Your baby's mouth movements now and eventual first words!
Before they were born, your baby could hear the voices of the people around them and they will already recognise your voice. While in the womb they started to develop the muscles needed to make sounds – the sucking reflex began to develop at around 6 months' gestation, so your baby will have been practising sucking and swallowing for a little while before their arrival.[1]
Hearing and making sounds
Babies' ears are fully developed around 10 weeks before birth, but they will have begun to hear some sounds via vibrations of the skull sooner than this.[2] Your baby hasn't yet developed the control of their mouth, lips and tongue needed to speak, however, in the coming months, they will explore moving their mouth in different ways to develop the control that they need in order to make a range of sounds.
Crying is likely to be your baby’s main form of communication for some time and you might notice that they start to cry more before they start to cry less.[3] Your baby will also make other reflexive sounds (ones they don't have control over), like coughing and burping.
Your baby's changing sucking patterns
Sucking and swallowing help your baby to develop the muscles of their mouth and tongue, the voice box (larynx), throat (pharynx) and breathing through their nose – all of these developments will contribute to their ability to vocalise.[4]
Sucking and swallowing are controlled by reflexes at first but will gradually become consciously controlled as connections are made in your baby’s brain. The pattern that your baby uses when sucking and swallowing will change in the weeks and months after birth; initially, they will suck in an up and down pattern and then more side to side, then with a back-and-forth movement.[5]
Sucking objects and speech muscle development
Your baby will develop different sucking behaviours for feeding and when exploring objects;[1] these different movements will contribute to the development and control of the muscles needed to make sounds and to speak. When they develop the physical control to put their hands and other objects into their mouths, they'll not only learn about the objects by sucking them, but will also develop the muscles that they need for speech as they move their mouth in different ways.
The journey from reflexive sounds to first words!
In the months ahead, your baby will develop control of the muscles of their mouth and tongue. They will move from making reflexive sounds, such as coughs, cries and burps, to making sounds using vowels, then combinations of vowels and consonants, before making sounds that are more like words and then, eventually... saying their precious first words!
Your baby will learn language from hearing people speak, being spoken to and watching how people communicate. Language and social development are closely linked and talking to your baby and responding to their movements and the sounds that they make will support their language development.
References:
[1] Owens, R.E. (2001). Language development: An introduction (5th Ed.). New York: Merrill.
[2] Byrne, E (2021) How to build a human. What science knows about childhood. London: Souvenir Press.
[3] Unknown author (2017) Crying behaviour: Introduction. In: Tremblay RE, Boivin M, Peters RDeV, eds. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development [online]. Available at: Crying behaviour - Introduction | Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development (child-encyclopedia.com). Accessed 8th October 2021.
[4] Goddard-Blythe, S. (2004). The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning. Stroud: Hawthorn Press.
[5] Gotzke, C. & Sample Gosse, H. (2007). Research Review: Vocalizing 0 - 3 Months. In L.M. Phillips (Ed.), Handbook of language and literacy development: A Roadmap from 0 - 60 Months. [online], pp. 1 - 8. London, ON: Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network. Available at: Handbook of language and literacy development. Accessed 8th October 2021.