The first words of the baby

The first words of the baby are an event in the family. These first words are uttered in isolation and are phonetic approximations to the words they hear from adults. Once babies are able to pronounce them for the first time, their brain is able to use them to refer intentionally to something they want or want.

The first words of the baby are also accompanied by gestures, since due to their incomplete pronunciation they are difficult to understand even for the parents. Little by little, as his pronunciation is more correct and his grammatical structure is more perfect, he will suppress gestures.

After a year and a half of life, the baby begins to pronounce his first words for the desire to know and categorize the environment. These words are linked, in the first place, to the frequency, because in general the first words that children say are the ones that most repeat their parents and, secondly, to the family context because they are linked to observation and memory.

Characteristics of the baby's first words

They continue to babble and have been counted around 50 words. Although each child takes his rhythm to start talking, these first 50 words they begin to be acquired in general around 18 months and present some particular characteristics:

1. They are elaborated in a slow and associative way.
2. They occur in certain contexts of use or personal, spatial or temporal circumstances.
3. They are conditioned by the anatomical constrictions imposed by the child's speech device.
4. They fulfill some special communicative functions.
5. They work as signals in their beginnings and they are words in which function and referentiality go hand in hand.

The functions of babies' first words

The baby's first words arise from a baby's need to communicate. The first communicative needs are denial, the demand for help, the request for objects, the demand for continuity or actions that interest him. The need to call is also very important and that's why, most babies say father or mom as the first word. Goodbye Y Hello, they follow them in the first positions, and in the children that are not first-born the word comes soon my own to express possession.

1. Denial, greeting and acceptance. Goodbye, no and yes they are part of the children's lexicon in the acquisition of first words. In most cases they coexist for a while with gestures.
2. The gesture of asking. It is a basic communicative function that is verbalized right away. Thus, the word appears soon look by which the child asks for attention, the word give to me to ask for an object, the word come to require accompaniment, the word have to offer an object and the word plus to demand continuation.
3. Point by hand or with the index finger. The intention to call people and objects by name is also done soon. Babies usually make the first identification with the demonstrative east that usually accompanies the pointing gesture. They also use the word I to identify himself, the terms father Y mom Y you or the proper name of each one when it refers to the brothers.