How Toddlers Learn To Talk: Stages You Need For Success

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the fascinating world into the crucial stages of babbling with your baby. To ensure a thorough understanding of the subtle distinctions between each stage and how best to gauge your baby’s or toddler’s growth, I've split this remarkable exploration into two episodes.

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We explore the significance of both cooing and babbling as precursors to language development, serving as windows into your child’s cognitive and communicative abilities. For those with older toddlers, these insights will help determine if they're slow talkers, plateaued, or right on track.

Drawing from over three decades of clinical practice and real-life experience, I guide you on why being intentional during these moments is paramount. 

Unfortunately, not many professionals discuss the significance of babbling, perhaps because they don’t fully understand it themselves. More importantly, the common advice to "just wait, he’ll find his way" is, in my opinion, evasive.

I share insights from the rich history of research on early child development, emphasizing the importance of actively engaging with your baby during these formative stages. 

Understanding these early cues can empower you to foster optimal linguistic growth right from the start.

Practical strategies and everyday activities to enhance both cooing and babbling skills are discussed, promoting a strong foundation for future language acquisition.

As always, the tone of the podcast is a blend of loving encouragement and firm guidance, mirroring the nuanced approach of parenting itself. Remember, you've got this—now, step up!

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CLICK HERE - Building Vocabulary: Single Words to 2-Word Phrases Guide

Email: contact@HyerLearning.com

Transcript

Erin: 0:00

And so I share this with you because I want you to see the complexity at the same time that how all of these things are embedded naturally. Through this remarkable. Biological masterpiece. Of how cooling. And the stages of babbling. Are really, really helpful. to get your child to his two word utterance. At two and full fledged conversation at three. Hello, and welcome to Talking Toddlers, where I share more than just tips and tricks on how to reduce tantrums or build your toddler's vocabulary. We're going to cover all of that, but here, our goal is to develop clarity. Because in this modern world, it's truly overwhelming. This podcast is about empowering moms to know the difference between fact and fiction, to never give up, to tap into everyday activities so your child stays on track. He's not falling behind. He's thriving through your guidance. We know that true learning starts at home. So let's get started. before we jump into this week's episode, which is one of my favorite topics to share, I wanted to explain that it kind of ran long over two hours, actually. So I decided to break it up into two parts. One major goal for this podcast talking toddlers is to provide true value. I know my deep dives can't be found anywhere else. And I want to give you meaningful insights, specific steps, and really help you move that needle. I know you'll enjoy this first part of this extended episode, help your toddler. Learn to talk by strengthening babbling skills. Well, hello there. And today we're going to delve into the topic that might sound. A little simple to you at first. But trust me, it holds per found significance in your baby's overall development. And that milestone is babbling. So babbling, isn't just this adorable jibberish that we might, you know, think of. It's an crucial milestone that plays a pivotal role in your baby's cognitive and linguistic development. if you've been listened to me for a while, you'll understand that when I mentioned cognition or cognitive skills, it's not the concept of intellect or IQ. It really is the mental action or the process. Of acquiring knowledge and understanding of your immediate world and your baby, our babies do this through experience. They build their thought capacity, their cognition of understanding. Through their senses as the interface or engage with their immediate environment. And that's primarily you at this early stage. Linguistics. Is perhaps a more familiar term where we're looking at language and language learning that acquisition. And there were four primary areas that I. As a speech language developmental specialist really look at, and I talk about different aspects of these, but the first one is phonology. So those are the speech sounds. And that's the physical part of talking. And then there's morphology, which is the formation of the words. How do we put those sounds that they'll phone ology together to form words. And then the third one is syntax, which is the formation of our sentences. And yes, the sentences structure, the Syntex differ from language to language, how do we form sentences by putting those strings of words together? And then the last section would be semantics, which is the meaning of the words and the meaning of the sentences. So those four primary linguistic components. In this episode. We'll first uncover the science behind why babbling so important. You know, I'm a science geek. That's where I come from. There's always a reason that babies, toddlers, children, human beings in general. We'll do things and better courses to take or. I guess a better way to say that is that there are outside influences that are healthier than the not right. And so we'll walk through the stages of what babbling looks like. And then you can use that as a gauge to look at where is my baby now? And how do I support either getting back on track or honing those, those ages and stages. So that he or she. Can really. Absorb the most out of your daily life. And we do this, I think, best through intentional parenting. And if you've heard my last few episodes in 2024, for me, it's about being intentional and I'm really diving deep into that as a business person. Uh, clinician and a parent coach. I want to be more intentional for you. And I also want to be. More intentional for, my whole life. my family, my, marriage, my, friendships. But how do we, help each other? In our different roles. And so intentional parenting for me. Is more of being mindful of your current stage. And where you are in this motherhood and where your children are in this growth and development. And how can we together create environments, your home environment. That's conducive to learning that is. Gives them the best fighting chance to be the best version of themselves. Right. And then based on this information, both science and then personal and professional experience. What's appropriate or most helpful at any stage. So today we're just going to zone in on babbling. Because I think a critical milestone that is often overlooked because I don't think pediatricians, daycare providers. Even occupational therapists or healthcare providers in general. Including my field really understand or have embraced. This chunk of time between six months and 12 months give or take as so pivotal. as a stepping stone into enhancing speech and language skills. You know, here, I'm always striving to build a healthy connection and relationship to build curiosity with your child or for your child, and then stretch. Those abilities, right? That 80 20 rule, 80% is reinforcement and honing those skills and building automaticity mastery. And that 20% of let's stretch let's, let's try something different. Let's work it out. So then tomorrow or next week, we'll see that developmental. Growth that spurt. So babbling. I think glossed over marker that is often on a history form, but never really. analyzed. For what it truly is. So I want you to keep in mind that although I'm focusing in on the ideal time of babbling six months, 12 months, all the way up to 18 months, if you do have an older toddler right now, an 18 month old or 24 month old. It's really important to hear what these ages and stages are. And here are some of the strategies to support these because you want to look back really honestly and say, did we gloss over this? Was this a stage that we kind of. Just acknowledged and then skipped. And I equated often with quote unquote, skipping crawling. Oh, my baby just started walking and didn't really crawl. Through my 35 years of practice, I think both babbling and crawling are critical to building those. blocks that that really solidify, that builds that foundation for all learning that comes above it. And it's neurologically based. It's biologically driven. It's part of what. Builds our networks that help us to these higher order processes, thinking problem, solving social language. Self-regulation. Cognition, all of those things. That com. Through these experiences. So I want you even with an older toddler to listen to this, so you can reflect back and. Honestly analyze what did we do? Maybe this is why my child was a little stuck or has plateaued. And. How can I use some of these strategies to help support him now? Not necessarily go back to babbling because I, and I want to talk about the pros and cons of that, but I, I want you to understand sometimes it's really, really helpful to step back and look at. What happened in those first 16, 18, 20 months? Two. Get where we are today. And then how can we close those gaps? And that's what I'm all about. Closing those gaps before you really fall off the cliff. And then struggled downstream. So the first step here is really a clarification because a lot of people, healthcare providers and speech, language pathologists, we kind of. Group. Cooing and babbling together, but there's a striking difference. And there are developmental markers that we have to respect. And at least understand. So cooling is more inline with crying because both are what we refer to as natural reflexes. They're not necessarily intentional, especially in those first three months, they're much more. Reactive and, and cooling the truth is, is more accidental in the beginning. And then you and I, as the mom or the primary caretaker begin to reinforce that because that's our first. Process of communication, right? So cooling is really your baby's first sound production besides crying. That draws our attention. And it usually happens between six and eight weeks of age. So those first four. To six weeks or more or less building his or her tolerance of this outside world and crying is their major form of communication. It's it's a reflex of saying. Either I'm happy and I'm not crying or something's wrong. And I need help whether I need love and attention or I'm cold or I'm hot, or I'm hungry, I'm dirty. I don't know. And so I'm just going to cry. And, they begin to hone even different crying patterns and you begin to interpret them based on the environment, right. Maybe they're over tired or under tired, and they really don't want to go to sleep. And so they start fussing. And then cooling often happens accidentally. And we, like I said, we, the primary love in their life will reinforce those first sounds. a sigh or a guttural sound made in the back of the throat, perhaps when they're laying down and you're over them Playing together. And because of gravity, right? There's a little slide in the back of the throat. And then there, they, start to wiggle or move and then they're breathing at the same time and need a foundation. A sound comes out of their mouth. They don't do it on purpose, but you and I notice it and we reinforce it and then that draws their attention. It also can happen easily when your baby is in tummy time and hopefully you're face-to-face with them and engaging with them and that pressure on the front of their body, as they're trying to. Get in-tune with their limbs and their torso and their neck. Sounds will come fluttering out of their mouth by accident. And you will reinforce that. And then you probably also have experienced laughing, which again is a response, a pleasurable response, more or less like a reflex. But around 16 weeks of age, then your baby. You're his or her laughs will be much more responsive to things in their immediate world. Again. Your facial, expressions, your oohs and AHS. and even building that relationship, it takes a while I mean, you have this immediate visceral love for each other, right? He's on survival mode, but he's also getting oxytocin and you're getting oxytocin in those first several weeks. But if you're playing close up, and show them a cute rattle, the sound. the colors of it, perhaps you blow softly on his face or use Uh, silk scarf. I will often use a tissue and kind of blow it. Open across them. And they, see this movement, this flutter, they feel the soft breeze or blow on their, on their face. You can also make, noises with your mouth and your lips, and it's all fascinating to them. And they're really honing their attention to you at the same time. Learning how to respond right. That this is pleasurable of feels good. And so I'm creating, developing. Uh, way to communicate back to you, the best that I can. Now based on those first two or three months. Babbling is the milestone that kicks in after that cooing, the laughing. the crying gets a little more honed in and I think it's overlooked, as I said by most pediatricians, certainly daycare providers don't understand. They know that it's. a box that they need to check off in the development, but they don't know that there are six levels or six stages of. Babbling, and they don't know how to differentiate them or support them. they might, you know, babble a little bit back here and there, or CU. And then they dropped the ball. unfortunately, speech pathologists in their history form will have a little section. Did they babble, was it a lot? Was it a little, what kind of babbling. But they very rarely dive deep. I know, other therapists and we talk about it, but we too can gloss over it. But for the last, I'd say 10 or 12 years, I've really dove deep into it. Because as I said, I align it. A lot way of crawling. And that if that's a missing piece to the puzzle, that gives me insight. To how well that foundation is solidified or is not. So as a basic rule of thumb, Delayed babbling usually is considered absent consonant, vowel production. Right. And in a previous episode, I've talked about the syllable structures and I'll, I'll refer to them a little bit in this, in this episode, but if there's absent consonant, vowel production by seven months, the latest would be eight months. Then that's considered delayed babbling. So if you have an eight month old. Or a nine or a 10 month old. And they're really not babbling the way that I will lay it out here on this episode. Then you want to get a jump on it. You want to say, okay, this is where we need to be. Let's enhance this developmental milestone. And the reason why it's a good, solid rule of thumb to hold by is because. It can be an early sign of more serious issues. It doesn't have to be. Right, I think it does. And should warrant a discussion with your healthcare provider. And as I said, don't be surprised. If your pediatrician kind of dismisses you or. Says, oh, don't worry. You know? Every child develops on their own pace and every baby's different and unique, but we know. Through the last hundred years of study. And thousands and millions, really of babies and toddlers. We know what. A good healthy. Developmental process looks like, and if they Zig or zag. Take notice. And I think unfortunately, pediatricians and speech pathologists really don't have much to contribute because they don't understand themselves. And so they can't really give you advice other than wait and see, or just love on your baby. Or maybe you could read to them more. Uh, they, they haven't really peeled back the layers. I do think it's, at least warranted to say, okay. If they're quiet at 7, 8, 9 months of age, let's rule some other things out. What's their eye contact. Like what's his engagement. Is he, if he's quiet, is he still attending and engaging with me when I'm playing with those funny noises and those funny faces and I'm, Amping up my parentees. Is he engaged with me, right. Let's rule out any kind of hearing problem. Now all babies in the United States, I think it started in 1999. Um, my daughter was born in 2000, so it was, she was one of the first. group of babies born in the U S that got that hearing screening. But that doesn't mean that. There are ear infections that. Can occlude hearing acuity. There are all kinds of other issues, wax problems. A lot of kids have wax issues. so we want to rule that out. Can he, or does she respond to loud noises? Right. If you're playing and, a door gets slammed, or if your. Feeding her and. The doorbell rings or your phone goes off. Or you yell across the room. All of those. Immediate loud noises. How does he or she respond? Is it intermittent? Does he do it sometimes in some body postures, some, some environments and not others. Did he do it last week? And now this week, these are really, really good questions to ask yourself. Also you want, especially with a 7, 8, 9 month old, you want to see, does he track you when you walk across the room? Is he connected with you? Even though they're their vision is pretty tight. In those first, several months, so eight to 12 inches again, I think we're designed that way by our creator because you are at your, his, or her number one. Entity in this world, but I think if you have these questions, Then you, it might warrant. to pick up the phone and call a speech pathologist, at least ask for a consultation. Because most, as I said, most pediatricians might dismiss you. Give him more time. Read more, blah, blah, blah. These simple things, not let's rule these things out. And if you're still unsure. Then inquire with more than one source. You're going to get information here from me today, but you can continue to Google. You know Dr. Google, right. But you're going to get a variety of inputs. call your best friend, call your sister call. Another speech therapist and figure out. What's going on. And, and yeah, some babies are. Quieter or less noisy. But. All babies are driven to verbally communicate. And so they need to make some noise every single day. And I know that very few speech therapists or private practitioners would see a child younger than one. Unless they're a feeding expert, right. Or unless you have a big diagnosis, like cerebral palsy or down syndrome. But if you're, having an unremarkable pregnancy and delivery and full term, and when we say unremarkable means that you didn't have any issues or trauma. Right. That everything kind of went as planned, as smoothly as possible. But I think a good therapist who believes in preventative care. And wanting to help moms help their baby stay on track would give you a good phone consultation. Meanwhile, you can take all of this information and build a plan around it, I think. And this is how my practice always went. That get a baseline. And that's what I used to tell parents all the time. It's not whether we want to do a full fledge evaluation or not. It's simply let's get a baseline and then I'll give you some strategies, some do's and don'ts right. How to build that. A healthy home environment. And then we'll follow up in 30 days or 60 days to me. That's what is quote, unquote, best practice. To never, ever, ever dismiss your concern. You know, in 60 days, your child could be that noisy Cathy and you wish that you never helped him find his voice. But you're on track, you know where he's going. I've even done monthly. Check-ins where the family has. called me and we've done a zoom or, or a FaceTime. especially during those lockdown years, which was a nightmare for everyone, but too many moms truly felt isolated. And they there's a lot of confusion and the sense of abandonment. It's like, holy cow. I bring this baby home and, my, my support system. Is social distancing me. And so I think it's really important. I use that term a lot here. But this is my passion because I think we're doing a disservice. To you, new mom knew you knew dad, you knew grandparent you guys. And it started a long, long time ago and it's just gotten worse over the last. I'd say two decades. Because I know that. That whole connection makes a difference for you as the mother. trying to figure out this new journey of hers and your baby's health and wellbeing and I've shared with you in the past that I had always had a one-way mirror. I had several of them in California. All my therapists had one. But I would have families bring in their favorite toys, their favorite foods. I would create a natural setting as much as possible, where there are no distractions. There's a limited field. I'd say, mom, you know, just take out two or three little toys, two X. To experience together. And it was also a great opportunity for me to demonstrate with mom what it felt like to be present. And you might wonder like, huh. Well, don't I do that at home all the time. No, because our home life is busy and active. And maybe you have older kids or maybe you work from home or maybe your husband works at home. And so there's a lot of stuff going on. And I would really like to set the stage and let moms feel, 10 minutes, 20 minutes to really just be in it with their little one. And I would observe behind the one-way mirror. And give feedback of how can you elicit more engagement? How can you also give some white space? So your baby then code. Practice initiating and all of those steps are important. And we'll talk about this in the ages stages, and some of the strategies. But, that's all kind of the precursor. The setting the stage. and I just want to round this out with a fun fact that all babies from different cultures typically begin babbling around the same age. And that's usually around five to six months. That's when real babbling and will. We'll define what that looks like. But the interesting part or the fun fact, is that the sounds that they make. Sound different depending on the native language. So even in those first four to six months, they're coding that language. And we, as speech pathologists know this, and that's why I always scratch my head. And I'm thinking, well, why don't you help a mom? Who's asking for advice during this babbling stage, but my field. Really weights. Like other fields waits until there's a problem, right? And where there's no words at 24 months or, their speeches unintelligible at three years of age. But I think we have to always remind ourselves that your baby is listening. There's actually this great study. I think it was in the late 1990s and has been replicated a number of times. And, when I really dove deep into the neuroscience and that was probably in the mid 1990s when, neuroplasticity. Kind of came into the light, right? That's where that the home or the business computer and the internet all kind of exploded there in, I'd say mid 1990s. But. This study was, as I said, it has been replicated and it, it, the first one was between French and German parents. And what the researchers found was that. The babies cry. Had the same prosody or the melody that the parents used in their native language on the second day of life. So within 24 36 hours, your baby is. Beginning to code. The melody of your native language. And, it was kind of easy to measure between German and French because they're very different sounding languages. And I always attributed it to the concept that babies newborns. Our citizens of the world, quote unquote, right? And it's not this world peace or kumbaya stuff. It really is about neuroscience and how we're built. We had this. The these mechanism. Oh, excuse me, mechanisms. That are built for survival. And th the first one is I need to find my mother's. Voice because I I've already coded it in utero. And now there's maybe a whole bunch of voices, maybe even, you know, two or three different female voices. But I know where mama is and I had that pre-coated. And then within those first. 24 36 hours. My cry is even going to match her melody. And that to me is fascinating. And, and I think it's, important that we recognize that babies can decode any language. So if you need to switch up your language, if you're a multi language family, that's totally cool. And we're wired to do that. Well. But the point here that I'm making is that. They need us from the get go. Right. And it's really important that we don't let too much time, once we all kind of get settled. Into this new life of ours. and we're starting to physically recover from whatever your pregnancy and delivery was. Really use the time. Every time, feeding and changing and loving on your baby. I purposefully intentionally right intentional parenting. And how we do that is by setting this stage. And I've mentioned this, I think, in this episode, but I know I talk a lot about how. We have this. Or your baby has this eight to 12 inch visual. Space, right. That's if you think about when you held them for breastfeeding or even bottle feeding that you are in each other's world and that's it. Right. That's why he stares at us or she stares at you. Because that's all they can see. They're looking at your facial movements, your eyes, your lips, your jaw. And trying to synchronize that with all the stuff that's coming out of your mouth is noise making. and so the ears and the eyes are really working together and all he or she sees in those first three months is your face. Everything beyond your face is pretty dang blurry. You're it, you're the center of the universe. You're also his means to survival. So that's why we're wired that way. Not only to, to start coding your native language, but. This beautiful face in front of me. We'll help me survive. So from the get go, every single time you engage, they're putting more and more data together, right. That what they see, what they hear, what they feel. Your sounds your facial expressions. And the non-verbal of course, right? The prosody, the rhythm, the pitch, the intonation, the pauses. So to lay or set the stage here. One sing to your baby. Tune in because that's helps build tuning into the rhythm of his language, your native language. To repeat the sounds. That accidentally come out of him during those cooling phases or those first several months. Because this teaches your baby about listening. Right and that, oh, wow. Something. Even if it came out of my mouth accidentally. It was important to this beautiful mother of mine, because she said the same thing. So they're listening and they're matching. Ooh, that echoed. That's interesting. And that also. After several weeks of this initial us imitating them, then they begin to make the same sound back. And that's the very first step in turn-taking or in what we are striving. For that conversational flow. And then the third, big thing that a lot of us talk about, is that sing song or parentees voice because that's building their attention. You're making it interesting. You're stretching out the sounds. They're starting to code. Their native language. Prune away any sounds that are irrelevant. Because by eight months of age, they've pruned away. 90% of what they don't need in their native language. And so even if you're talking and using two languages, you're a bilingual family. That's fine. They'll just prune out all the rest. And that, but that builds their attention. That sing song. Parentees. And it's really Humanyze because an older child will do it to a baby. And so we're again. Through this evolutionary process, we have learned ways. That are part of our DNA. To help build human communication. So that's laying the stage, right? We need to look at. The difference between cooing and babbling. We set the stage by really being in it with them. Recognizing that, how they see your face and hear your voice. They're really building a network. There's zoning in on the rhythm of their name, native language. And you can do that through singing. And, you know, you just sing the words. You don't even have to do nursery rhymes. But repeat any cooling that's building. That whole turn-taking and then the parent ease, build their attention. So now let's look at the ages and stages of babbling. So most babies start babbling between four and six months of age. And remember cooling is different and I just kind of walked through that. And, but it's important those first. three to four months of cooing I always think of home building because my husband and I did that together. you know, leveling the ground, pulling up any rocks. You want it level. So when you put in this, the cement footers it's stable. It's even, it's not going to shake. Or tilt. Tilt when you build weight on top of it. So your baby in those first three to four months needs to start making noise. And then you'll see as babbling. Grows. then it gets longer and more complex, but there. Very specific steps between six and 12 months of age. And then between 12, 13 months and 18 months, it becomes a combination. And things really shift there too. And you'll see after their first birthday that babbling. Quality shifts, meaning that they begin to attach meaning. To their babbles or their speech patterns that they're practicing. And so there's a shift. In the quality of their vocal output. So as another rule of thumb, So one week we want. Babies to be babbling, making a lots of noise by seven or eight months. And then. We'll walk through those ages and stages. And then most of the jargon, most of the babbling. Is gone by 24 months of age. These are our hour rules of thumb. That help us figure out where your child is on this journey. So I think a lot of us, including pediatricians and a lot of speech pathologists might think that babbling is just that simple Gaga Gaga. Mama mama, but it's like always here. It's much more nuanced. And my, my job is to shine the light on the nuances to help you figure out. How to support your beautiful baby. And of course each stage has its own developmental significance that we're going to walk through. So the first stage. Is pre babbling sounds. And we talked about that, like through cooling right. And different cryings and that. You need to measure as well or track, or at least monitor, right? You don't have to necessarily write those down, but those first three or four months, they're going to be mostly vowels, like, oh, Ah, Um, right. And, it's not babbling. Those are vowel, like sounds coming out of their mouth that we build. Uh, relationship with. It's an important part of this journey and we need to separate that out. I want to share. a sweet story that happened to me this summer a family member, a mom, just had a baby in, June and I met up with them. and the little guy Sammy was about six or seven weeks old. And whenever I meet a new mom, whether it's, you know, a client or a family member, I totally respect this new relationship I think is sacred. And so I never asked to hold a baby and I never want moms to feel uncomfortable or obligated that they have to let this woman, even if a family member hold the baby. But I, you know, I'm always itching to engage with any baby or toddler. and I do it from a distance at the grocery store, but. this is a family member and I wanted to. To really meet this beautiful bundle of joy. Anyway. I suggested that mom plays her little guy on the couch on perhaps tell me time. And, I wanted, her to be comfortable and, to relax and feel confident that her baby can do this. but I also wanted to engage with this little guy, Sammy. And she knows what I've done. We've talked. I think she actually has a, a degree in child development. Um, But, you know, brand new mama and I never ever want moms to feel like I'm judging them or grading them. Right. And I just wanted to geek out on this beautiful bundle of joy. And I knew that the pregnancy was healthy. I knew the delivery was healthy. And all of this. Um, but I sat on the floor. So Sammy was placed on his tummy, on the sofa. I sat on the floor and we were face to face, and this is like my special, I don't have to touch the baby. I don't have to, but if I get in, you know, 8, 10, 12 inches, then I can see how he engages, but I can also model for mom. How. We can peak his interest and. Help him learn to tolerate. Tell me time. And build. Uh, cooling system, right? So. He was interested. I was a new face. I was a new voice. I was a female voice that kind of helped. But he really popped his head up and he really kind of moved and tried to, get support on his forearms. And there was a lot of noises flooding out of his beautiful mouth and yes, it was by accident. And yes, it surprised mom that I was engaging this because she shared later on that she noticed this before, but she thought that they were more complaints. And although I never said this to her, I thought. She would put him perhaps on the couch or on the bed, but not necessarily. Quote, unquote, distract him by showing her beautiful face in front of him. And bill at the same time, building these, tell me time, opportunities. Right? And, but he was distracted enough by this novel face and these noises coming out of me and my immediate responses to his sounds that accidentally came out And it was really highly interactive and engaging positive for all of us. And she was, I think, even though, I never asked. Afterward, but she was really relieved to see. Cause we lasted 12, 15 minutes. I mean a long while. And she was like, holy cow, he's never tolerated. Tell me time like that. Now it was perfect. Right. He had just. He had been fed, but I think, you know, everything had settled in his tummy. And so he wasn't going to spit up anything. So he was alert and engaged. It was, you know, mid-afternoon. Um, And everybody felt like it was a great success. And I really think that she walked away there feeling like, oh, all right. That makes good sense. And the noises were accidental. Dental, but I can reinforce them. We can, we can build. And at the same time, help him get physically stronger and tolerate longer and longer periods now. You know, with a six, seven week old, you. You know, 10, 12 minutes on the tummy, isn't necessarily something that you strive for each and every day, but you take the opportunity when you see it right. And because of the pressure on his belly and his moving of his limbs, he still wiring his system. He's still figuring out, oh, I am kind of like attached and every time I move, I kind of feel it. But he's also breathing naturally. And so of course, foundation comes out of his mouth. It's those times where I really think that new moms have to build. There. Courage. To try new things. Right. And if he doesn't like, being on the floor and put him on the sofa, If he. Is more engaged. With you when he's on your lap, then do that. The whole idea is that these first several months during this pre. Pre Babel phase. It's really important to do a lot of trial and error. Because, like I said, it's, it's. Leveling out. Your land before you put in, the cement. Footers to build the house and, and the cooling is really important there. And so that pre Babel phase. I know I've talked a lot about that here, but. Many of these things are overlooked. Are just dismissed is irrelevant or everybody, Has their own style to it. When we know there are hundreds and hundreds of articles. That support. what the PR not the protocol, but the hierarchy is. All right. So. Let's look at stage number two, which is called marginal babbling. And this usually happens. When they're closer to five months of age, some, some kids will be for some kids, there'll be six, but five months is a good starting point. And low and behold, that's also the time where we strongly encourage you new moms to introduce some solid foods. The whole theory behind baby led weaning is not. Too. Replace bottle fed or nursing, but too. Introduce tastes and textures and give them a lot more opportunity to practice oral motor. Movement. And build. Intentional purposeful volitional movement. And this is also where they begin to experiment sound production on purpose. So those first three to four months. Was a lot of accidents. And we're reinforcing that, reinforcing that. And now closer to that fifth month. They're going to try things on purpose is that experimental. That's what they're doing with the foods. And that's what they're doing with the sounds. And it. And you should start to hear more constant vowel connection. Cooling is more vowel. babbling is more constant in bowel. So that's where they'll say BA. Um, So you have a consonant vowel, like in BA B a. And then you'll have a vowel consonant. And in episodes, I believe it was 68 and 69. I dive deep into these, the syllable structures that they need to build before they can have true words. And before they can build. Phrases to word phrases by their second birthday. And so. All of these building blocks. Go together. You think back to my, my build a house analogy. Or metaphor, I guess, but. Look back or listen to 68 and 69. where I talk about the critical prerequisites to the first word. And how best to help your toddler move from syllables to words. Two phrases. So in that. Keep in mind, vowels are produced by different shapes of our mouth. Predominantly our jaw is going up and down, but we also have different shapes to our lips. And then our tongue action. That's why we want them to start chewing both food and then appropriate to toys. Around four months, five months, six months to build that jaw strength. And, what we call jaw Heights. Because vowels during cooling. It is made just by modifying your lips or your jaw or your tongue. So let's do something for fun. And we're going to say these three vowel sounds, but we're going to elongate them. And then slowly move one. Mouth part. So we'll start with. Ooh. You, so your lips are round like, Ooh, LA, right. But it's. Ooh. And then we're going to just not move anything else. Not our voicing at our jaw. We're just going to slide our lips back into a smile. And we're going to move from Ooh. Um, we. Now, if you're just listening to this on audio. That might sound a little weird, but if you watch my mouth go from the oof, the round circle. Lip movement to a big smile and we're still phone aiding. Were we changed across two different bowel. Sounds right now, if we just simply add opening up our jaw now you'll, you're going to have three contrast vowels. Uh, Sorta like Sydney, right? That's what parentees is. That's what, when we sing nursery rhymes, all of these, but we're simply just moving the shape. Or the posture of our mouth lips and our jaw. We haven't even gotten her tone yet. But if you realize that your baby needs a lot of oral motor play mint. Exercise practice to get these vowels out. Continence on the other hand are a whole different animal and a re and they require really fine motor movements. And that's why in the beginning. These stages from cooling pre babble, to marginal babble. These building blocks are important. So let's just, for example, remember I talked about linguistic elements in the beginning of this episode and I talked. And I shared about. Phonemes. And so phonemes are these individual sounds. So we start with vowels in the cooing stage, and then they start with these early speech. Sounds these early consonants. That start with the lips and then the tip of the tongue and then the back of the tongue. So the lip sounds would be the P like in puppy. And B boy. M mamma. What. Water. Right. Those are often the first words. The tip. Tongue tip sounds would be T like an. Top D as in dad, dad. And as in Nona, And then Al is a later developing sound, but it requires the tip of the tongue movement pattern. And then we can look at the back of the tongue and that is the K. Right. Like. And kitty. That was my daughter's first word. And the, or the G go, go. And then the NG. Which is typically at the end of our English word. But these are, these are the initial sounds. And those are the initial words because it's the easiest, first step of oral motor planning and speech production. And so I share this with you because I want you to see the complexity at the same time that how all of these things are embedded naturally. Through this remarkable. Biological masterpiece. Of how cooling. And the stages of babbling. Are really, really helpful. to get your child to his two word utterance. At two and full fledged conversation at three. And just to side note. You know me, I like side notes, these nuances fit together. And I've shared this before, but I, worked with older kids and helping them break the code to literacy because. Because reading and writing is a man-made scale. I always equate it with learning how to ride a bike or learning how to swam or drive a car. Somebody has to teach you. it's, it's super imposed on this. And babbling and first words and, first syllable phrases and sentences. Because in our English language, we have 26 letters in the alphabet. Those are just the letters that will help us translate the spoken word into written. Word. In English, we have about 44 different sounds. And I say about, or we say about, because we have to consider accents. So the funny are in New York and Brooklyn is different than the are in California. So we have to respect those differences, but there's about 44 different sounds. And you're like, okay, but we have 26 letters. How does that all work out? And here's the example I always give, we have from the alphabet, the letter T that says. Right. Like in. Hop. And then we also have the letter H like, and hot, right. But we also have, when we put those two letters together, they make two more different sounds and that's the T H. And so we have what we call a voiced and a voiceless T H. So the voice would be. We make those, we put the, the tip of the tongue between we call it interdental between our two teeth. Or our top and our bottom teeth. And we turn on our voice, like in the word that. And then we can turn off her voice, make our mouth do the same thing. The tip of the tongue become is placed. Interdental early. And we turn off the voice and. And we say. Like in the word. Thin. Right. It's quiet. It would call it quiet or voiceless. So that's how we come up with those 44 sounds using 26 letters in the alphabet. But. Also of those 44 sounds 20 are vowels. Again, we only have five vowels in the alphabet, but we. Have created through human evolution. 20 vowel sounds. They're mostly made. By different jaw Heights. And then we. move our tongue up and down inside our mouth. And we. Manipulate our lips. that's why as your baby moves from. Bottle or breastfeeding. And there are different movement patterns for, sucking from your breast versus sucking from. uh, factory made nipple. Those. Have its pros and cons, but. As they move. Into solid foods. We really want that strength and stability and what we call gradation for the jaw. And then if we have a stable jaw that they can hold still think of that. And then they can move their lips and then they can hold their lips in place. And move their tongue separately. And so we call that dis association is sort of like having a stable core to your body and we can move our arms. You know, think of a ballerina. That's the best. metaphor, where, you know, he or she dances and. They have incredible. Stable and strong core and they can do these remarkable things with their limbs. Right. And that's what happens inside our mouth. Again, we need a lot of oral motor. Practice. And the two things that we do with our mouth is eat. And talk. So in a nutshell, One of the reasons why I fell in love with this field was because I thought it was a freaking miracle that any human being really learned how to talk. And I, when I really started to dive deep into the phonology, right, the speech sounds and the oral motor planning and sequencing. how we manipulate these, hundred muscles. 26, just in our mouth. To produce connected speech. And again, that brings me back to God, had a beautiful design with true intention. That's how I look at it. But this second stage is called marginal, Because they're just beginning to put consonants and vowels together. Cooing was just vowels. And now between four and five months, they need a lot of vocal play. You need to help them play and learn how. To make a lot of noise. it's consonants and vowels now, but they're also doing a lot of blowing, making raspberry sounds, grunting, squealing, whining, and all. A lot of crime, right. But all of these. Vocal communication aspects. Really help them get into tune, not only with a motor planning, but they're auditory listening. And we're going to talk a little bit about this, but the bottom line babies need to be noisy. And I always say that here they need to be noisy and messy, right? That's just your world for the next five, six years. But every year. As they hone their skills, they get better and better. A little less noisy, a little less messy. But keep in mind, mom, that you are the instigator, your, your, the driving force and the true, true influence are the first. Influencer, I think long before the social media came to be. Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, this topic, cooing, babbling, first words. Really requires a thorough discussion. It's so often overlooked or dismissed as this minor check on a history form. And as you can clearly see, it is so much more and really. So many moms, so many families miss critical time in that first year. So make sure that you get the essential checklist that outlined down below. I have a link. Where it lays out all six stages. Of babbling. And some key points. For both part one and part two. And keep in mind that you can email me anytime with specific questions. I love to get your emails. we'll continue this conversation next Tuesday. And meanwhile, remember, eat, talk, play with intentionality. Every single day, God bless. And don't forget to get your free checklist guide on babbling. All right. Take care. Bye.