What Are The Most Common Children’s First Words?
Learning to speak is one of the most significant milestones in a child’s development and also something that parents usually look forward to. Many mothers and fathers remember the first words of their own child vividly. Every child is different and learns to speak at their own pace, but typically children utter their first words at the age of 1-1.5 years, sometimes even earlier.
Although not all children’s first words are exactly the same, children typically learn certain words before others. Next, we will tell you what these words are like.
What are the most common first words for children?
The first words are strongly related to what the child experiences in their immediate environment. The child often imitates the words of his or her parents or other primary guardians. In general, all parents communicate in the same way with their child during their first months of life, which is why certain types of words are usually the children’s first words.
Words related to family members
The first words of many children are mother and father. In addition to being easily pronounced due to their brevity and lack of difficult consonants, these embody the individuals with whom the child interacts most.
Admission and refusal
Words related to giving and refusing, such as yes , yeah, and no , are also common first words. The child quickly learns to express consent and refusal first with gestures and then with words.
Words related to food
One of the basic human needs is to satisfy hunger, and so it is no wonder that the first words of some children relate to food or eating. Such words can be, for example, milk or a bottle . It is also common for a child to use some other verbal expression to get food, such as give , want, or add .
Greetings
Greeting is a social norm passed down from generation to generation and a sign of courtesy. Many children adopt greeting habits at a very young age, and hello , for example, can be a child’s first words.
Onomatopoeic words
In some cases, the child’s first words are ones that are not found in the dictionary. These include, for example, onomatopoeic, or sound-like or imitation words. For example, a child may say hau hau when it means a dog and meow as it means a cat.
Children naturally adopt the language at a very young age when they interact with their environment. For this reason, it is good for the home to be as stimulating and enriching as possible as an environment, in addition to which parents should provide the child with additional stimuli that stimulate speech learning. In our previous article, we have shared 17 ways to support a child’s speech learning.
