Part II: Prelinguistic Skills in Early Language Development

….Back to the question, “when will my child talk?”  After looking at communicative intent, I start to probe a child’s parents about their babbling structure.  Prior to the production of TRUE words, a child must develop a complex babbling (also known as “baby talk”) structure.  Babbling is a prelinguistic skill (or pre-language.) Below are some key characteristics I look for when evaluating a young child:

• Babbling (or “cooing”) with vowels in typically developing kids usually occurs between 4-8 months… The baby does not initially use consonants (ie., “dadadadada” or “bababa”) but primarily uses vowels (ie., “uuhoohha”.)
• Babbling with consonants occurs between 6-8 months in typically developing children… This may include “babababa” (babbling with one consonant and one vowel) and will eventually turn into some complex babbling (babbling with a variety of consonants and vowels in a string like “badagigodadi.”)
• “Jargon” is a fancy word for “babbling with adult-like intonation.”  It usually occurs between 8-14 months. When the baby is babbling, is his/her pitch going up and down as if he/she is having a conversation with you?
• Using true words, or word approximations, amidst babbling occurs next (between 12-14 months-ish.) This may sound like, “Juice badadigo.” Juice is a real word while “badadigo” is simply babbling.

Baby talk isn’t as simple as one would think, eh?  If I’m evaluating a child and they are silent or only producing vowels, yet have communicative intent, this is where I start.  I imitate their vocalizations, babbling and jargon. Since therapy with 0-3 year olds is primary play-based, I sometimes imitate their babbling OR expand on their babbling in play, while using simple signs to request and label.

So, as I continue to answer a parent’s question of, “When will my child talk?”, I initially look at communicative intent and whether they are babbling…how complex is their babbling structure? Is the child solely using vowels? Or are they using a variety of consonants and consonant-vowel combinations with adult-like intonation?

Your child will intentionally start using words after he/she develops these pivotal prelinguistic skills of communicative intent and babbling….

Happy babbling!