Understanding baby babble

Communicating
Baby's first word -- that major breakthrough in her progress toward speech -- is still weeks or months away. But by six to eight months of age, she learns how to alternate her gaze from your face to an object. This allows her to use unspoken communication to get what she wants. The baby gazes at a toy, then at her mother or father, then back at the toy. The meaning is clear: I want that. When the parent responds by handing over the object, there has been an exchange of information. That's real communication.

This is a time when you should be sensitive to your baby's gaze. If the child wants a toy, bring it into the conversation. Describe it. Ask your baby what she thinks about it. At this point your baby is interested in learning more about how language works with objects. Build on words. If a ball catches your infant's eye, you might say, "Look at the ball. It's a blue ball. Look at the big, blue ball." Games and rhymes are ways to expand her listening vocabulary and comprehension of what the words mean.

A baby's understanding of language in the first year is always ahead of her ability to vocalize. As early as six months, an infant is beginning to understand the names of family members. Ask a baby where mommy is, and she will turn and look at her. Your baby's ability to distinguish different types of vocal sounds is also changing.

Research indicates that up to the age of five or six months, infants are good at distinguishing a variety of speech sounds, called phonemes, from all languages. But between six and twelve months, they lose the ability to distinguish the phonemes that are not part of their parents' language, the language they hear every day.

During the same period, their vocal ability improves quickly. The next step toward language is a string of cooing sounds, called babbling. Some babies start babbling as early as four months, others may not start until eight months or later. Once they discover it, babies appear to play with sounds for the pure joy of sound. When your baby sees you, she will hold "conversations" with you, taking turns babbling and pausing while you respond. She might begin at five months with consonant sounds like m-m-m or b-b-b; between seven and eight months, she can utter about a dozen different phonemes, mostly simple combinations of consonant and vowel such as ba and ma.

Babies also begin showing rhythm in their vocalizing between the ninth and twelfth months, and they play with the pitch of a sound, sliding up and down between low and high sounds. Listen to your child when she starts to babble and show her how you enjoy it. You're helping build on your baby's skill at taking turns and this encourages her to try more. The important thing is to provide lots of language stimulation. Studies show that young babies adopted from an institution where they received little stimulation had not developed many language skills. Yet in a new home where they received lots of attention and were exposed to lots of conversation, they made huge advances in a very short time.