Let’s Play: A Guide to Language in the First Year

by Jocelyn M. Wood, M.A. CCC-SLP | Aug 16, 2016

During the first year of life, your new baby will take the journey that brings him from a crying ball of mush to his first words. It is exciting, breathtaking…and nerve-racking as you ponder whether all this is normal. As part of my new parenting series, I present to you the speech and language milestones and expectations for your baby’s first year. I have also included activities that you can incorporate to maximize your child’s development at that stage.

The First Three Months

When you first bring your child home, you’ll get to go through the process of getting to know each other. You will begin to discover the meaning behind each cry and will gradually adjust to your sleepless nights. Before you know it, your baby will be smiling at the sound of your voice and making cooing sounds. By 3 months, your child should be:

startling to loud sounds
smiling when spoken to or seeing you
making cooing sounds
recognizing your voice
varying cries

It is important to spend plenty of time bonding with your new baby during these early months and many of these early milestones can be achieved during simple daily activities, such as mealtime, bath time, and cuddling time. In addition, you can also incorporate:

gentle music, singing, and lullabies
rattles to attune your child to louder noises
black and white pictures to focus the eyes and encourage tracking

Months 4-6

By this time, you are beginning to think this parenting thing isn’t so difficult. Likely, you are sleeping better and you and your family have settled into life’s new routines. You’ll begin to notice that your baby’s eyes brighten when he sees you and he is beginning to communicate with open vowel sounds, such as “aaaa” and “oooo”. By 6 months, your child should be:

moving eyes in the direction of sounds (localizing)
paying attention to music
responding to changes in the tone of your voice
babbling with open vowels and bilabial sounds p, b, and m
vocalizing excitement and displeasure

Continue playing with your child and building off of the activities that have become a part of your daily routine to keep developing their language in the first year. For example, stand across the room or behind your child and have them turn towards the rattle or your voice or respond to babbling with a longer string (if your baby says “ba” you say “baba”). Toys for this age include:

Pop-up toys
Books with large scale, basic pictures
Shape-sorters

7 months-1 year

You made it! This parenting thing isn’t so difficult, after all. Development builds off the previous stage, so just follow your child’s natural progression and soon you will hear his first words. By a child’s first birthday, he should:

enjoy games like peek-a-boo
recognize words for common items
babble with long and short sounds
imitate different speech sounds
begin to respond to requests (give me ball)
has 1-2 words

To encourage your child to speak, it is important that you continue to have eye contact and engage in playful language games with your child. Label things throughout your environment and have your child request what he wants, either by using a gesture or a vocalization—not crying. Games and toys for this age can include: