From Cooing to Talking: Understanding Your Baby’s Speech Development
Open mouth vowel sounds develop first before consonant sounds begin to develop around 4-6 months.
The Evolution of Babbling: From Cooing to First Words
As a new parent, you may be wondering, “When is my baby going to start talking?” But did you know there are actually many steps in speech development that build up to first words? From those first coos to the sweet sound of “mama” or “dada,” every stage of early sound-making helps your baby build the foundation for speech and language. Let’s walk through how speech develops, what sounds to listen for, and how you can support your little one along the way.
Cooing (Emerges Around 6–8 Weeks)
Your baby’s very first sounds (beyond crying) usually start around 6–8 weeks of age. This is the cooing stage—when babies produce vowel-like sounds such as:
“ahhh”
“ooo”
“eee”
You may also hear gurgling sounds, drawn-out vowel play, or squeaks. Cooing is your baby’s way of practicing using their voice and starting to explore sound.
How to Encourage Cooing
Get face-to-face with your baby, smile, and talk to them using parentese, a sing-songy and higher pitched tone of voice, that can help your baby tune into the words and sounds you are saying, and has been proven to help advance early language development. When they start to vocalize, respond by smiling, talking back, or imitating their sounds! This is socially reinforcing, and starts teaching the idea of turn-taking in conversation. When you imitate them, it also starts teaching them the concept of imitation so they learn to imitate you!
To learn all about how to encourage cooing and other early language skills that come before first words (called prelinguistic skills), check out my post here!
Blowing raspberries is one of the adorable ways your baby will engage in vocal play.
Vocal Play (Emerges Around 3-5 Months)
Vocal play is when you’ll start to hear your baby experiment even more with their voice with new sounds, that are not necessarily “speech sounds” (sounds used to make words, like vowels and consonants). This could be sounds like squealing, blowing raspberries, laughing, shrieking, gurgling, and grunting. Although they’re not “speech sounds,” vocal play is an important step to learning how to control their voice and breath control.
How to Encourage Vocal Play
As with cooing, one of the best ways to encourage vocal play is to model it, and respond to your baby when they make silly sounds! You can respond by smiling, talking back to them, or imitating them.
Babbling
Early Babbling (Emerges Around 4–6 Months)
Starting sometime between 4-6 months, you may notice your baby experimenting with new speech sounds that are different from cooing and vocal play—welcome to babbling!
At this stage, babies begin to add consonant sounds, often starting with simple single syllables such as:
“ba”
“du”
“ma”
Reduplicated Babbling (Emerges Around 6-7 Months)
Reduplicated babbling is when your baby will repeat the same syllable in strings, such as:
“mamama”
“dadada”
“bububu”
While it may sound like your baby is saying words, like mama or dada, they are most likely just practicing at this stage. You’ll know it’s a “real word” when they are saying it consistently in a meaningful context to communicate something (e.g. every time mama walks in the room, to specifically call for dada).
It is most common to hear sounds b, m, p, d, n, t, w, y, and sometimes k and g. These are the earliest developing consonant sounds in typical speech development. This is one of the reasons most baby’s first words and word approximations are words that are comprised of these sounds (e.g. mama, dada, papa, ball, bubble, up, down, bye-bye, moo, neigh, eat, go, wawa)! Learn more here about how to encourage the development of these early speech sounds!
Variegated Babbling (Emerges Around 8–10 Months)
Next comes variegated babbling—when your baby starts mixing different consonant and vowel sounds together, such as:
“mabadoo””
“bamadu”
“naguba”
Variegated babbling shows that you little one is gaining more control and learning how to move their articulators (e.g. tongue, lips, jaw, velum) between different sounds, which is an important step in being able to piece together different sounds to say their first words.
How to Encourage Babbling
Once again, the best way to encourage your baby to babble more is to socially respond to them! Do this by making eye contact, smiling, talking back to them (especially using parentese), or imitating their sounds! Another way to encourage babbling, especially if your little one isn’t babbling yet, is by modeling sound play. Get face-to-face with baby and repeat strings of sound (e.g. mamama, bababa, tututu, neeneenee). Point to your mouth to bring your baby’s attention to how your mouth is moving, and lightly tap their mouth to bring their attention to their own mouth, and encourage imitation. Pause and see if they fill in the silence with some of their own vocalizations!
To learn more about how to encourage babbling, check out my post here!
Jargon (Emerges around 10-12 months)
Soon, babbling will sound more like real speech with changes in pitch, rhythm, and intonation. This is often called jargon—and it may sound like your baby is having a full conversation (just without real words yet!). Jargon is similar to variegated babbling, using a combination of consonant and vowel sounds in strings, with the addition of rhythm that sounds like your baby is talking (kind of like the language used by the Sims!)
How to Encourage Jargon
Talk back to your baby! Act as if they really are participating in a conversation with you! If you don’t know what they’re trying to talk about, try silly conversation phrases like, “Really? They told you that?!” or “Wow that sounds like so much fun!” or “Oh my goodness, tell me more!” Another great strategy is to talk about whatever is going on in your environment, such as, “Oh yes I saw you throw the ball!” or “Yup mama is cooking dinner, I can smell the chicken in the oven,” or “That’s right we need to find the apples, and then find some oranges.” This give social reciprocity for their communication attempts, and also provides words and context for what they might be trying to talk to you about. If they’re gesturing, use these as clues to help put words to what they’re saying!
Why Cooing, Babbling, and Jargon Matter
All of these phases of early sound development build off of each other. The repetitive practice helps your baby build the muscles and motor plans needed to be able to say real words. The development from cooing to jargon, together with the development of their prelinguistic skills, is what builds up to the development of first words!
First Words (Emerges Around 12 Months)
By around their first birthday many babies begin saying their first words. First words can include word approximations (e.g. wawa for water), environmental sounds (e.g. moo, beep), exclamations (e.g. wow, uh-oh), signs (e.g. sign language for “more” or “all done”), names (e.g. mama, dada, pet’s name), and true words (e.g. baby, walk). These are often made up of the sounds they’ve already practiced during babbling:
Mama
Dada
Ball
Bye-bye
More
Up
Go
Meow
Car
Uh-oh
To be counted as a first word, your baby should be using it independently (not right after someone else said it), intentionally (in the correct context to communicate something), and consistently (more than just once or twice). To learn more about first words, check out my post here!
How You Can Support Speech Development
Get face-to-face: Getting face-to-face allows your baby to focus in on your mouth and how it moves to make sounds. Make exaggerated and drawn out sounds (e.g. “ooooo,” “eeeeee,” “mmmmmm”)
Talk often: Narrate what you’re doing, describe objects, and engage in playful “conversation” to encourage back-and-forth vocalizations (don’t forget to pause to let your baby fill in the silence!)
Use parentese: A sing-songy, higher-pitched voice helps babies tune into your sounds.
Imitate your baby: Repeat their coos and babbles—it encourages them to keep vocalizing, and teaches them to imitate you in the future
Play sound games: Try repeating fun syllables like “babababa” and see if your baby joins in.
Look in the mirror: Looking in the mirror together is a great way to help your baby discover their mouth!
Read and sing: Songs, rhymes, and simple books expose your baby to rhythm and repetition.
From cooing to babbling to those magical first words, each stage is a building block for language. Celebrate every sound your baby makes—it’s all part of their incredible journey toward talking!
A Gentle Reminder
Every baby develops at their own pace. Some may start cooing or babbling earlier or later than others. If you’re concerned about your child’s speech or language development, check in with your pediatrician, who can refer you to a speech-language pathologist if needed. Early intervention is proven to have better outcomes than the outdated “wait and see” approach, so it’s always a good idea to get it checked out if you are having concerns!
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This website and information on this blog post is provided for educational purposes only. It is not meant as medical advice, intended to replace a speech-language assessment, therapy from a speech-language pathologist, or serve as medical care for a child. It is recommended that you discuss any concerns or questions you might have with your speech-language pathologist, pediatrician, and medical team, and develop an individualized team plan specifically for your child.