How old are babies when they really start to speak?

Question by how2hunt: How old are babies when they really start to speak?

I'm totally aware that babies say, "ga-ga, da-da, and ma-ma," but when do they REALLY begin to communicate verbally? I am also aware that sign-language is another option, meaning that the brain is functioning well. In fact, my eight-month-old is able to communicate through signing clumsily, but her mouth is not accustomed to moving dexterously enough to speak. I would like to know what sort of a jump she has gotten in communicating.
When I said that my 8-month-old can communicate clumsily, she understands about five signs, but only can depict two; "more" and "milk." Her 5-year-old brother and I sign repetitively with her.




Best answer:

Answer by reflux mommy
It depends on what kind of communication you're talking about. Just to give you an idea of the progression (and the dr always said my son was right on track with speech) I think that my son had one word when he turned a year old, and that was kind of iffy. By two years old he knew about 200 words, if you included colors and the names of the characters on the Wiggles and Teletubbies. At around 2 1/2 he had very broken speech, kind of like someone who recently immigrated to a new country. But by 3 he was talking a mile a minute.

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