Kids A health and safety column from Children's Mercy of Kansas City, Mo. Communicating with your children begins long before they say their first words. This is how children learn how to communicate. Although babies may not understand what you're saying, they can hear the differences among words and tell apart different vowel and consonant sounds. And before long, babies will begin to make sounds on their own.
Babies start to coo between two and four months of age.
Motherese comes naturally to most parents. Around the first birthday, your child will probably say his first word. Names for family members and things the baby wants will likely be first. The baby will also likely use one word to describe several things for which adults have different names. Just before age two, the spoken vocabulary will increase dramatically.