Baby language development, what are the stages?

Crying is the only way babies communicate early in life. But over time, baby language development has started to progress. He cries variously and begins to distinguish when he is hungry or feeling bored. For more details, here are the language developments in babies that need to be known in their first year.

What is the development of language skills in babies?

Quoted from Pregnancy Birth & Baby, baby language skills are skills that babies have to talk or communicate with other people. This is in line with the development of the baby according to his age.

Just like a baby's motor development, sensory abilities, emotional intelligence, and cognitive development, a baby's language development takes place gradually.

This early age allows the baby's brain to absorb language as well as train his communication skills. However, it should also be noted that every child is likely to develop at different times.

That is why, pay attention and practice the development of baby's language skills to make it easier for him to communicate.

At what age can babies start talking?

When a new baby is born, he usually cries more as a way of expressing the emotions he feels.

As your baby develops and grows, he will start babbling like he wants to say something after the first 2-3 months of age.

Infant language development will continue until the baby can speak his first words, for example "mama" or "daddy", which is around the age of 9-12 months.

From then on, the baby will chat more frequently to describe what he sees, hears, feels, thinks, and wants.

The stage of development of the baby's speech

Here are some of the stages or phases of speech in babies:

Stage 1: Crying

Babies have been crying even from birth. When a newborn is born, a baby's crying indicates that his lungs are filled with air. In fact, crying is one of the responses of babies to their external environment. There are also various types of baby crying, namely:

Normal crying

There are some experts who say that crying is a way for babies to tell their caregivers that they are hungry.

The characteristic of this cry is that there is a pattern that usually consists of the sound of the crying itself, a few moments of pause, and a short whistling sound. Regular cries also usually sound louder than other cries.

Crying from anger

When a baby cries out of anger, a crying sound will sound like when air is being forced into the throat.

Crying because it hurts

Usually the sound of a baby crying is very loud and there are times when the baby holds its breath. For that, don't let your little one experience this one cry.

Stage 2: Babbling

Babies usually start babbling around 1-2 months of age. This stage of infant language development shows that the sound of babbling is formed by the sound of air being processed in the throat.

It should be noted that babies usually babble when they feel happy at the caregiver's side. Interestingly, at this time babies have started to learn language by recognizing the words they hear from those around them

Stage 3: Chattering (babbling)

Chattering is the result of refinement of babbling. The chatter itself is the result of combining dead and vowel letters, such as "da", "ma", "uh", and "na" (Pujaningsih, 2010). Babies can start chattering when they are in the middle of one year.

As in the development of the age of 4 months and over the baby begins to talk by imitating what he hears. At this age too, your little one learns to say words with the same vowels, such as "bababa", or "yayaya".

In deaf babies born to deaf families who use sign language, babies will tend to chatter with their hands and fingers (Bloom, 1998).

This baby's language development will also appear at the same time as other babies who use voice in chatter, namely in the middle of one year.

The baby's attempts to speak sound random and unreasonable, but he will keep repeating it over and over. This is because he is experimenting with using his tongue, palate, and vocal cords.

Stage 4: The appearance of the first word

Before being able to speak fluently, babies actually understand the words they cannot pronounce (Pan & Uccelli, 2009). Like when a baby is able to know his own name in the development of a baby at 5 months of age.

Entering the age of 7 months, baby words begin to make sense. The reason is, he is trying to try the tone and pattern of speech that is said by the people closest to him, although it is still not right.

In addition, it is possible that your baby will begin to understand his own name and respond to other people's calls.

His speech ability will also get better because your little one doesn't just talk. But trying to associate a meaning with himself gradually.

For example, you will hear the first word, which is easy to pronounce but contains meaning, namely "mama" or "papa". This baby language development is likely to occur at the age of 8 months to 11 months of age.

Furthermore, your little one will continue to appear interesting words with easy pronunciation. This process will continue continuously along with the help of those around him who talk to him.

It is important for parents to speak in the language of the baby

During one year since your little one was born, there must be a lot of new things that he tries to learn, one of which is how to communicate.

When your baby smiles, laughs, or just chatter calls you as “mama” or “bubu”, that is his own way of inviting you to chat.

Throughbaby talk or the baby's language, your little one hopes you will answer the mess again by smiling, singing, or reading a book. Communicating with the baby is an important phase in the early days he was born.

You should focus on developing your little one's speaking and language skills as it has many things to do.

Some of the benefits of how to train a talking baby start from the development of reading, writing, and bonding with your little one in the future.

How to train baby language development?

Hone your baby's language skills from an early age so that the development that is formed can be more optimal. No need to be confused, you can apply the following tips:

0-6 months of age

Here are tips to train the development of language skills for babies aged 0-6 months:

1. Talk to the baby

As long as you practice your baby's language skills, during that time you have to be diligent in inviting him to talk about many things. Even though your little one may not fully understand it, this method makes him understand that you are inviting him to communicate.

2. Describe what is done with the baby

Try explaining to him more often what the two of you are doing. When going to take a shower, you can say, “It's already this time, let's take a shower first, honey. It's good to use warm water. "

Another way that is included as a stage of language development is to continue with, "Already take a bath, already smell good, are beautiful (or handsome) now we drink milk, son."

Age 7-11 months

Here are tips to train the language development skills of babies aged 7-11 months:

1. Read stories to babies

It's never too soon to start reading stories to babies, as an effort to train the development of baby language skills. Because your little one has not been able to read,

You can use story books that are more dominated by a variety of interesting pictures. While reading the story, explain one by one to your child the names of each picture in the story book.

2. More often mentioning "breast" and "mama"

One of the efforts of your little one to get to know the calls of their parents, while at the same time practicing the baby's language skills, call yourself and your partner a certain call.

Every time you ask her to talk, you can say "Come on, brother, change diapers first with Mama."

Also start getting used to calling these names to your partner when you are with your little one. Gradually, the baby will reflexively call “dada” or “mama” when they see you from a distance.

In fact, from what was not fluent enough, gradually your little one can pronounce it very fluently.

3. Repeating a certain word

Frequently smile and look at the baby's face when teaching your little one vocabulary. For example, you want to teach him to recognize words'eat', then you have to repeat the word throughout the day so that it is quickly absorbed by your little one's brain.

Although language development in babies or children varies, getting your child checked by the doctor as early as possible is the best prevention to find out if your little one has difficulty speaking.