Okay, let’s actually take one step back – what if your child doesn’t really have any words?
**Disclaimer: Every child is different and there can be a variety of reasons why your little one hasn’t started showing off their vocabulary – so if you are concerned about your child not talking, please see an SLP.**
With that being said, I thought I’d tell you about one reason some kiddos aren’t quite talking yet. Before babies start saying words, they need to have mastered some of the early speech sounds in their language. Then, with this repertoire of sounds, your child can string them together to say words!
This is why babbling is so important in the first year of life – you will notice that they go from repeating the same sound over and over again (e.g. babababa), to playing with different consonants and vowels (e.g. mepabuba). You’ll even begin to notice that they have intonation when they babble – they’ll sound like they’re telling you an exciting story or asking you a question; trouble is, we as adults don’t speak babble! So, what sounds should your baby be babbling first?? The sounds that are made using the lips are early sounds that they learn because they can see what the mouth is doing to make those sounds: p, b, m, w. Try making those sounds – they’re all made by moving your lips! A couple other early sounds are h and n (take a look at the speech sound development chart over in my resources).
So, with these early sounds, your little one has a piece of what they need to start saying their first words: “nana”, “mama”, “baba”. Take a listen to your babies – what is their repertoire of sounds??
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P.S. If you want to read more about babbling development & how to respond to your baby’s babbling, take a look at this article from The Hanen Centre.