Language acquisition is the process by which a child learns to understand and use language. It moves from cooing and babbling in the first year to a first word around 12 months, word combinations around 2 years and sentences after that.
What are the main stages?
Typical stages in the first years:
| Around | What you may notice |
|---|---|
| 2 months | Cooing: soft vowel sounds |
| 6-9 months | Babbling: "ba-ba", "da-da" |
| 9-12 months | Understanding simple words, waving and pointing |
| 12 months | First meaningful words |
| 18 months | Growing vocabulary, often quickly |
| 2 years | Two-word phrases such as "more milk" |
What you can do
- Talk, read and sing with your child every day.
- Respond to your child's sounds and words as conversation.
- Limit background TV and screens.
When to talk to your doctor
Talk to your doctor if your baby is not babbling by 10 months, has no words by 15-18 months, is not combining words by 2 years, or loses words they used to say.
