This is the important event that many parents look forward to the most. hearing their baby’s first words. Babies utter those first words at about 1 year of age, but they learn language from birth. Babies start talking months later about everything they hear and see, and you have an important role to play. Encourage your baby’s language skills by talking, reading, listening and responding to your baby.

Your baby will probably be able to speak, using a few simple words to express meaning, by his first birthday.

But learning to speak is a complex process that begins at birth and continues for years. Long before your baby says his first word, he is learning the rules of language and how adults use it to communicate.
Your baby will begin to use his tongue, lips, palate and any teeth that are coming through to make sounds (crying at first, then swallowing in the first month or two and shouting at about 4 months).

As your baby becomes more adept at babbling, around 6 months, you may hear word-like sounds like “ma-ma,” “ba-ba,” and “da-da.” However, this is not considered real conversation because your child does not yet understand the meaning of these words.

Around 12 months, your baby will say a few words and know what they mean. They will continue to put words together, and sometime around age 2, they will begin to form two-word sentences. As your child makes mental, emotional, and behavioral leaps, he is increasingly able to use words to describe what he sees, hears, feels, thinks, and wants.