Babbling and vocalisations—those cute and funny sounds—are actually key speech development milestones for your new baby. They lay the foundation for more advanced language skills later, and there are ways that you, as a parent, can support them.

Vocalisations

Babies are making noises and sounds to communicate their needs and wants from birth. These are vocalisations and include coos, gurgles, and even cries. With time, their vocalisations diversify and become more complex. This is because they are learning how to incorporate and coordinate their jaw and lip movements.

They may start to make vowel sounds or respond to things in their environment with sounds, such as saying “moo” when you point out a cow. Smile and respond with words of encouragement to make them feel supported and understood in their attempts.

Babbling

Babbling is the repeated use of consonant-vowel syllables, like “ba-ba-ba.” It’s another important milestone in language development for babies who are not yet one year old. You’ll likely start hearing babbles when your baby is around six months old.

They’re an important step in developing language skills and help your baby practice the necessary muscle movements for speech. They’ll also start to understand language rhythms and patterns. Respond to babbling with enthusiasm. Try repeating your baby's sounds to make them feel supported and encourage them to continue practicing their communication skills.

Encouraging babbling and vocalisations

Here are some more tips to help you support your baby’s vocalisation and babbling skills.

Talk to your baby often. Be sure that your baby can see your mouth so they can learn to make speech movements. Even if they don’t understand the words you are saying, they’re learning the rhythms and patterns of language and practicing their own vocalisations.
Repeat their sounds back to them. This will help them feel understood and encourage them to continue practicing their vocalisation skills.
Sing songs to your baby: Stick to simple songs with repetitive patterns and encourage your baby to join you. This will help them refine their vocalisation and babbling.
Read books: Reading is a gift that keeps on giving, especially when it comes to your baby's language development. Poing at pictures and describing them in simple language
Sound it out at playtime. Your baby will learn the different sounds and rhythms of language through play. Try silly sound-based games like echoing animal noises to make learning fun.

What roles do vocalisation and babbling play in speech development?

From Unii’s Baby Speech Journey, we share tips on encouraging speech through babbling and other noises.