Babbling

At around five months you’ll notice your baby joining up some of the verbal noises he’s been experimenting with to form strings of sounds known as babbling.

Much research has gone into the process of babbling and while some experts pass it off as random sounds your baby is experimenting with, others believe it’s your baby trying to decipher the language that he hears you talking, by breaking it down and imitating the sounds and intonations of speech.

At five months babbling will sound like a string of repeated sounds like ‘ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba’; as your baby gets older his babbling will sound more like sentences (albeit unintelligible!) as your baby experiments with pitch and tone. Read speaking to your baby.

Babies start to vocalize at around four months and by six to seven months babbling starts to happen. Researchers from the University of Texas have discovered that there are four patterns of words common to this babbling. If you've noticed your baby stringing out sounds such as 'da-da', 'ma-ma', 'ba-ba' and 'ta-ta', it is probably because they’re the most common sounds your baby hears as well as the easiest to form.

When your child gets older, these are the sounds he’ll be able to make with the most accuracy. In many languages, the term for dads starts with 'da' and the term for moms starts with 'ma'. It’s likely that back in the day babies made those very sounds and their parents responded, thinking their child was saying their names – thereby adopting those sounds as mommy and daddy.

Recent research also points to the fact that babies learn a lot more than we give them credit for, and the seeds of learning language are actually sown while your baby is in the uterus. The evidence for this is in a series of tests carried out on newborns and looking at their reactions to certain sounds outside the uterus. The conclusion was that babies learn the rhythm of their native language from their mother's voice while hearing her voice from inside the womb.

Why not chat to other moms about this, or other topics, by leaving a message on our chat forum.

The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.

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Last Modified: 03/07/2007

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