What Sounds Develop First in Babies?

It’s an incredibly exciting time in any parent’s life when their child utters their first word. Typically, first words appear in a child’s expressive communication around age one. So what sounds develop first? When we take a closer look, we can almost always expect certain speech sounds to develop before others. These early developing sounds include all vowels and bilabial sounds. Below are some ways you can model bilabial sounds and include them in daily activities to support development.

What Sounds Develop First? Meet Bilabial Sounds

Bilabial sounds are /p/, /b/, and /m/, and they’re typically fully developed by the time a child turns two. To make a bilabial sound, a child presses their lips together and then quickly opens them to release airflow.

Before a child says their first word, these bilabial sounds can often be heard in their babbling. According to ASHA’s typical speech and language development milestones, a child typically begins babbling single sounds around four months of age. From there, they usually begin grouping sounds into multiple syllables around seven months. These building blocks eventually help those sounds morph into real words.

When to Encourage Bilabial Sound Development

At this age, children don’t yet know that these groups of syllables carry functional meaning as words. That’s exactly why it’s important to model these sounds early on, to encourage speech and language development before your child even realizes what’s happening.

Reciprocal Play

Reciprocal play with a ball provides many repetitions for bilabial speech sounds. The ball can “bounce,” go “up,” and go “more.” Practice taking turns with your child by “passing” the “ball” “back” and forth. Encourage your child to watch you as you say these words, so they can observe how your lips produce each sound.

You might also model pronouns during play, like “mine,” “me,” and “my” turn. As you play, aim to model word production naturally in context, rather than asking your child to “say ball” or “say more.” Modeling language naturally keeps the play environment free of pressure, which makes it more enjoyable and less stressful for your child.

Meal or Snack Time

Meal and snack times offer another great chance to model these sounds. Try withholding a highly preferred food and emphasizing the word “more” as you hand it over. You can also choose foods that start with these sounds, like “milk,” “banana,” “beans,” “bottle,” “muffin,” and “apple.” Emphasizing “yum” after each bite adds another natural repetition too.

Pretend Play

Pretend play is another fun way to encourage bilabial sound production. Playing with animals often creates natural opportunities, since the cow says “moo,” the sheep says “baa,” and the cat says “meow,” each pairing a bilabial sound (/m/, /b/, /m/) with a vowel. Animals whose names start with bilabial sounds, like pig, mouse, puppy, and sheep, also offer good practice opportunities, and they all happen to live in a barn.

Reading Together

Reading books with your child is valuable in so many ways, and it also offers plenty of chances to practice bilabial sounds. Here are a few books loaded with them:

• /b/ — Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom; Wheels on the Bus
• /p/ — The Three Little Pigs; If You Give a Pig a Pancake; Too Many Pumpkins
• /m/ — If You Give a Moose a Muffin; Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed; Goodnight Moon

Young children learn speech and language best through modeling, naturalistic play, and routine-based activities. Spending time each day on these sounds is priceless, and it will make a meaningful impact on their overall speech and language development.

Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center Can Help With Speech and Language

As your child starts to sound out their first few words, they may need a little extra support, and that’s where we come in. At Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center, we strive to create a comfortable, supportive environment while providing high-quality speech therapy services to build your child’s skills. We partner closely with parents and other caregivers to help generalize skills and strategies beyond the therapy room. If you have concerns about your child’s speech and language development, please contact us.