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Learning to speak is a very important step in a baby's life, so as parents, we should guide the baby to learn to speak. What languages can babies understand at different stages? What are the typical mistakes parents make when teaching their babies to speak? Let's take a look~ What words do babies of different ages learn to say? The development of baby language can be divided into 4 stages. According to the different characteristics of each stage, different language training should be carried out for children. Please check the relevant time in the table below to determine whether your baby has reached the standard. If the progress is slower than the speaking energy that should be achieved in this timetable, parents should be careful and take immediate action to help the baby solve the speaking problem! |
Baby's age | stage | Standards |
0-8 months | Pre-language comprehension period | ● Simple pronunciation: Can pronounce more vowels, such as: a/ai/e/ou and a small number of consonants m/h, etc. ● Continuous syllables: The number of consonants that can be pronounced increases, and repeated continuous syllables appear. The baby makes the sounds of ma-ma and pa-pa, which is a pronunciation phenomenon in the pre-speech stage. |
9-12 months | Language comprehension period | ● The beginning of speech learning: The baby can make more sounds and pronounce different syllables continuously, change the tone, imitate adults and learn new pronunciations, and sometimes can pronounce objects correctly. |
12-16 months | Oral budding stage | ● Start to speak: They may say their first word at birth, usually "Dad", "Mom", etc. Usually baby girls learn to speak faster than baby boys. They may not start to speak more words until they are 1 and a half years old or even two years old. |
24-36 months | Main grammar mastery period | ● Vocabulary accumulation: The speed of vocabulary increase is also becoming very fast. They can understand hundreds of words and understand the meaning of some complex sentences. They will also combine some of the words they can speak. ● Vocabulary and short sentences: This is the fastest stage of vocabulary learning in a person's life. The baby's vocabulary may increase from 200 to 1200. The baby can also put the vocabulary into simple sentences and begin to use verbs or adverbs. ● Grammar learning: Most babies can understand long and complex sentences and can respond or answer correctly. Because their speech has begun to develop grammatical rules, adverbs or adjectives will appear in the sentences. They will also listen to two or three simple instructions. At this time, family members can understand 100% of what they say, and strangers can understand about 70% to 80%. |
Expert advice for babies learning to talk
1. Adding complementary foods step by step is very important for the development of baby's language ability.
While providing nutrients for the baby's development, chewing exercises the baby's mouth and makes the hardware equipment for language expression mature. Some babies do not know how to coordinate their throat and oral muscles when learning language because they do not have chewing exercises, so they do not know how to make sounds. Therefore, no matter which type of complementary food is added, do not ignore it.
2. Don't rush things.
Each child has different innate development and language intelligence. Maybe they can't speak today, but they can speak fluently tomorrow. Therefore, when helping babies learn language, we should combine the children's situation and their interests.
3. Genetic factors: Experts point out that a baby’s language development is closely related to the development of his or her hearing, intelligence and vocal organs, part of which is affected by genetic factors.
Many babies start speaking late. At this time, parents must ensure that they provide their babies with adequate nutrition, give their children a good language environment, and let their children slowly practice speaking.
Some babies have congenital hearing or brain development problems, which directly affect their language learning. Parents should always pay attention to their children and take them to the hospital for hearing screening and intelligence assessment if they find anything wrong. Harmful substances such as lead can damage the baby's intelligence and other aspects of development, causing the baby's language development to lag behind.
4. Don’t let your baby be confused. Nowadays, some families have multiple languages or dialects, and the confusion of languages or dialects is also a reason why children do not speak.
In the family environment, the couple sometimes speaks dialect and sometimes speaks Mandarin, and the nanny is frequently changed, and the nanny's dialect will stimulate the child's brain cells. This stimulation process is not in line with the child's language ability, and ultimately leads to the child being confused about language and not knowing which language to choose.
Baby learning to talk game
The development of a baby's language ability is not just about simple expression, but also about his ability to understand language. When a baby can say simple words, it is not yet a real language. During this period, if the baby hears sounds such as "no" and "hello", he can shake his head, and can make babbling sounds such as "dad, mom, no no", and can also use interjections such as "oh, ah" to express his feelings. When the baby has a certain language ability, you can use simple games in life to improve his language ability. Learning through games is more acceptable to the baby and the learning efficiency is also higher.
12-18 months: Able to say 3-5 phrases
Babies over one year old gradually learn some simple words, such as "Dad, Mom, Food". The focus of this period is to strengthen the baby's impression of words.
Passing toys: When playing the game of passing toys, babies can learn how to combine vocabulary and language.
1. Prepare balls, toys, books and other items, then hand them to the baby one by one, and then take them from the baby.
2. When handing the ball, you should explain the action: "Mom gives you a red ball." In this way, the baby can learn to coordinate actions with language.
3. Explain the movements to your baby in as much detail as possible.
Hide and seek: Through the game of hide and seek, your baby can improve his understanding and memory of real objects.
1. Hide something small in a water cup, or hide a ball or schoolbag under a chair or table, then ask your baby: "Where is the ball?" and tell your baby "The ball is under the table!"
2. Through the game of hide-and-seek, babies can learn to use language to understand the changes of objects and places, as well as the relationship between objects.
Three forbidden areas for babies to learn to speak
Forbidden Zone 1: Oversatisfaction causes baby's language delay
Parent Type: “Helpful”
Violating taboo behavior: "Baby, do you want to drink water? Mommy will get it for you." Many parents over-satisfy their babies' requests. If the baby points at the water bottle, the family members immediately "understand" that the baby wants to drink water, and then hand him the bottle.
The harm of breaking the taboo: Mom and dad's method of over-satisfying the baby's demands will slow down the baby's language development, because the baby does not need to speak, the family can quickly understand his intentions and meet his requirements, so the baby loses the opportunity to speak.
Ways to break the ban: When parents find out from the baby's behavior that the baby wants to drink water, you can give him an empty cup. When he holds the empty cup and wants to get water, he will try very hard to say "water". You can try this. When the baby puts his idea of drinking water into words and turns it into the word "water", just this one word will make him happy.
Taboo 2: Excessive use of reduplication
Parent type: Overly accommodating
Taboo behaviors: “Baby, it’s time for food!” “Baby, look, that’s a dog, that’s a flower…” Using reduplication and baby talk is a manifestation of a baby’s specific language stage, but some parents start speaking baby talk with their babies.
Harm of breaking the rules: Babies use baby talk because their language development limits their ability to express themselves accurately. However, some parents think that their babies can only understand baby talk or find it interesting, so they speak to their babies in the same language. Doing so may delay the child's transition to speaking complete words.
Breaking the taboo: The baby's language development generally goes through the stages of single-word sentences (using one word to express multiple meanings), multi-word sentences (using more than two words to express meanings), and speaking complete sentences. Parents should guide their children's language development to a higher stage through correct education. When the baby stretches out his hands and says, "Mommy, hug me." The mother should give the baby a warm hug and say, "Mommy, come and hug the baby." Use normal communication methods to try to shorten the time the baby uses reduplicated words or baby talk.
Taboo 3: Imitating the baby’s funny pronunciation to create wrong cues
Parent type: The type that makes the best of a bad situation
Violation behavior: When babies are just learning to speak, they often have some funny and inaccurate pronunciations, such as saying "chi" as "qi", saying "shi" as "xiji", saying "apple" as "pingduo", etc. Some parents think it's funny, so they repeat the baby's wrong pronunciation to make the baby laugh.
Harmful consequences of violating the prohibition: Babies have inaccurate pronunciation because their pronunciation organs are not fully developed, their auditory discrimination ability and the ability to adjust their pronunciation organs are weak, and they cannot fully and correctly master the pronunciation of certain sounds. If parents learn their baby's ridiculous pronunciation, the baby will get the wrong hint and think that his pronunciation is correct. This wrong pronunciation may be difficult to change for a long time.
Solution to break the ban: Mom and dad should not learn the baby's pronunciation, but should use correct language to speak to the baby. Over time, under the guidance of correct voice, the baby's pronunciation will naturally become correct.
