Baby’s First Words
Your baby is learning from his first seconds out of the womb. He can hear your words, and starts relating them to things in his life. Within a few months he will start putting sounds together, trying to make words of his own, ask for things, or just talk to you.
In the beginning and for at least the first year, most of what your baby “says” will not be understandable. There will be a lot of goo goo’s and ga ga’s coming from your baby’s mouth. Eventually though you will start to understand more of what your baby says, even if others don’t.
Around six months you may hear your first “real” world. You may be listening in over your baby monitor, or hear your baby in the backseat of your car when you hear your baby say, “Dada”. You can proudly tell your baby’s father that his first word was ‘daddy’. For mom’s this works out well because anytime your baby say’s “Dada”, you can pass him off to dad and say, “Here he wants you!” while you go and get work done, or dinner made.
Other early words your baby will probably say include “Ma Ma” and “Ba Ba”. Hearing “Ma Ma” for the first time will likely melt your heart. It will be like music to your ears as you know your baby recognizes you and is happy you are around. “Ba Ba” can mean any number of things to your baby. In most cases it either means ‘ball’ or ‘bottle’ if your baby is ever fed from a bottle.
When your baby starts talking to you, be sure to talk back to him. Even if you are not sure what he is saying, responding positively to his “words” will encourage him to speak more often, and will help increase his vocabulary.
Many times your child will create words that relate to an object and only you and immediate family will know what he is saying. When this happens, sometimes the word will stick for that particular item. My son got a stuffed bunny when he was six months old that he slept with. Almost immediately he tried to say “bunny”, however he was not able to form the word correctly. Instead it came out “Me Me”. To this day my son and the whole family still refer to his “bunny” as “Me Me”.
Praise and encouragement go a long way for everyone no matter how old you are. To a tiny baby, who is learning things for the first time, praise and encouragement when they speak will help them want to talk to you, and want to learn more.
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