Repeats consonant vowel/vowel consonant sounds, e.g., "ba-ba" "da-da"
Your baby has been finding out all about their developing voice. They will have been using crying, cooing and very early stages of babble as ways of working out how their voice works and how it can make an impact and engage people around them. You will have heard their first sounds, which will sound like a very short ‘ba’ or ‘da’. These will have been produced spontaneously and singularly.
You are now entering a very sociable time for your baby. They will be smiling, laughing, squealing, babbling and are willing to share their friendliness with everyone they meet.[1] They have been listening to conversations happening all around them and this has been supporting their very earliest vocalisations to grow.
Around this stage, your baby's throat is developing and securing the capacity to develop their sound productions[2], allowing them to have more influence over the production of speech sounds.
Your baby will be beginning to repeat common strings of the sounds they have been learning. The sounds are repetitive and the vocalisations will continue for longer. This is called ‘reduplicated babbling’.
Reduplicated Babbling
Consonant-vowel (CV) syllables are repeated in reduplicated series of the same consonant and vowel e.g., ‘ba, ba, ba’. Your baby’s sound productions at this point are substantially more similar to speech in terms of timing and vocal characteristics than at earlier phases. The sounds are becoming more definable due to their continued explorations with their tongue and mouth.
The repetitive sounds you hear and respond to are supporting your baby in learning that the positive impact their little voice has on others is a wonderful experience. When these connections are made it will encourage them to further explore their vocal capacities and sounds will be repeated many times. This will be an enjoyable phase for you and your baby as they will spend lots of time experimenting and working hard to develop their newly developing language acquisition.[3]
Developing gestures
Studies have shown that vocalisations are also linked to rhythmic movements. Babies typically move in the production of speech. Their upper body, head, torso legs and feet can start to move when vocalisations are made. When babies start producing repetitive babbling, periods of rhythmical movements become more common.[4] This preference for coordinating vocalisation with movements is consistent with adult gesture-speech patterns.
What next?
Your baby's ability to grow, differentiate and elaborate their sounds will increase into ways that are more understandable.[5] New combinations of sounds will grow and your baby may start to deliberately copy the sounds you make. They are on their pathway in the transition from babbling to verbal behaviour and their language will become more sensical.[5]
References:
[1] Murkoff. H (2010). What to Expect, the First Year. Simon and Schuster UK Ltd.
[2] Fitch WT, Reby D. The descended larynx is not uniquely human. The Royal Society. Available at: 1669 1669..1675 (nih.gov):
[3] Brock. A, Rankin. C. (2008). Communication, Language and Literacy from Birth to Five. Sage Publications Ltd.
[4] Iverson. J.M and Fagan. M.K. (2004). Infant Vocal –Motor Coordination: Precursor to the Gesture–Speech System? Child Development, July/August 2004, Volume 75. Society for Research and Child Development.
[5] Kimborough Oller. D (2000) The Emergence of Speech Capacity. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers