Baby Language Development

Baby language development is amazing. It is wonderful to watch infants progress from non-verbal interactions, to experimenting with sounds, to first words and utterances.

One-on-one dialogue with caring adults is the most important form of stimulation to promote language acquisition.

Talking, singing, rhyming and reading to children from birth ensure tiny tots thrive. All these conversations nurture speaking skills and at the same time promote emotional, cognitive, emotional well-being and healthy development of young children.

Babies flourish, when:

  • They interact with affectionate adults with lovely conversations, cuddles, smiles and laughter
  • When affectionate adults respond to their coos, babbles and smiles, when they are content, and also to cries when they need help
  • They play and engage in exciting and age-appropriate baby activities
  • They look at pictures in delightful books for babies and listen to our voices, when read and talk about the things we see together.

Enhancing Babies’ Language Development

Babies hear and understand language long before they are ready to speak. They listen and observe intently, hearing and seeing how we say and pronounce each word. Babies communicate in many ways: through eye-contact, gestures, experimenting with sounds, cooing, babbling and crying.

Gorgeous tinty tots soon reward us with first words, and even the first one-word utterances.

While talking, communicating, playing and having fun, babies love it, when we:

  • Change intonation, ask questions: “Who loves you most?” and answer: “I do.”
  • Sing and play action rhymes like “Round and round the garden”, “Twinkle,Twinkle Little Star” and “Pat-a-cake”.
  • Encourage vowel sounds, a, e, i , o, u. One sentence that we all love to hear and which also contains all the vowel sounds is: “I love you.”

Language Development 0- 6 Months

At this age babies will probably:

  • Respond to a smiling person with a smile
  • Reach out to touch your face
  • Gaze intently at your face and move their lips in response
  • Discover new sounds while interacting, cooing, and combining sounds to babble
  • Smile and laugh spontaneously
  • Babble joyfully while enjoying a good chat
  • Show interest in different sounds.

Language Development 6-12 Months

Babies’ understanding of language is developing faster than their ability to talk.

At this age babies will probably:

  • Recognise their own name, turn your way when you say their name
  • Recognise names of people around the house: mum, dad, siblings, friends, baby sitters and pets
  • Begin to point with their index finger wanting to know the name of objects and people
  • Respond to simple commands: “Clap your hands”, “Wave bye-bye”, “What does a cow say?”
  • Say the first word, followed by many more, and make their first one-word-utterance. For example, when a child holds out a cup and says: “More.” It probably means that she or he is asking for something more to drink.

Baby language acquisition is simply awesome and absolutely delightful. Enjoy every moment.


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Lathey, N., & Blake, T. (2013). Small Talk: Simple ways to boost your child’s speech and language development from birth. London, Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Patricia Kuhl – The linguistic genius of babies