Babbling is a newborn's way of expressing himself, usually starting at 6 months . It differs from the first sounds and cries because it closely resembles meaningful words like "ma-ma" or "pa-pa". Although it is every parent's dream to hear someone call you for the first time, babbling does not convey a message, but is only the first step in language development .

The term “ lallation ” derives from the Latin lallatio and means “to hum”.

Just as tummy time is the first training ground for promoting the motor development of the newborn, babbling is the baby's first training to discover his voice and begin to understand how to use it.

We can recognize two types of babbling in children, let's look at them in detail.

This is the first babbling experienced by the newborn, that is, the repetition of the same sequence of consonants and vowels.

Usually the vowel used is /a/ because it can be pronounced with a neutral mouth position; therefore, easier.

Instead, the consonants used /m/, /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/

This is the next stage of canonical babbling in which the child repeats different sequences of consonants and vowels such as “ma-ta-ta”, “pa-pa-ta”.

This phase of language development also corresponds to the period of gestures such as “hello” and “cuckoo”, but also pointing at things.

Babbling begins around 6-7 months with the canonical type and proceeds with the varied type around 9-10 months.

As time goes by, the child will learn more and more words and will gradually begin to lose the use of this way of expressing himself around 12-18 months.

In fact, around the age of one and a half, the child's "vocabulary explosion" occurs, and he will begin to master about fifty words. These will reach around 300 in just 6 months!