Bilabial Sounds: Helping Your Child’s First Words

First words typically begin to appear in a child’s expressive communication around age one. When we take a closer look at those first words, we can almost always expect certain speech sounds, called bilabial sounds, to come out first.

What Are Bilabial Sounds?

These early developing speech sounds include all vowel sounds, as well as the consonants /p/, /m/, and /b/, which are typically mastered around age two. These three consonants are considered “bilabials” because a child produces them by pressing their lips together and then quickly opening them to release airflow.

Fun Activities to Model Bilabial Sounds

To encourage speech development, it’s important to model these bilabial sounds early on. Here are some creative, fun ways to work them into everyday play and activities.

Bouncy Ball Play

Reciprocal play with a bouncy ball can provide many repetitions for bilabial speech sounds. For example, the ball can “bounce” “back” and forth, go “up,” and be the color “blue.” Taking turns by “passing” the ball back and forth also encourages your child to make eye contact and watch your lips as you make these sounds. You can include the model for “push” when moving the ball, and when taking turns, you might also model pronouns like “my,” “me,” and “mine.”

Mealtime Modeling

During mealtimes, you can model requests for “more” by withholding some of a highly preferred food and then emphasizing the word when handing it over. You can also encourage “milk” and “please” during any request. A few common food names with target bilabial sounds include: banana, potato, beans, apple, blueberries, muffin, pizza, and pasta.

Bubble Play

Playing with bubbles offers many opportunities to model bilabial sounds. As your child tries to pop each bubble, encourage them to label the action as “pop.” Your child can also direct you to make the bubbles go “up,” or make them “big” or small. When the lid is on the bubble container, asking to “open” it models the bilabial /p/ sound. Even the word “bubbles” itself is a great target word.

Pretend Play With Farm Animals

Pretend play or picture books with farm animals create natural opportunities to label animals and their sounds. For instance, “the cow says ‘mooo'” pairs the bilabial /m/ with a vowel sound. Similarly, “the sheep says ‘baaaa'” pairs the bilabial /b/ with a different vowel sound, and “the cat says ‘meow'” pairs the bilabial /m/ with a combination of vowel and consonant sounds. You can also look for the “baby” animals and the “mommy” animals. Some animal names with these sounds include pig, mouse, llama, puppy, and sheep, all of which live in a “barn.”

Books to Practice Bilabial Sounds

Many books are loaded with bilabial sounds. Here are a few to try for each sound:

• /b/ — Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom; Wheels on the Bus
• /p/ — The Three Little Pigs; Piggies in Pajamas; If You Give a Pig a Pancake; Too Many Pumpkins; Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
• /m/ — If You Give a Moose a Muffin; Are You My Mother?; Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed; The Mitten; Goodnight Moon

Incorporate Bilabial Sounds Into Everyday Life

Young children learn best through naturalistic play and routine-based activities. Even just five minutes of uninterrupted time with your child each day can make a meaningful difference in their language development.