Baby's language: from babbling to first words

Language development in the first year of the baby's life

From their birth, babies have only the gestures, some sounds and tears to communicate and transmit their needs and emotions to the people in their environment.

How is the language development of the baby in his first months of being born? In this interview, psychoeducator Ana Carballal, an expert in Early Care, clears all doubts about the process of acquiring the language of babies.

Communication of babies and their first words

1. How do babies communicate?

From birth the children communicate with us through gestures and sounds. Through crying, for example, they already indicate that there is something they do not like or feel annoyed, that they are hungry, afraid, pain, etc. That is why when we speak of baby's language, we differentiate between two stages: the pre-linguistic stage and linguistics.

2. What is and how does the pre-linguistic or non-verbal stage develop?

The pre-linguistic or non-verbal stage is called precisely because there are no words, there are sounds, approximations, gurgling, babbling, crying and smiles, which are the first stage where children are already beginning to communicate, and lasts longer Or less until twelve months. The gestures and sounds reveal the mood of the baby, as well as different needs: eating, physical contact, changing diapers, sleeping, drinking, etc. Babies always transmit and communicate.

3. What signs indicate that the baby's language is evolving?

How do we see children evolve? For from that initial cry that is the first sound manifestation of the child, this will be followed by the appearance of the smile as a response to what he likes, guttural sounds and vowels and gradually begins to distinguish intonations of parents, That is, if they refer to joy, surprise or anger. In this evaluation will also appear the babbling and the first approximations that by itself hardly has a communicative value but that are gaining more intentionality and meaning. This will be followed by a jargon or language that parents are already identifying and those sounds are what the child is getting closer to the word.

4. Why and why do babies babble?

Babbling is not usually done until about four months, although it is true that children already make some sounds actively. Babbling is your way of training your facial muscles and phonatory organs so you can learn to speak and it is also a way to get closer to your language and your environment. In addition, adults will not only give you information when speaking, but will also interpret their vocalizations, giving them meaning in the context in which the child is. With this, we can see how children go from reflexive vocalizations like crying, to vowel games, we will appreciate the reduplicative babbling, when children repeat two equal syllables (mom, tatá), followed by non-reduplicative babbling, when they repeat syllables Different that begins to constitute a jargon, that is to say, a way of speaking in which they do not say words but realize rises and falls of tone that resemble to the way of speaking of the adults.

5. How does the transition between babbling and baby's first words occur?

In their process of evolution between babbling and the first words, children will gradually begin to imitate more sounds than their parents say and to relate the information that their environment is giving them about an object with it. In this way, the jargon we discussed above will appear and, in that jargon, they will use the union of several sounds similar to a word to refer to something always in the same way, for example, when they say "aga", for water , Something that people understand the environment in which it is, and, finally, those sounds will evolve to the first word.

6. How can parents interfere and help their baby communicate more?

At this stage, it is important for parents to talk frequently with their baby, respond to their babble and make different expressions with their faces. Talking is something we do continuously and we can start up at any time, for example, in daily routines. They are the best time to enrich the world of our children with new information, words, gestures, expressions of affection and this, without a doubt, is the best medium for the development and maturation of language. Then, we can choose to enrich these activities, not only for speaking, but for all that entails, complicity, affection, security, affectivity, learning, experience and emotions.