Babies start talking, that is, trying to express themselves in words with meaning, somewhere between 9 and 14 months. But babies start learning to talk right after birth, mostly by watching and listening to you and other people. From birth, babies listen to the words and sounds around them and begin to make sense of them, which is the first step in language acquisition.

At 4 months old, your baby will most likely babble or even copy some of the babbling sounds he hears from you. His cries can also sound different depending on whether he is hungry, tired, or in pain. By about 6 months, your baby has internalized the idea that the mishmash of sounds he hears every day includes individual words.

He may even understand some of them, such as his own name, other people’s names, and familiar objects. It can also make some sounds on its own and can join several vowels together when it mutters, such as “a”, “a” and “o”. Consonants such as “m” and “b” may also appear. Your child is starting to experiment with their own sounds, including impressively long ones like “ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma” and “ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba”.