1 year old calls everything ‘da’ or ‘dada’

[Oohooh]

My 12 month old son babbles a lot but calls everything ‘da’. His toys, animals, people - everything is ‘da’ or occasionally ‘dada’. He’ll point at something, turn to me and say ‘DA!’. Is this normal?

He does also say mamama (not in context just as babble) as well as a few other sounds, but 70% is just da or dadada.

His understanding is fine (he knows about 30 objects/people in context and will either point at them or go to them if asked), but his verbal language doesn’t seem to reflect his understanding. He seems fine in all other ways, sleeps and eats well, shows/brings me toys and will clap if asked etc

Thanks

Bump

I'd think da means dat or that.

Only a guess?

It’s been a few years since I had a one year old, but that seems normal. He’s probably trying to say ‘that’ or something similar rather than da and dada referring to the name daddy

I'm not a parent so I'm sure someone with more knowledge will come along shortly but in the back of my brain somewhere is the nugget of information that da/dada is one of a baby's first words as its easier than mum/mummy or other words.

And my eldest hardly spoke until well past her second birthday but she could easily understand what we said… I think she just couldn’t be bothered to speak! She’s now 18 and never stops speaking….

Sounds pretty normal, don't worry!
For us, both parents were "dada" for a while. When DS was 12 months he didn't babble a lot but did a lot of emphatic pointing! He's just turned 4 and the difficulty now is getting him to stop talking...

Annoyingly normal! Da or dada are very common first sounds.

This is normal. I don't think it is useful to be looking things up constantly because it encourages comparison which as we know is 'the thief of joy'. In the whole children develop at their own pace but roughly in line with each other. Not many years ago Google wasn't available and I think

Apols but you get my drift. Save getting worried for the many things in life that one has to worry about!

My ds didn’t say his first proper word til nearly 18m and that’s considered within the realms of normal - he was v physically active but didn’t talk. It’s a muscular thing remember - you need the muscles to form the words, in your mouth and tongue, and that takes a bit of getting going.

He’s babbling. first sounds.

it’s normal

not all babies have recognisable words by 12 months

My daughter didn’t reliably ‘mamma’ or ‘dada’ with real intent and meaning until about 20ish months

Yes, that sounds normal for a one year old. I think it's more that he's making sounds he can manage rather than really 'calling' things 'dada'.

Somewhere nearer 18 months is more like the timeframe for real 'verbal language'.

Perfectly normal. DS said ‘da’ a lot at that age, while pointing to various things. It evolved to ‘dat’. He was a curious little thing.
We’d carry him into a room and say, ‘that’s the mirror, that’s the chair, that’s grandma, that’s a bunch of flowers’ etc.
Once he was satisfied everything had a name he’d carry on pottering about driving a toy car along it all.

Nothing to worry about op, many kids are like this. My best advice would be to get a recording. My dd used to say 'ba ba' for absolutely everything and now she talks normally for a 2 year old and nothing is ba ba anymore. I'm glad I can listen to the video whenever I want, it's adorable!

Thanks all! I’m not too worried as like I said his understanding is good, but it’s good to hear other people’s children have done this and not stayed muddled for too long! He may be saying ‘that’ as I often say ‘what’s that’!

My daughter's first word was "dat" which was very clearly referring to our cat.
But otherwise it seems pretty normal (also do beware when "other parents" tell you how their child can recite Shakespeare, they are probably not telling the truth).

The amount of lesbian couples I know who's children's first words Da, Dat or Dada.

Mine did this. He was closer to 2 when I finally became "mama". Didn't have anywhere near 50 words by his second birthday (I'd say about 25 at most). He's now 2.75 and speaks incredibly well for his age - he's recently started saying "I" instead of his name, and even pronounces the L sound.

My eldest did this. By 14 months I realised it meant "what's that" I.e. that she wanted to know the word for the thing.

I loved watching and listening to DD gain language. Absolutely fascinating.

Loved the way that even just using 'da da da' she would speak in whole sentences, with different speeds, intonation, eye contact etc, trying to tell me something.

It's certainly true they can understand more than communicate back.

Your little one sounds perfectly normal to me. da is the easiest syllable apparently hence they say it first. DD first 'proper' word was 'No' !

Yes very normal. It's sounds at this stage really, not words. Da is usually a first sound, and ba.

At that age my little one used to point and say da and hi-da, I translated it as ‘that’ and ‘and that’.

Normal - my daughter calls Bluey da as it’s the only one of the four names in the intro she can say!!

My DH becomes a peacock when she says da near bed time then realises she means bluey not him 😂😂

My 17 month old still only says da or dada. He said mama once this week.

My boy was the exact same as yours at 12 months except he couldn’t even say the dada, it took him until about 18 months to really start speaking and now he’s got a good few words at 22 months. Something just seemed to click in his head and that was him. A lot of the words only I can understand still but he is getting there and you can have basic conversations with him. I don’t know if your son uses a dummy but I took that away during the day about 6 weeks ago and there’s been a big change in that alone. I was worried at one point but we’ve had regular contact with his health visitor recently and she had no concerns about the lack of speech as long as the general understanding was there