When did your baby start talking?

[ClareSleepy]

At what age did your baby say their first word, and what age before they could communicate with you? I find the guesswork involved with a newborn quite hard work and I'm looking forward to when we can have a conversation!

I know this sounds crazy but my son was communicating with me from about 6 months. Non verbal communication. Watch them closely, talk to them, read to them, show them things, listen to them.

By 10 months my boy was saying 'buh' when asking to look at a book, 'noo' when wanting a sleep, 'ta' when he saw a cat and 'doh' when he saw a dog. He could indicate everything he wanted and we understood because we watched and listened. He didn't cry much (didn't need to communicate that way unless he was poorly). He really was a little marvel, and could read before he was 3.

His little sisters were quite opposite, but I think that's because we had less time to communicate with them in the same way. They didn't say much until they were nearly one.

You can do baby signing too, which helped with our non-verbal communication.

When he was ten months he started saying ‘hiya!’ to everyone but that was all he said for months and months!

Tbh I can’t really remember exactly what age he was, apart from that one word - it’s all so gradual. He’s 2.7 now and never stops talking in his funny little accent All of a sudden I’ve realised he can use full sentences (yesterday he said, ‘I don’t want to use the potty. I want to put a nappy on’ ) and words like ‘volcano’ and ‘planet’!

It’s absolutely amazing to watch but it took what felt like a loooong time!

My dd didn't say a word until 21 months and has a speech delay at 3 years old
V unclear speech and only putting 3 words together at most still
She's on the waiting list for speech and language sessions

@Emmabryant123

Does your daughter have older siblings? I only ask because a friend had the same thing with her youngest, and it turns out the two older sisters were doing all her talking for her! They interpreted every single thing she did, and made sure she got what she wanted - funny little things! She didn't really start speaking up for herself until she was nearly four, and hasn't really stopped yapping since! She's 23 now.

However, I do hope you get the help your daughter needs x

Nope
She is my only :)
Thank you though I've also heard the same before

About ten months they learnt some words.

I have mostly opened this thread because I'm missing the days they didn't talk constantly at me today. Silence really is golden when you don't have any!

YY same DS2 is very communicative from 6 months ish. Various sounds which seem to consistently mean things (Mum, Dad, milk, come back/pay attention to me, brother, yummy, I'm having fun, I'm not sure about this situation, we're home). Gestures, body language. But no words yet. He's only 8 months though, lots of time yet.

DS2's first word was "Look" at 10 months but that was it for about 6-7 months, then he started saying more things. It's really slow going at first, I'd say you can't really have back and forth conversations with them until past 2 and they don't make much sense until more like 4.

I agree baby signing is worth doing. You can start it at 6 months, it doesn't hurt if you start it earlier, but it's a bit pointless.

This site has good info on children's speech and language development and how to support it.

www.talkingpoint.org.uk/

Both my boys were 6months and said mum. I have it on camera as I was sure no one would believe me! My daughter was 7m when she started saying dad...(!) She's 11m and can say various things like hi, bye, no...NO NO (lol), yes, oscar (dog's name), ta...and a few other things.

Probably earlier than I realised at the time, but by 1 year she had a few consistent sounds that I recognised like "buh" for ball, "cuh" for cup and "ke" for key (she loved keys). Then by 15 months she had about 100 words, sentences by 18 months and now at 2 she can speak in quite long sentences and hold a conversation (so long as you don't mind the occasional surreal tangent). I found that pointing (at around a year) was a real revelation as I suddenly had a much better sense of how much she understood and was trying to say.

Helpful site that @BertieBotts.
Mine started round 10mnths however they would smile, wave and babble from early on.

DS said Mama at 4 months. And we have it on video as DH was miffed because he started saying it the day before Father's Day. But that was it for a while. His non verbal communication started between then and 6 months with "more" and "milk" from baby sign.

22 months and still only mama

11 months. She was tiny and shouted hello all the time

First sentence 'mummy and daddy, get up' 😂😂😂15 months

Mine was earlyish with walking (11 months) and didn’t start becoming really verbal until recently. At 15 months we started having a word explosion, there’s new words every day. No sentences yet. Babble sentences yes, I’m sure he knows what that is but I often have no idea what he’s saying. He started with mama, dada and mostly words for food. BA for banana being an early one. Walking though a car park is very informative, all of the cars get identified. Car! Car! Car!

Both of my DCs had a few words at 10months and could put a couple of words together before they were 1 - 'Where cat?' 'Hello Daddy!' etc. I talked to them constantly as babies and think this is a big part of it. I'm sure I looked like a complete moron wandering around Tesco keeping up a one-sided conversation about the shopping for months but it felt right. I see a lot of parents out with babies and toddlers not talking to them at all and think it's sad.

On the other hand, both of mine were very lazy and showed no interest in crawling or walking until quite late and never tried to climb out of their cots! Several babies I know tend to have been quick at either speech or movement but never both.

Mine's 2.5 and only just getting there. He's had 'Dadda' and 'no' for a while now. Wierdly he's starting with whole phrases, rather than odd words - recently we've had 'here we are' 'where is he' and 'I saw a doggo'. Strange child.

@Chickoletta I could have written your post myself ! My son could talk at 12 months as I talked to him constantly but didnt walk until 14 months, never tried to climb out of his cot, wouldnt go up a slide. Its a different part of the brain - the physical and the verbal so one would tend to exceed ahead over the other but both catch up over time.

I'm a big fan of baby signing. Helps children communicate before they can speak.

My dd didn’t start talking properly until she was 2, she had a speech delay.

DS is 14 months and so far we have hiya, "WAZZ AH" (what's that), look, daddy, cat, dog, woof woof, dick (he means duck!), uh oh, bye bye, and thaaaaaa duuuu (thank you).

Mummy is not in that list yet - maybe one day...

8 month GD says Dad, Dehteh, (Dexter) ta, she claps her hands and waves bye. Just realised also that she makes a smacking noise with her lips when she wants something to eat. She can sit up but not roll over back to front and makes no attempt to stand.

Mine came out of the womb asking for a smoke and a whisky, neat.