her language development.

If your baby is not babbling much by six to eight months old (many babies at this stage babble with p, b, and m), let your pediatrician know. Not every baby develops at the same pace, but keeping your pediatrician in the loop is wise.

Between seven and twelve months old, your baby should be babbling to get and keep your attention. If she isn't trying to communicate by babbling, encourage her by spending a few minutes multiple times a day talking about something your baby is doing, naming objects, or talking about what you see.

If that doesn't bring out much babbling, reach out to your pediatrician. He or she may refer you to a speech-language pathologist, who will test for hearing, speech, or language disorders. Based on the results, he or she will give you exercises to practice at home in addition to any prescribed treatments or speech therapy (source).

When Should I Be Concerned About My Toddler's Speech Development?

After a year old, toddlers develop linguistically at vastly differing paces. You should only be concerned if your toddler is not attempting to communicate verbally with you (either words or sounds), cannot identify objects when you name them, or continues babbling instead of connecting syllables.

Again, the best thing to do if you suspect your toddler is linguistically behind is to tell your pediatrician. From there, your little one may be referred to a speech-language pathologist.

By spending 10 to 15 minutes at a time, multiple times throughout the day, actively talking to, reading to, and playing with your toddler, you can invest in her language development.

5 Tips for Promoting Language Development

Though your little genius is taking off on his own to learn his native language, you can help him by giving plenty of examples, describing everything, and making eye contact while speaking with him. Because your little one's mind is developing rapidly for the first three years, he will soak up whatever you give him!

Research shows that when parents are responsive to their baby's cooing and babbling, they may promote their baby's language development (source). Essentially, if a parent responds in words to a baby's babble about something, then the baby may be encouraged to repeat that syllable again in reference to that thing.

For example, if your baby says "da" when he sees a dog, then you can create a "feedback loop" by saying, "Dog. That's a dog!" If your baby responds to that by continuing to say "da," then you've helped your baby tie a sound to a dog.

Regularly creating this cycle with the sounds and syllables you know your baby can produce and with the objects they take an interest in daily can promote the transition to early words (source). As a parent, you play a fundamental role in your baby's language learning.

Here are a few specific tips for promoting language development in your baby.

1. Talk and Sing to Your Baby

Whenever you learn a language, you must ensure that you spend a significant amount of time listening to the target language to pick up on its natural rhythm and pronunciation. It's no different for your baby!

The more you talk and sing to your baby, the more opportunities you give her to observe how to communicate (source). Slow down a bit and enunciate clearly so she can sort out the sounds. As she grows and begins to speak, you will hear her pronouncing things similarly to you!

2. Read to Your Baby

Reading to your baby is a great way to expose him to new words and concepts. Reading books that have pictures will also help your little one develop his vocabulary and listening skills.

As your baby gets closer to his first birthday, you can test his vocabulary by asking him to point to specific things or colors in the picture on a page. Richard Scarry's books are a classic set of books to start with naming and finding.

Your baby doesn't have to be looking at the page as you read to benefit from it. My family started a breakfast reading tradition after my daughter was born. I would read a few pages of a kid's chapter book while they ate their breakfast. When my oldest turned three, I started to ask him questions about the story.

The more you read to your baby, the better!

3. Respond to Your Baby

When your baby babbles or gestures, respond to her as if you understand what she's saying. This helps her feel heard and validated, and it encourages her to keep communicating.

It's fun and super adorable when your baby starts babbling wild tales with expressive gestures and faces! You can respond with equal expressiveness — she will love it!

4. Use Real Words

While baby talk might be cute, using real words helps your baby learn the correct pronunciation and usage of words. This will help him communicate more effectively as he grows older.

Think of trying to learn a language yourself. How would your pronunciation and listening ability be impacted if nobody spoke to you the way they actually communicate?

5. Engage Multiple Senses

The more senses you engage while speaking to your baby, the better. As your baby touches something, describe its texture. Talk about how food tastes as he tastes it. You can also move something around and describe the way it is moving.

These ideas seem simple enough, but any adult language learner can tell you how helpful this is in language learning. Imagine how much more helpful it is to a baby learning for the first time!

The Importance of Play in Language Development: Best Activities for Babies

Play is crucial for a baby's physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and language development. Parents can promote skill development in these areas by doing sensory activities with their babies. For example, talking about animal toys while playing with them in the grass will encourage babbling.

Playing is the most effective way to engage your baby's mind for any kind of development. This section will focus on how play helps your baby develop language skills and provide some of the best activities to do so.

How Does Play Help with Language Development?

Your baby has got to play; it is an essential part of his life! Not only is it fun, but it also helps him explore and discover the world around him. As your baby grows, you'll notice that his play for discovery becomes experiments in putting random elements together to see what happens.

That's how you will get those priceless memories of a very serious little cupcake-dinosaur doctor-magician telling you a fanciful tale that is only half understandable. But for a toddler to gain this stellar storytelling ability, he must first do a ridiculous amount of observation and listening in his first year of life.

As with everything, language development is tied to other areas of development, and play happens to cater to all of them simultaneously.

Play Engages All Senses

When it comes to laying the foundation of language development during the first year, baby sensory activities are the way to go. They help your little one build his understanding of reality by engaging the senses (taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight).

Sensory activities can be as simple as a few toys in a tub of water or a baby's busy book with different flaps, colors, and textures sewn into the cloth pages. Whatever you do for a baby sensory activity, ensure you don't overwhelm your baby's senses.

The baby toy market is flooded with bright and flashy disco-noisemakers that are only entertaining because they distract your baby. A newborn doesn't need that craziness, and neither does a six-month-old (or even a twelve-month-old, for that matter).

Instead of "desensitizing" your baby to electric toys and TV shows, try letting him learn more naturally by soaking things up at his own pace through play with classic baby toys or sensory activities. When your baby is focusing on something with one or two senses, he is essentially studying reality.

If you want to learn more about baby sensory activities, how they work, and how to set up a sensory environment for your little one, read Baby Sensory Activities: A Guide to Promote Healthy Development.

Play Develops Cognitive Skills

Play aids in developing a baby's brain structure, brain function, and learning process ability, all of which are vital for shaping the way she will later pursue goals and focus on the task at hand (source). We see these same benefits across thousands of animal species.

For many baby animals, play is essential for learning to survive, hunt, flee, or hide. It's a safe time to try crazy things, act out scenarios, explore the area, and discover one's own abilities and limits.

Human infants will not be pouncing out of trees in their play, but they will be testing boundaries, seeing how far they can crawl, and reaching for things they haven't explored yet.

As parents react to what they say or do, babies take note of their parents' tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. Somewhere between seven and twelve months of age, babies can understand several spoken nouns and basic commands, but cognitively, they interpret your tone and mannerisms incredibly well.

When you invest time into playing with and talking to your baby, you are investing directly in her language development. The more she hears you speaking about what she understands in front of her, the better off her language development will be (source).

Play Encourages Social and Emotional Development

Play is the cornerstone of social and emotional development in human babies, toddlers, and young children, as well as in animals that play. Even human play that lacks verbal communication can encourage social and emotional development.

In those first weeks, smiling at your newborn, cuddling, singing, and talking to him about what you are doing are the beginnings of his social life. These activities make him feel safe and loved (even when he's crying).

As your baby's mind rapidly develops and he gains new skills and insights daily, you will notice him becoming more vocal and seeking your attention. This cooing and crying for attention are your baby's first attempts at intentional verbal communication, and it skyrockets from there!

Once your baby has become a toddler who knows a few words, you will notice that his play changes a bit. He will start playing through scenarios with his toys or with friends and family. This type of play is like fuel to the fire of language and thought development. Your toddler's vocabulary will explode along with his imagination!

7 Best Baby Activities to Promote Language Development

As you can see, play is not a frivolous matter; it's serious business! So, what are some ways parents can play productively with their babies to ensure they give their little ones the best start possible?

Baby sensory activities and games are fun, engage multiple senses, and promote verbal communication. Here are seven of the best baby activities I personally used to have fun and get my baby babbling!

1. Bang Bang!

This was a favorite game for my babies in their first year. Around six months old, most babies have figured out how to bang things together, so it is easy to turn it into a game of funny faces, babbling, and laughs.

If your baby cannot sit up for this game yet, you can set her in a seat or a high chair with a tray or hold her up yourself. Put a few blocks, a ball, and a toy hammer in front of her. Show her that the blocks make a sound when you smash them together or hit them with a hammer.

Make a big deal about it: a silly face, cover your ears, and say, "Bang!" But if your baby hits the ball, make a different, softer sound, like, "Bump!" Your baby will likely catch on quickly and revel in making so much noise and goofy laughter.

2. Go Ball!

Any kind of hand-sized ball will work for this one, but my favorite type was a racquetball. When your baby is four months old or older, start rolling a ball to him and say, "Go ball!" Somewhere between six and eight months old, he may begin grabbing it and throwing or rolling it back.

As your baby becomes more interested, you can set up a track for the ball or something to hit at the other end of a hallway. This game is a lot of fun to drum up and get excited over together! It's also fantastic for hand-eye coordination, gross motor skills, and learning to say "ball," "uh-oh," and "go."

3. Look Away Game

This game starts off quietly but quickly devolves into giggles when you say, "You got me!" Some babies can play this at eight months old, but others may need to be a bit older. You will start by looking at your baby and making a funny sound while she is doing something.

If she doesn't look for you, keep making sounds louder and louder until she tries to make eye contact with you. When she looks at your face, look away with a silly face. After she looks down again, look at her until she looks your way again.

Keep going back and forth, making more silly faces and sounds until she catches you looking directly at her. Then say, "You got me!" and make a big deal about it.

4. Where Am I?

Hide-and-seek starts with all players knowing the rules, but the concept is difficult for babies under a year old to grasp. So, you can play by hiding somewhere your crawling or walking baby can find you and say, "Where am I?"

When your baby finds you, jump out and say, "Yay! You found me!" or "Here I am!" Make a big happy deal of how your clever baby found you. It won't take long before your baby starts giggling in anticipation when you say, "Where am I?"

As a side note, I always hid where I could still see my babies just to make sure they didn't get into something they shouldn't while I was out of sight. This also made sure I didn't hide "too well."

5. Elevator

Another great first-year game for language development starts with you either holding onto your baby or strapping her into a baby carrier. Then, name a direction or preposition, point in that direction, and move that way in three steps, counting as you go.

For example, you could say "right," point your baby's hand right, and count the steps out loud. Then say "down," point your baby's hand downward, and crouch. Next, will probably be "up": point your baby's hand up and stand up again.

As your baby figures out hand gestures, she will start gesturing directions emphatically and soon add verbal babble that you can reinforce with the proper name of the direction. If she gets mischievous by pointing you into a wall, you can come up with equally goofy ways to "crash."

6. Read and Find

You've probably already figured out that your baby wants to read the same books a few dozen times a day. If you're not there yet, that phase will come soon. This repetition is fabulous for your baby's learning, but can certainly bore you, so why not mix it up a little?

You can go through books naming colors and other things as you point to them for 9-month-olds and younger. Most babies in the first nine months only read for a few minutes, so you can try singing the words, using silly voices, or moving your baby's fingers to things in the pictures.

If your baby likes reading books and is closing in on his first birthday, you can start asking him to point things out in the pictures as you read. You can also pretend to fall asleep mid-sentence, read super fast, or really slowly.

7. Zoo

My babies had an obscene number of stuffed animals, so to make a game they could imagine after nine months of age, I would create a zoo in their room. It's easy to do, especially after you've visited a zoo or watched a short animal video.

Put all the animals of the same species together in groups. One group can be in the crib, another under the crib, another in a dresser drawer, another on the changing table, and so on. Then, you can talk about the names of the animals, how to take care of them, and which ones are friendly with each other.

If your baby starts to pull one out, you can say, "Oh no! The lion (or whatever it is) is out! Run!" and make a big, silly deal about running away from the animal or trying to catch it.

At first, your baby will not know what to do with all of this nonsense, but the game may become a favorite in the coming months if your baby becomes an animal-loving toddler.

Already have a toddler learning to express himself verbally? Read some toddler-specific ways to help his language develop well in The Power of Play in Speech Development: Best Activities for Toddlers.

In a Nutshell

Language development is a complex and fascinating process, and understanding how it works can help you support your baby as she learns to communicate. Play is essential for babies' language development, so encourage it and play together as much as you can!

Making funny faces, using repetitive phrases, and using silly body language all contribute to enriching imagination, experimentation, and playfulness.

And hey, if anyone tries to shame you for acting like a goof with your baby, inform them that you are investing in your child's holistic development and future success as a human being. That will throw them for a loop!