A baby starting to talk is a milestone reached and a true joy for parents. It is a time when parents start prattling along with the kids and start teaching them words to talk. There is a normal age when the baby should start talking. If they are not talking even after the age of one or two years, then you should start working about it. If you want to know when should a child start talking, read this article. Babies start making vocal sounds around 9 months and around 12 months start recognizing sounds of familiar things. With every growing stage, there must be an increase in understanding and talking different words and sounds.
Stages of a baby’s speech development
1. The stage between 7 to 12 months
When the baby is born they make crying sounds. They also make sounds of sighs. When they reach the age of 3 months they send out more sounds like coos and sighs. When they reach 4 months of age, they start saying words like mama, papa. They also start saying a few words that are a string of words and not a meaningful sentence. This happens between 4 to 7 months. The stage between 7 to 12 months is the time when they start prattling, babbling, and make attempts to start talking.
2. The stage between 13 to 18 months
This is the stages when they start understanding and talking more words and sentences that look like they are learning to talk. This goes beyond the stage of prattling which is just a string of words. This is the stage when the baby starts communicating in their own language and words if they want to be lifted, fed, and communicate all of their needs.
3. The stage between 19 to 24 months
This is a stage when the child learns more than 50 words and is able to understand the language in which you communicate. By this time the baby has picked up more and more words and is able to talk to you in human language. The baby might be able to talk in proper sentences without using the pronouns like ‘I’. They might also be able to sing a few lines and speak about things that the baby likes or dislikes.
4. The stage between 25 to 36 months
The vocabulary at this stage increases and the baby is now a toddler who learns to talk about a lot of things, learns to read words and communicate with a better vocabulary. At this stage, the baby learns to communicate in all the pronouns and is a better talker. When the baby reaches the age of 3, they are able to understand many things and you can give them more than on instruction and teach them more.
5. Things to do when the baby does not start talking
The baby must start talking by the time they reach the age of 7 months. You should be worried about a hearing problem if the baby does not start talking even after the age of 2 years. You can take the baby to a pediatric pathological doctor to check for language and hearing problems. They have programs that help in coordination abilities and boost their language and speech recognition skills. These are the signs to look for to see if they have speech and language problems.
- After 6 months of age, if the baby is not responding to sounds or making eye contact with you, you must check with a doctor.
- The baby must be able to babble by 9 months, if this does not happen it is a sign of a hearing or coordination problem.
- Within 13 to 18 months you should be worried if the baby is not pointing to objects and unable to follow instructions.
- If there are these signs there are problems in the tongue or some kind of an oral impairment.
You can take the baby to check for oral and motor problems. The doctor would check if there are portions in the brain that are responsible for speech and find any other underlying problems with ears. Parents are recommended to spend more time with the child and communicate with them through sounds and gestures. This article is useful to know about when should a child start talking and the signs and problems related to it.
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