Major milestones when your baby learns to talk (birth - 1 year)

Most babies learn to talk in the first two years of life; he/she learns the rules of the language much before one uses it in communication. He/she does so by observing and listening to people around him/her and soon uses his tongue, lips, palate, and any emerging teeth to make sounds that form into real words like mama and dada when he/she is 6 months old. With mental, emotional, and behavioral leaps, he/she is able to use words to describe what he sees, hears, feels, thinks, and wants.

The major milestones between birth and 1 year when a baby learns to talk are:

Many researchers believe that a baby starts learning the language when he/she is still in the uterus; he/she tunes to the sound of your voice and how to discern it from others.

Between the ages of birth to 3 months, crying is the first form of communication of the baby; when he/she is hungry there would be a piercing cry, while a whimpering, staccato cry signals that he/she needs a diaper change. As he/she grows, one develops a delightful repertoire of gurgles, sighs, and coos with one learning to recognize what words sound like and how sentences are structured by listening to others around him/her.

Between the ages of 4 to 6 months your baby starts combining "baba" or "yaya" and responds to his/her name. Your heart may melt by hearing his/her "mama" or "dada" though he/she equates this word with you much later at 1 year. Initially your baby’s attempt at talking will sound like a stream-of-consciousness monologues in another language with endless words strung together.

Your baby will also experiment making various funny sounds by using his tongue, palate, teeth and vocal cords.  Between the same ages your baby may babble a lot and show preference to sounds like "ka" or "da" because he/she enjoys the way it sounds and feels in the mouth.

Around the ages of 7 to 12 months a baby babbles and vocalizes and tries to copy your tones and patterns; you could foster this babbling by reading and talking to him/her.

You are the best judge to gauge your baby’s speech development where there could be a problem due to language delay or hearing problem. Your child doctor would refer you to a pediatric speech-language pathologist for an evaluation. There is a need for concern if your baby isn't making or even attempting to make any sounds or eye contact with you, doesn't make vowel sounds like "ah," "eh," or "oh", doesn't respond to her name or sounds around him/her at 6 months, doesn't babble at 9 months, or doesn't say single words (including "mama" or "dada") at 12 months.

In the next few articles we shall know about the major milestones of talking till 2 years and 3 years.

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