Learning to Talk

by Hannah Mortimer, Educational and Child Psychologist

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You will be staggered at how rapidly your child develops new sounds and words.
In the early stages, your baby will be trying to make sense of the world around her and her only words are cries, a natural way to communicate with you.
Soon she will begin to make noises other than crying and you'll begin to hear her crying in different ways depending on whether she's hungry, tired or needs changing.
The earliest speech sounds you are likely to hear are 'm', 'b', 'p' and 'w' with 'n' and 't' following soon after. She will enjoy repeating sounds and stringing these together.
When she begins to learn early words, she will often repeat the first sound instead of saying the word clearly.
Toddlers seem to have an almost built in knack of linking words to objects and soon begin to collect words at an amazing rate.
Babies begin to use single words in a meaningful way from about 10 to 19 months, often using gestures to make themselves understood.
From two to three years, you will begin to notice that your child can speak in phrases of two to four words.

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