He said ma-ma! How they learn to speak, step by step 2026

One day the baby wants to say a word, and he says just that word. Slow, clear, solemn... Without a doubt, he begins to enjoy a second before the reaction that is coming. He has seen how, up to that moment and as a result of his babbling, the family members get excited, applaud, swear and swear that he said 'dad, mom, tit!'.

It has been a great success during the endless rehearsals. In them he has stretched the vowels to infinity to see how far they went ('aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa'), he has checked the effect of putting his lips like this or that ('gu-gu pa-pa-pa-pa'), and he has repeated it tirelessly if the combination had an effect on those present. But he still wasn't wanting to say anything.

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Around the age of one, children say their first meaningful word but, above all, their first intentional word: they have said exactly what they wanted to say. The joy is enormous. Before it became a word, 'water' was a cool sensation in the mouth. Then Carlos saw her, touched her and got wet, tried to pick up a glass and it spilled.

Before being a word, 'dad' was enormous arms that cradled him. Then Carlos could see those arms and everything else, he could touch it, smell it, bite it.

At the base of language is contact with reality. Children need to touch reality with all their senses before being able to emit that abstraction that is the word. A baby who spends many hours in front of the TV (an artifact that, paradoxically, emits words and words) may suffer a considerable delay in the acquisition of language. The most important thing is lost: contact with reality and someone to share it with.

newborn

The first form of expression is crying, available in any version and format from the first second of life. During the first six weeks it will be the baby's only tool to locate us, complain, ask, warn... And it is important that it works.

Babies between 6 and 12 weeks

The smile appears and is perfected, another powerful expressive tool. If you had already checked our response to your crying, now you will know the response to smiling.

At three months: chirps and vocals

His crying has become incredibly perfect, it has different rhythms and tonalities depending on the cause. It is the time when the mother is able to know 'what is wrong' by the tone and urgency. But, in addition, at three months she is already rehearsing chirps and vocals: 'ooooooooo' Paula says often, amused. He knows there will be an echo.

Around six months: babbling

It is the babbling stage. The baby will have already begun to mix vowels and consonants and repeat the resulting syllable: 'papa-pa-pa', 'ti-ti-ti-ti'... He will perfect the technique by giving his babbling different tones. Between six and eight months another milestone takes place: he begins to show great interest in everything we talk about. He stops, listens, observes, tries to repeat sounds... And learns to take turns speaking. 'Aiaiaia', he says Joseph. And he is silent, waiting for his mother's response. 'Of course, you're going to stay clean, clean,' she argues and remains silent, to leave him the necessary space. 'Aaaaaatatata', concludes the little one.

At ten months: syllables

Imitation of our way of speaking is very fun. It intersperses different syllables, such as 'taca' or 'tipi', has a wide repertoire of tones and uses gestural language: 'goodbye' with the hand, 'no' with the head, to reinforce its message. He is very clear about what he wants to say. Until he finally says it.

Around twelve months: the first word

Now he does say his first intentional word, almost always to name something: he can point at it with his finger or look at it and name it. 'Dad', Yolanda premiered. At first his interest focuses on defining objects and people, but he soon realizes that it can have other purposes, such as asking for things: 'Give me' is another of the first words.

12 / 18 months: the word-phrase

It enters the word-phrase period, that is: the content of a phrase is summarized in a single word. If you say 'dad' pointing to a pear, you are not confused. He's saying, 'Dad, give me the pear.'

18 months / 2 years: keyword phrases

Sentences can be two, three, four words long. Of course, they will be made up of key words: nouns, adjectives and verbs. You will never waste strength with a 'la' or an 'en'. It is an almost telegraphic and economical language, but with which you can communicate perfectly. He makes combinations like: 'Silly baby!', in reference to another, 'give me water' or 'guta parque'.

Language in the 2/3 year old child: verbs

His vocabulary expands considerably, between 50 and 250 words. He is able to conjugate simple verb tenses, add links (and, or) and his sentences become longer and longer.

Language in the 3/4 year old child: their vocabulary expands

He develops a language very similar to that of an adult: 500, 1,500 words denote his increasing ease in acquiring vocabulary. Questions will appear, especially the happy 'why'. He has discovered that, in addition to being able to influence mom's behavior, ask for things and express what he feels, with language he can achieve something else: unravel those great mysteries of reality that, until now, he only had access to through laborious experimentation.

Advisor: Esperanza Aguilar, speech therapist.