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Baby babble isn't just adorable, it's an early stage of your baby learning how to speak.

All babies babble in the same way initially, no matter where in the world they're from. It's how we speak to them that shapes their language.

We caught up with Gert Westermann, Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University, to find out more about how babies begin to make speech sounds and how parents can help them build their babble into words.

When do babies start babbling?

鈥淭hey start making noises really shortly after birth, and of course, they become more sophisticated during the first year of life. Babies start squealing and growling and making raspberry sounds really quite early on,鈥 says Gert.

However, the sorts of sounds we usually think of as 鈥榖abbling鈥, the repetitive gagaga/bababa-type sounds, are heard more often from around 6 months of age. Simple vowel sounds like 鈥榓h鈥 happen earlier, around 3-4 months of age.

What are babies doing when they babble?

鈥淚 guess the simple explanation of why they babble is that they are practising producing sounds,鈥 says Gert. 鈥淭hey practise using their lips, tongues and vocal cords, gaining progressive control of their vocal cords in the first 6 months.鈥

Are babies trying to say words when they babble?

A cartoon image of a dad babbling to his baby.
Image caption,
Babble is babies' early attempt at communicating with you using the sounds they can make with their mouths and vocal cords.

Gert is keen for parents to understand that babble isn't just babies practising making sounds but a way for them to communicate with adults around them. They want to tell you something about the world, even if they don鈥檛 have the words to say it yet. 鈥淭here鈥檚 evidence that even some 8/9 month olds, when there are objects their parents have named for them, begin to change the consonant sounds they make to imitate their parents鈥 words, even with their limited vocal abilities.鈥 So babbling is much more than a string of sounds: 鈥淚t is them reacting to their environment鈥.

Babble plays an important function too: it鈥檚 a way of babies engaging adults鈥 attention. By babbling, they come to learn they can provoke a response from you. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something called the still-face experiment,鈥 Gert says. 鈥淚f the baby and an adult are playing and chatting together and suddenly the adult stops still and holds a blank expression, the baby will babble even more to try and get the adult to engage with them again.鈥

A cartoon image of a dad babbling to his baby.
Image caption,
Babble is babies' early attempt at communicating with you using the sounds they can make with their mouths and vocal cords.

Why does my baby mostly make 'bababa'/'gagaga'/'mamama' sounds?

The reason why babies make a lot of the same sorts of sounds when they first start to babble is pretty simple, according to Gert.

鈥淭hose sounds are easier to make than others. 鈥楽hhh鈥 and 鈥榝ffff鈥 sounds are much harder for children to make - you have to blow quite hard, and you have to kind of press your lips and your teeth together, whereas 鈥榞a鈥 and 鈥榞uh鈥 type sounds only require you to open and close the epiglottis at the back of your throat. Babies start with sounds that are easy to produce and then quite a bit later they learn to make these more complex sounds.鈥

How should adults respond to baby babble?

Cartoon parents looking into a cot and saying 'goo goo gaa gaa'
Image caption,
Take turns to make sounds with your baby. This helps them to realise their attempts to communicate are listened to and important.

Because babbling forms children鈥檚 early attempts at communication, adults can try and treat babies as conversation partners. 鈥淭ake the noises babies make seriously,鈥 says Gert.

Don鈥檛 assume that because they can鈥檛 speak, you can鈥檛 speak with them. They might not offer you any great insights, but act as if they are!

鈥淛ust take a moment to think, what is it they might be trying to say? Is there a common focus like a toy or something to talk to them and tell them about? Responding in this way has been shown to further increase the amount babies babble.

There鈥檚 a particular way that Gert suggests we interact with babies before they can speak too. 鈥Turn-taking responses where you respond to the child鈥檚 babble, wait, and allow them to make more noise in return are especially good for the child鈥檚 development. It鈥檚 a really rewarding way for them to interact, even at a very young age.鈥 So if you respond to your baby鈥檚 babble and then allow them time to make more noise, they鈥檒l understand that it鈥檚 their turn to communicate. This shows them that you are listening and that their noises are important, key to conversation later on.

Cartoon parents looking into a cot and saying 'goo goo gaa gaa'
Image caption,
Take turns to make sounds with your baby. This helps them to realise their attempts to communicate are listened to and important.

When does babble become words?

A cartoon of a mum in the UK and a mum in China both listening to their babies.
Image caption,
Early babble sounds the same around the world, but changes to sound more like babies' parents speech over time.

鈥淚t鈥檚 usually around 12 months when babies begin to say their first words, some later, some earlier 鈥 all babies develop differently,鈥 Gert stresses.

Around the world, early baby babble sounds similar, starting with the same set of vocal sounds, but these develop differently depending on the influence of adults talking around babies. 鈥淭here鈥檚 some debate over how babies move towards making the sounds of their parents鈥 language,鈥 says Gert. 鈥淚t certainly seems that by the end of the first year, the vowel sounds that babies produce when babbling move towards those of their native language.鈥

Babies start producing sounds, perhaps involuntarily at first, and then they start playing with them, practising them, exploring what they can do. And then, when they hear words, they try to imitate them, and then suddenly they鈥檝e entered the world of language.
A cartoon of a mum in the UK and a mum in China both listening to their babies.
Image caption,
Early babble sounds the same around the world, but changes to sound more like babies' parents speech over time.

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