It's because those sounds are the easiest for babies to make. The m, p and b sounds—soon followed by d and g—are the first to form, and usually start as babbles between six and nine months, says Weisz.
“The 'm,' 'p,' and 'b' sounds, quickly followed by 'd,' 'g,' and 'h,' are typically the first sounds babies babble. However, a first word is when the child assigns meaning to their babble. For example, vocalizing 'mama' for mom or 'dada' for dad. First words typically arise around 12 months.”
In American English, the 10 most frequent first words, in order, are mommy, daddy, ball, bye, hi, no, dog, baby, woof woof, and banana.
Your child may start to use sound-words like "mi" for "milk" or "dat" for "that" (as in, "I want that!") as early as 7 months. Or your child might not start to say words or word-sounds until as late as 18 months.
So when do babies usually say their first word? Around 12 months, according to experts. Common first words may be greetings ("hi" or "bye-bye") or they might be very concrete: people ("mama" or "dada"), pets ("doggy" or "kitty"), or food ("cookie," "juice," or "milk").
Most babies, say “mama” or “dada” when they are about 8-12 months of age. Some babies may even say their first words when they are younger, around 6-8 months or when they are older than 12 months.
A baby may also begin what psychologists call "jargon" or "pseudo" conversations. Your baby will babble just as if talking in sentences, imitating an adult's speech pattern, facial expression and tone of voice. This conversational babble is another sure sign that your baby is getting ready to talk.
When do babies say their first words? Most babies can say at least one or two words by the end of their first year, but the timing may vary considerably from individual to individual. For instance, experiments indicate that babies understand certain words — like the names of everyday objects — as early as 6 months.
As your baby babbles more expertly, around 6 months old, you may hear word-like sounds such as "ma-ma," "ba-ba," and "da-da." This doesn't count as real talking, though, because your baby doesn't yet understand the meaning of these words. By around 8 to 12 months old, your baby will begin to attach meaning to words.
Around age 2: Kids start recognizing some letters and can sing or say aloud the “ABC” song. Around age 3: Kids may recognize about half the letters in the alphabet and start to connect letters to their sounds. (Like s makes the /s/ sound.)
Experts are mixed about whether or not saying “mama” is easier than “dada” for babies. Classic theories by the Russian linguist Roman Jakobson found that the sound of “m” (for “mama”) is easier for babies to make because they tend to do so when their mouths are fastened to a bottle or breast.
Babies typically say words like 'mama' or 'dada' by 12 months old, so if they're not quite that old yet, you might just need to wait a while longer. Once your baby reaches 12 months of age, try to be patient with them, and rest assured that once your baby can talk, they will talk.
On average, they say their first words between 7–12 months of age and are constructing coherent sentences by 2–3 years of age. Language develops alongside other skills, such as those relating to movement. As a result, many babies say their first words close to when they start walking — at about 12 months .
Most children say their first word between the ages of 10-14 months old. A 1 year old (12 months) can say anywhere between 0-5 words. By the time a baby is 18 months old (technically also a 1 year old) they will be saying as many as 50 or more words.
Most kids say 1–2 words by 15 months and 3 or more words by 18 months. By 2 years old, most toddlers are saying even more words and can put together 2-word sentences. No matter when they say their first words, it's a sure bet they already understand much of what you say.
Baby talk at 6 months.
At 6 months, your baby begins babbling with different sounds. For example, your baby may say "ba-ba" or "da-da." By the end of the sixth or seventh month, babies respond to their own names, recognize their native language, and use their tone of voice to tell you they're happy or upset.
Babbling is a stage of early language development when baby makes consonant-vowel or vowel-consonant sounds, such as “ma”, “da” or “um”. Repetitive babbling occurs next (for example, “mamama”). Finally, baby will combine a variety of sounds (i.e. “mabaga”) which is called variegated babbling.
Development Milestone emerges from age 5 to 9 months. After the first few months of baby babble, your baby begins to say random words. Your baby may start to say repetitive sounds and syllables by 6 months. Listen for baby words like “baba,” “dada,” and “yaya.”
The current Guinness World Record for the youngest baby to walk is just 6 months old. Wow. But there may be another contender ‒ Delilah Moore could be the new youngest walking baby, walking unaided at 4 months old, having started standing by herself from 3 months old, according to Bury Times.
In other words, it's perfectly normal for some babies to reach their talking timelines a little early (or even late), according to Baby Center. In general, the only red flags for caregivers come with greatly delayed speech development. Early talkers, however, do not typically create a cause for concern.
In fact, kids' first words may only approximate adults' pronunciations of the same words. In short, if you hear your child spontaneously saying something that appears to have meaning, is appropriate to the context, and is used consistently, it's likely he's saying his first words.
When mothers are the primary attachment, babies are still quite fused to them well into their first year of life. The first separation they see from themself is to their father. Dada is usually the first person they identify outside of the mother and baby bond.
At 4 months, a baby typically can hold his/her head steady without support, and at 6 months, he/she begins to sit with a little help. At 9 months he/she sits well without support, and gets in and out of a sitting position but may require help. At 12 months, he/she gets into the sitting position without help.
Real words can come anytime between 9 and 14 months. This isn't the case for all babies though, some don't say a word that is recognisable until they get to about 18 months yet others can communicate recognisable words such as 'ba-ba' for bye-bye, 'da' or 'da-da' for dad (or dog!) from as young as 7 months.
Typically, doctors measure baby age in months until the child is 2 or two and a half years old, in part because kids grow fast.