Coos, babbles, & words
The Stages and Breakdown of Each
Hey Hey!
This week on our socials, we’ve been talking a lot about babies and the beginning stages of their speech and language development. In this article, we will dig into the differences between coos and babbles, and how they are connected to words themselves. We’ll also discuss what to do if you think your baby isn’t quite hitting the typical age milestones when it comes to each, and how to help them along the way.
It all starts with a Coo..
The first little noises that your baby starts to make. “Ahh”, or “oooh”.. Maybe a “c” sound, or “g” simply put. Coos tend to be short and sweet, sometimes quiet. Babies might make a gurgle sound, or fun noises with their lips. It’s the start of exploration of what their mouths can do.
There are a few stages to cooing to watch for:
Prelinguistic state: Soft vowel sounds like “ah”, “eh”, and “oh”.
Muscle development: Cooing allows babies to strengthen the muscles in their throat, mouth, and tongue and learn how to put them together to later learn how to speak.
Communication: Even though they aren’t using real words, this is their way of communicating. They are seeking attention and are trying to communicate with you. This is the only way they know how.
Developmental milestones: This is typically happening between 6 and 8 weeks of age, and is a crucial step in the language acquisition process.
Transition to babbling: As they grow, their coos turn into babbles. They start to explore more noises, combinations, and a wider variety of sounds and connections.
Reading to even the tiniest baby can help them.
Engagement and showing them how words sound - and what happens when we put letters together- is a vital step to their growth!
Babbling- What is it, exactly?
“Babbling is sometimes called baby talk (or jargon, when it begins to take on the intonations of speech” (per Healthline). It doesn’t usually make sense. It happens at random times when your baby just feels like making sounds. It kind of sounds like a word jumble and there is no rhyme or reason to it.
On the same token, babbling is a very important step in speech development and should certainly be considered so. While this is true, the noises your baby are making won’t make sense to you- and that’s perfectly okay. Even though it might seem like they are intending to say a certain word- like “baba” and looking at their bottle.. They’re just babbling along!
This is the beginning of how your baby starts to put sounds together and how to make them with their mouth. There are a few stages, and each one offers their own excitement:
Marginal Babbling: This is usually happening between the ages of 4 and 6 months, and they start pairing vowel sounds with consonant sounds. These are typically single syllables.
Canonical babbling: Between 6 and 10 months, your baby should start to make syllable sounds that are recognizable. Putting several together, and sounding like multiple words. (goo-goo, gaa-gaa vibes) Sometimes they repeat the same syllable (reduplicated) or they use different syllables together (non-reduplicated).
Conversational babbling: When your baby starts to seem like they are intending something, but they still are using baby talk. It might seem that they are mimicking you- or arguing with you- and that they understand the dialogue between people. This includes pauses, expressions, volume changes and gestures. This usually starts around 10 months old and lasts until they speak their first real word.
This is the beginning of how your baby starts to put sounds together and how to make them with their mouth.
Encourage your baby to babble away!
How do you know if your baby has a speech delay?
According to Healthline, if your baby doesn’t start babbling (or making noises like cooing) at about 4-5 months, no need to panic. It’s not a hard and fast rule. That being said, if, by 8 months, your baby still isn’t babbling, it’s a good time to seek advice. The delay could be from a range of things- hearing, speech impairments, or developmental disorders. It’s super important to notice and recognize if your child isn’t hitting these milestones so you can seek early intervention and address the problem to help them find success quicker.
How do you encourage your little babbler to keep babbling?
Talk to them. It’ll seem a bit odd, but think about it. If you started a conversation with someone but they ignored you. Or if you were speaking one language, but the person on the other side of the conversation just walked away because they didn’t understand you.. Would you keep talking? Probably not. Respond to them like it makes sense.. They’ll keep talking and eventually they’ll find the words they’ve been looking for.
Narrate - tell them what things are, who people are, what you’re doing. Point out objects, show them, and let them hold them while repeating the word. Visual learning is very helpful for babies, so when they can see what you’re talking about, they can make connections quicker.
Go on, Mariah, sing it out- They don’t care how talented you are. In fact, they think your voice is the best voice, so let them hear it. They can learn about speech patterns through song, and different vocabulary. It’s also different than just talking, so it gets their attention.
Read, read, read! Even though it might feel strange reading books to a baby, every bit of exposure to new words and sounds will help. They get to hear sentence structure, patterns, and rhythm through books. Don’t stop reading to them when they start talking, either.
Imitate them- Let them know that they are heard. Engage in a conversation and legitimately communicate. They will feel confident, and likely to continue trying.
Make eye contact- None of this is worth it if you don’t look at them when you do it. Let them know they have your full attention.
Narration
This can seem funny, but it encourages your baby to talk back to you! They are looking for engagement from you- and this is a great way to show that.
Be sure to check out our socials to learn more! We’d love to hear from you and how you’ve navigated these exciting -but sometimes uncertain- events in your baby’s life.
You’ve got this, and so do they!