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Along with babies’ first steps, their first words are a milestone that lots of parents look forward to. But the line between babies making sounds and actually saying words is a bit blurry. After all, children often start out by saying words a little wrongly, so it’s hard to know what counts.

We caught up with speech and language therapist Janet Cooper to learn more about how children come to say their first words, how parents can help them on their way and ways they can support children to build on their initial words.

When do children say their first words and what counts as a first word?

As with lots of things in development, children develop at different rates, but most children say their first word between ten and fourteen months.

Parents should be less concerned with children making exactly the right sounds and more with them giving sounds meaning, says Janet. “It may be that they make a sound along with pointing at something. If they use that sound consistently, then even if it’s not clear, it’s a symbol for the object the child wants and this should be classed as a word,” she says.

You can tell that your child’s sound is meaningful if they seem to make the same sound for the same thing or action regularly. “So if the dog’s in the room and they're looking at it and making the same sound over and over, there’s a good chance that that's their symbol for dog,” says Janet.

It might not be that they make the right sound straight away, they sometimes come up with some wonderful versions of words, but words are just symbols for something else. So if they're using it as a symbol for something recognisable, then that is a word.

“If you miss early word attempts, you might not realise that your child has actually started talking. So, for example, they might say, ‘doh’ for dog, and the more the adult recognises this and reacts to it with praise and reinforcement, the more likely the child is to turn that into a word they use regularly.”

What first words are most common and why?

For most children, their first words tend to be things they experience regularly in their environment. And for a lot of children, that means that ‘mama’ or ‘dada’ is word number one.

The other reason some words come earlier is to do with the way their sounds are made with the mouth. “The easiest words babies can make involve ‘lips together’ sounds, or sounds where you put the tongue on the bumpy bit behind the top teeth,” Janet tells us.

And there’s an evolutionary reason for babies starting to move their mouths this way when they talk. “Those parts of the mouth give extra sensory feedback in feeding, so that they can suckle and survive.” But what that also means is that when a child uses these parts of the mouth to make sounds, their brain gets better feedback about what they’re doing with their tongue and lips.

There’s one more reason they make these mouth movements first – they’re the ones they can see.

If somebody says a word like ‘mama’, babies can actually see how they're making that sound as they make it. Sounds made further back in the mouth are harder to recognise.

When babies babble, they use these easy mouth movements and easy vowel sounds to create repeated syllables like ‘bababa’ and ‘dadada’ and a lot of babies will soon turn these into ‘mama’ and ‘dada’.

However, other first words are often reported by parents too. When polled, our social media audience told us some of their babies’ more unusual first words, including ‘turtle’ and ‘bubble’. Janet suggests there is an easy explanation for this too.

Firstly, if a baby has a favourite turtle toy, it’s likely to be something they’re interested in enough to talk about, while most babies will be motivated by bubbles if they’ve played with them regularly too. “And again, both of these words use the front of the mouth. Sometimes when speech and language therapists are trying to teach first words to children who are behind with their speech, those will be the kind of words we'll pick for them to learn with those repetitive syllables.”

How can parents help children on the way to their first words?

Janet has a few suggestions for ways you can help your child to start learning from birth:

• Getting face to face with them and taking turns

“It’s about talking to them so that they can see your face regularly, but also observing, waiting and listening, so there is that serve and return pattern as in conversation.” Leave a pause and see how babies respond to you as you chat to them.

• Copying each other

“Babies are born to mirror what they're seeing, so they will sometimes try and imitate some things you're doing. Even from day one, newborn babies can imitate you sticking your tongue out. As they get older, try babbling at them, and then waiting to see if they'll babble back.”

• Taking notice and following their lead

“Where you can see that they're making sounds while motioning or looking towards something, you can reinforce that by saying ‘yes, that’s a…’ and naming whatever it is, even if their attempt is really unclear.” Speech and language therapists sometimes call this ‘shared attention’, because both you and baby pay attention to the same thing.

How can parents help children build on their first words?

Janet also has tips for building on the early words children say. “One of the best techniques is to start to add a word. So if the child says ‘bear’, you say ‘yes, teddy bear’. And that puts that word into context for the child, so they start to learn how those early sentences are built up. Don't correct them, just add a little bit more.”

Which sorts of words tend to come first?

As well as ‘mama’ and ‘dada’, most of children’s first words are naming words for things around them, says Janet.

Nouns are concrete - they’re something babies can see or touch. So if they’re saying ‘nana’, and they’re given a banana, it's instantly gratifying. Verbs and adjectives are more conceptual, and harder to put into context.

According to Janet, most babies will later add verbs in order to create sentences, while most describing words come later on. “That’s where the strategy of adding words can really help,” says Janet.

And she has a word of caution when it comes to the things you buy for babies to play with. “A lot of books and and games for children encourage learning colours and counting, which are great for child development, but they're not the first things you need to introduce. They're only meaningful if you've got those naming words first.”

Should I worry if my child isn’t saying much?

If your child isn’t speaking much, you shouldn’t necessarily be alarmed, says Janet. There are some positive indicators she says you should look out for, which suggest that children could soon be talking:

• The ability to share attention with you
• The ability to understand and follow instructions
• Pointing and gesturing

“If a child of nearly 2 came to me with all those skills, and they just weren't talking, I wouldn't be worried as long as they’re vocalising in some way and getting their needs met through gesture.”

I've seen children where they're saying nothing at 2, and then 2 months later, they are talking in sentences.

There are some things you can do to try and get children to make the leap to words too. “You might create some reasons and opportunities for children to say words. So it might be giving them a choice, which forces the child into saying the thing they want. Or it might be putting something slightly out of reach that they can normally get for themselves, so that they have to indicate to you that they want it.”

If you’re concerned at all about your child’s speech, then it’s worth speaking to your health visitor. In the meantime, check out Janet’s advice on when children start to speak and whether you should be worried about your child’s speech.

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