Exploring Some Common Baby's First Words and Tips on How to Increase Vocabulary!

The development of speech process begins when the baby is very young. Even before babies are a month old they become aware of rhythm, and can recognize their mother’s voice. However, they are unable to verbalize their different needs. From this time on, the child becomes aware of many different sounds. They may also turn in the direction of the various sounds as they begin to recognize them.

Eventually, your baby's first words make their appearance. Some of these words will be recognizable, while others may not. Babies may develop a unique language of their own to communicate what they want to say. This article describes strategies parents can utilize in their attempt to begin or strengthen infant vocabulary acquisition.

The speech development in babies can be divided into various phases and the expression of the baby's first words are different in each stage.

Phase One: 1st month - 3rd month:

At this stage, the baby communicates by crying. Babies cry when their needs are not being met, such as when they are hungry. They are not usually able to speak any word at this stage. At the end of this phase they have the ability to stay alert, and respond by smiling!

Phase Two: 4th month - 5th month:

At this stage, the baby's alertness increases. They make cooing sounds more frequently and are startled by loud noises. By the 4^th month, a baby may recognize combined sounds such as -cl or -tr.

The baby's first sounds during this stage could be -drrr, -trrr, -oo, or -br. These generally have no meaning. Babies make such sounds when they are happy and excited about something!

Phase Three : From 6th month to 9th month:

A six month old baby will respond to its name and develop different cries to communicate different needs.

The most common first words at this stage could be, ma-ma, ba-ba, da-da, or pa-pa. Words like no, up, and go are few others. Mostly, the first baby words are babbling sounds that they make with less effort. These have consonants that end in a long vowel sounds, for example, words like boo-loo, loo-loo, laa-laa, naa, etc.

These words are generally used by babies to attract attention. In most of the cases, they can speak these words but actually do not know the referral context of these words. Babies in this stage are able to recognize words as distinct sounds, and may be to recognize and respond to parental approval or disapproval.

Fourth Phase: 10th month - 1 year:

At 10 months, a child can recognize his parents and relate the words ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ correctly with reference to their parents. They are able to comprehend most spoken words. They now know the meaning of 'NO.' They are able to address the other members of the family by the time they are one year old. Other words that may be added into their vocabulary during this stage can be, yum, cookie, drum, honey, banana, and so on.

Every child is unique and one never knows what he or she will come up with as the first word. As babies grow, they develop a greater understanding of their native language.

Here are some tips try when you are attempting to increase your baby's vocabulary:

• Stay alert to developmental milestones.
• Talk to the child as much as possible.
• Describe what you are doing as you go through their daily routine.
• Describe pictures and ask questions.
• Repeat instructions so that they are able to comprehend.