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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

first words?

49 replies

Evita · 03/12/2003 21:19

When does one expect first words to appear? My 13 month old says 'knedden', 'detch', 'haaa', 'guk' and 'shoo'. I don't know what she means except that 'guk' seems to mean 'walk', i.e. I say 'shall we go for a walk' and she replies adamantly 'guk!' and 'haaa' is when something's hot, i.e. the radiator or her food. What I was wondering is when the first recognisable words appear. She can say 'dah' for her dad but doesn't use it exclusively for him and hasn't really done a 'mamma' type thing yet. They're lovely though those first weird almost words.

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popsycal · 03/12/2003 21:25

panda was ds's first clear word at about 13.5 months. yes, i know, strange
dodo (dummy), car, narna (banana), ball and there followed shortly after
don't worry - at 16 months, he has loads of words but are still not clear but dh and i understand what he means
there is lots of time yet!!
then you won't be able to shut her up!
good luck!

Jimjams · 03/12/2003 21:39

depends what you mean by first words. if you mean clear words than can be understood by pretty much anyone then it varies greatly. At almost 2 ds2 has 3 what I would call clear words, yes no and there. Plenty of jargon though and his receptive language is where it should be. Ds1 at 4 has pretty much no recognisable words (bye bye and daddy being the only 2) but then he has problems and his receptive language is way behind. Although he said his first words well and truly before 12 months- and some of those were clear- now gone.

Anyway was chatting to a SALT about ds2 recently and she said the normal development of speech sounds varies hugely. It's this that will determine whe the first recognisable words appear and it varies hugely. Some will be around the first birthday, others after the second.

aloha · 03/12/2003 22:06

My ds's first 'word' was 'moo' for a cow. He was about 10months I think. He still specialises in a range of excellent animal impersonations.

coppertop · 03/12/2003 22:13

My ds's seem to be at opposite ends of the scale. Ds1 was about 3yrs 1month and ds2's first words came out at 9 months.

tamum · 03/12/2003 22:14

Well, I had no chance on the biggest baby thread (7lb 2oz and 8lb since you ask) but I bet I could win a most bizarre first word competition. I can't actually remember how old ds was, about 14 months I think, and the word was ....catastrophe. He didn't pronounce it v. well, obviously (more like ga-ga-eee), but that's definitely what it was. His favourite book at the time was Meg and Mog, where Mog crashes the broom and the only word on the page is "catastrophe", so when he crashed his little trolley of bricks into the wall I suppose it seemed the obvious word to him

jmf2106 · 03/12/2003 22:19

My ds's first clear word was star and that was last Christmas when he was 1yr 3months old. At his 8 month assessment the HV said he should have been doing all that baa-baa, daa-daa double-babbling stuff but he wasn't. Anyway, now he's 2years 3 months and he has loads of words, alot of them very clear and if we don't understand him and get it wrong we get "not saying, not saying!". He was slow to speak at first but then took off all at once. They all catch up eventually anyway, i'm sure. I've enjoyed him learning to talk and sometimes it makes me realise how much I say certain things, like "do you know what?" as he says this all the time (very annoying!)

norma · 03/12/2003 22:21

lol tamum.
My ds is 19 mths and can say mummy, daddy, dut(drink),up,kaki(his sister),taaaaa(thankyou),narna(banana),peese(please),mandi(his childminder),gog(dog) and oopsey (whoopsie). He also makes lots of animal noises. He understands loads more than he says, and I remember my dd stringing words together at the same age. They are all so different.

Angeliz · 03/12/2003 22:23

my dd's first clear word (aside from mam dad and nana) was "ball" as she wanted it off the fireplace! Obviously she then discovered the Wacky Warehouse and loved it I think all kids differ greatly. My dd is very articulate and amazes me( not boasting just stating!) and my nephew hardly said anything till he was 2 and a bit and now he's flying! (Still had the bloody health visitor telling me otherwise though.GGRRRRRRRRR i do not like them)

Angeliz · 03/12/2003 22:26

Evita your dd sounds like she's doing well for 13 months! Pretty son she'll be telling you EXACTLY where she wants to go for that walk!

suzywong · 03/12/2003 23:00

Evita
knedden-knedden was a favourite of my son's for ages. clearly it is very important for a 13 month old

sobernow · 03/12/2003 23:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bobsmum · 03/12/2003 23:58

Ds said "mumma" and "dada" from about 10 months, but his first other word was "boo-oon" (balloon) on his first birthday. Nearly 4 months later with loads more words under his belt he still says "boo-oon". The letter "L" has yet to make an appearance!

jmb1964 · 04/12/2003 00:09

Ds2's first 'word' was a triumphant 'I-did-it' at about 14 months I think, having climbed into bed with us one morning!
Dd2 on the other hand didn't have any clear words at all until she was over 2.5.
jmf2106 - is your birthday June 21st by any chance - funny if so, because that's when mine is!

vicimelly · 04/12/2003 02:42

I used to worry a lot about my dd as she didn't have a single recognisable word at almost 20 months, now at 2 and a half she can say anything she wants to say, all her words are completely understandable, it just sort of happened overnight! Her first word was "goal" (she's football mad!) and on that same day she came out with a few more words, and more the next day and on it went!!
Now I can't shut her up! she also tells everyone everything about everything which can get a bit embarrasing sometimes!! almost wish she couldn't talk at all sometimes!!

janinlondon · 04/12/2003 10:01

My DD's first word was BABY (pointing at a picture of a baby) over and over - even long enough for her obsessed mother to go get the video camera and capture it on film!. The problem was (and yes it really was a problem) that she was only 7 months. By 10 months she had about 20 recognisable words. She couldn't stand or walk. She just sat there like some weird Exorcist type creature speaking to people. Mothers at the nursery used to physically back away from her when she greeted them in the baby room. Like they expected her head to swivel or something. I found it really upsetting at the time, though now I wonder why I worried about it.

SoupDragon · 04/12/2003 10:22

DS1's first clear word was duck at 10.5 months. He's not stopped talking since. I'm excluding the mamma/dadda babbling words and he got a variety of animal impersonations before that.

DS2, however, said virually nothing until he was 2 and then his vocabulary literally exploded over the next few months. It was quite amazing, much more dramatic than DS1 who gained his language steadily but early. DS2 is not as clear as DS1 was though.

Tinker · 04/12/2003 12:47

sobernow

My daughter's first words were 'car' and 'light' but lots of things were 'cars'. I do remember her really giggling when I was telling her that the plane going over the house had come from Islamabad, she just loved that word. Another little girl I knew got really giggly at the word Abergele

Queenie · 04/12/2003 13:03

Sobernow LOL!! My dd's name is Sophie and she couldn't pronounce it cos of S's and F's as well -she would say her name to strangers as Dopey and they would look at me with pity

Tinker · 04/12/2003 13:14

Reminds me of my dauhter telling the nurse that she had 'cwadle crap'. Nurse told her that mummy needs to learn to enunciate doesn't she?

CountessDracula · 04/12/2003 13:31

DD is 15 months today and she says

Mama, Dada, Roodah (for Ruby, the dog), Bubbles (very clearly, when she sees the bubbles jar and wants them blown), balloon, boddlah (bottle), light (pointing at light when it comes on), plane (we live on flight path so is very often!), book, bear, rarrot (carrot), happle (apple), Hup (up) - prob some more that I can't remember here. Difficult to say what her first word was really, prob Dada, but was she babbling or did she mean it?

Tinker · 04/12/2003 13:32

babbling CD. My daughter used to say dada and he was over 200 miles away

Original poster

Evita · 04/12/2003 16:07

Gosh, thanks for all these fabulous replies. It's just astonishing how children vary isn't it? I think these first almost words are so beautiful and adorable. And when you decipher what they mean it feels fantastic. My partner just worked out that our daughter's 'detch' is a sort of enthusiastic 'yes!' I wonder what 'knedden' means ...

OP posts:

StressyHead · 04/12/2003 16:25

message withdrawn

dsw · 04/12/2003 16:28

My dd says about 30 different words - the clearest being Juice and Cheers. Her favorite word is also "No" - even if she means yes.

Northerner · 04/12/2003 16:32

My ds is 20 months and his first word was Dada and then Mama. He now has a vocab of about 30 ish words (some very clear, some not)He does however say Shit as clear as day much to the horror of dh! His favourite word at the moment is MINE.

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