Skip to main content

Baby isn’t talking: When it’s normal, and when to worry

Are you the proud parent of an infant and curious to know when you get to hear their sweet voice for the first time? While the exact age varies, but babies generally say their first word around their first birthday. That doesn’t mean they aren’t learning about language before then, though. Keep reading to find out about baby babbling, word, and sentence forming milestones, and when to be worried if your child doesn’t make them.

Baby in blankets
Filip Mroz/Unsplash.com

The earliest language learning

Babies can hear talking while in utero, and they are actively learning about language while doing so. In fact, by the time they are born, babies can differentiate their mother’s voice from that of other people. Furthermore, if a mom reads a book to her baby in the womb, the baby will prefer to hear that book read to them once they’re born. From the time they are born, babies will learn to imitate the sounds spoken to them.

Recommended Videos

Cooing and babbling

Aside from recognizing a baby’s different cries (when they are hungry versus when they are tired, for example), you will find that around 1 month of age, babies begin to coo. Cooing is the vocalization of simple sounds, often vowels. This is their first non-crying form of communication!

Baby lying in crib
By the time they are around 6 months old, their coos will progress to babbles. Babbling sounds are those that have a consonant paired with a vowel sound, like ba or ma. Babies typically babble in strings, making sounds like ma-ma-ma. While it might sound like your child is saying mama, they probably haven’t made the connection between that word and its meaning.

Instead, they are simply making some of the easiest consonant sounds to form. These include sounds made with just the lips, like b, m, and p, as well as sounds made with the tongue on the roof of the mouth, such as d and t. Also around the age that babbling begins, babies are really beginning to understand spoken language. They can also understand sign language by this age. Hearing babies who are taught sign language usually start to sign when they are between 6 and 8 months old. Teaching your baby basic sign language is a great way to communicate with them before they can talk!

First words

At approximately 9 months, your baby will begin combining different consonant-vowel pairs to make words like ba-ma or da-pa. They understand even more language by then, too. However, they lack the motor skills necessary to form whole words. It requires more than just cognitive ability to retrieve and vocalize words, after all.

Around 1 year of age, babies typically say their first word. This word is usually mama or dada, and will likely melt your heart! Their speech becomes clearer around 18 months, and by the time they are 2 years old, they might be able to form a few simple sentences.

When to be worried

Remember, the ages cited above are just averages — not absolutes. The actual age at which your child babbles, says their first word, and begins using sentences will vary and is unique to each individual. Your child will seemingly not understand speech one day and the next day utter their first word. So don’t get too anxious if at 1 year old, your baby hasn’t said their first word. Your child should begin forming words by 12 months, though, and if not you should speak to your pediatrician. Also of some concern is if your 24-month-old doesn’t understand about 50 words or doesn’t say around 10 words. Otherwise, don’t sweat it! Your child will speak when they are ready.

If your child is missing his or her speech milestones, there are a few steps doctors will take to find out why. Although babies are screened for hearing at birth, they may have developed hearing loss since — which would explain why they don’t understand spoken language. A hearing screening may be done on your child again if they aren’t meeting speech milestones. A speech-language pathologist may conduct a speech evaluation and determine that your child needs speech therapy. Finally, developmental evaluations that look at all of your child’s milestones, not just those related to language, are typically done at regular doctor’s appointments and may indicate a developmental issue that is responsible for speech delays.

Of course, you’re excited to hear your child speak for the first time, which is why you’re looking for the best ways to teach babies how to talk. But don’t try to rush it. Such an attempt would likely be futile anyway! Instead, make sure you read, sing, and talk to your child in a normal and clear voice frequently from an early age to best expose them to language. This is the best way for babies to learn language, which humans innately do.

Smiling baby in pajamas
Marcin Jozwiak /Unsplash.com
Nate Swanner
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Nate is General Manager for all not-Digital-Trends properties at DTMG, including The Manual, Digital Trends en Espanol…
A guide to cruising babies: What it means for your little one
Here's how a little cruiser will affect your household
A mother helping the baby to cruise along the couch.

All parents melt when you feel that little tug on your pants, look down, and see your baby using your legs to help them stand up. But that also means your little one is entering the cruising phase. Once your child discovers they can use objects, furniture, and yes, their parent's limbs to stand up and move around, it's on.

When you notice your child starting to leave crawling in the past, you are about to have a cruising baby in your house. Before things move along too fast, here's what that means for your little one and the rest of your family.
The first few steps toward cruising

Read more
Is your baby done with breastfeeding? Watch for these 6 signs
Clues to look out for that your baby is ready to move on from breastfeeding
Mother holding her baby in bed

When you make the decision to breastfeed, it is a whole journey you and your baby go on together. But as with all stages, breastfeeding, too, will come to an end at some point. It's better to know the clues and tells your baby will give to be prepared for the newest adventure. If you're doing baby-led weaning, these are the signs your baby does not want to breastfeed anymore, so you know when it's time to transition to the next stage of feeding.
Signs to watch for during feedings

The feedings themselves will sprinkle clues your baby is ready to ditch breastfeeding for good. If something feels off about the feeds, start paying attention each time you go to sit down for a session.
Feeding sessions become shorter
You know how long your baby eats at each session. When you notice your baby not wanting to feed for the usual time, you might start to worry they're not getting enough to eat. But your baby cutting down on the duration of each meal is a clue they might want to stop breastfeeding.
Baby skips feeding sessions
This is more than your baby finally sleeping longer and missing a feeding in the middle of the night. If you notice your baby refusing those additional snack time feedings, they may be telling you they don't want to breastfeed anymore. Offer a bottle or sippy cup or solid food and see how they react to taking those options. Once the feedings become shorter and then get skipped, your baby has sent strong signals they are over breastfeeding.
Baby gets more distracted during feedings
Babies love to look at everything and check out every sound, but when it comes time to eat, they usually mean business. If your little one is looking around the room, playing with their hands, or generally more interested in what's going on around them than eating, that is a sign they are done breastfeeding.
Other feeding signs to watch for

Read more
Is the cry it out method right for your baby?
Find out the CIO method is right for your family
Baby sleeping in their crib with a stuffed bear

As parents of an infant, getting the whole house to sleep is one of the most important milestones of the day. An established bedtime routine and a sleep training method are key to getting your baby down for the night. No matter if you need to sleep train your first or third baby, you want to know about all the options before you start. One you may have heard about is the cry it out method. See if this sleep training method is right for your family and your baby before you commit.
What is the cry it out method?

Also known as the Extinction method, the cry it out method is when you let your child self-soothe themselves at night to fall asleep through a mix of letting them cry and predetermined external comfort. When you hear about the cry it out (CIO) method, your mind goes to the baby being alone to cry all night in a dark room, left there until morning when the parents can check on them. While it is a controversial sleep method, in reality, it is a little more complex than that.
Cry it out method

Read more