Ah, the first words spoken by your baby are like music to the ears. Those simple words “dada” or “mama” are nothing short of magic but while we think the words are cute, they are actually much more, providing a look into a developing language. Experts have identified that babbling patterns are seen around the globe, kind of a universal language if you will. In other words, no matter what language the child is being taught, he or she has much the same babbling sounds as any other child. It is not until a more mature age that the actual language is developed.
Interesting, one particular study recorded and analyzed literally hundreds of hours of babbling. The discovery was four distinct patterns of sound with each having a consonant and vowel combination. For instance, the first of the patterns was lip consonants with vowels created at the mouth’s center, which was then spoken with a flattened tongue. The result of this pattern would be a word such as “mama”. The second pattern of sound was a consonant proceeded by a vowel at the front of the tongue. With this, you would likely hear something such as “dada”.
The third pattern produces something like “gaga”. In this case, consonants are formed on the back of the tongue, followed by vowels produced from the back of the mouth. Finally, you have the lip consonant and volume combination that comes from the front of the tongue. In this case, words such as “bad” or “mad” would be produced. What makes these sound patterns so interesting is that they are found in various countries. For instance, a child from France would produce the same patterns as the child living in Algeria.
This type of understanding about baby and toddler speech has given us insight into language but it has also proven to be a huge benefit to professionals working with children that have speech delays. Did you know that to speak it requires the involvement of 70 plus muscles from different parts of the body? As you can imagine, a child must learn to control these muscles to speak. In fact, this type of development is needed just to form the simplest of words. Therefore, as watch and listen to your child “speaking”, you can marvel at what incredible progress this really is.