Babbling
Most babies start babbling, repeating sounds like "ba-ba" or "da-da", somewhere between about 5 and 10 months, often around 6 to 7 months. Babies learning very different languages start at similar ages.
How sure are we?
Fairly sure. A large study in four countries agrees with a smaller one that recorded babies at home, but the large study relied on what parents reported. How we know this
What it’s a sign of
Your baby is practising the kinds of sounds that words are built from, joining a consonant and a vowel, like "ba".
Studies measure babbling in different ways. Some count the first time a baby makes a syllable like "ba"; others wait until a set share of the baby's sounds are babble. That changes the age a little. The CDC lists making sounds like "mamamama" and "babababa" at 9 months, later than the typical age above, because it uses the age by which about 3 in 4 children do it, rounded up to the next check-up. Babies learning languages with simpler syllables, like Spanish or Mandarin, babble a bit more at first than babies learning English or Dutch, but the difference fades by about 20 months.
The large study asked parents, and the studies that recorded babies were small. We haven't yet read the classic studies that first measured when babbling starts, so the range comes from a review of them.
A main source for the ages
Similarities and differences in child development from birth to age 3 years by sex and across four countries: a cross-sectional, observational study
Ilgi Ozturk Ertem, Vibha Krishnamurthy, Mphelekedzeni C. Mulaudzi, Yanina Sguassero, Hakan Balta, Ozlem Gulumser · 2018 · Lancet Global Health
- Children
- About 4,900 healthy children
- Where
- Argentina, India, South Africa and Turkey
- Ages
- Birth to 3½ years
- How
- Trained staff asked parents open questions about what their child could do, at health clinics
- What it found
- Found the age by which half of children reached more than 100 milestones. Most came at similar ages in all four countries, and for boys and girls. For example, half of children waved bye-bye by about 11 months and said a first word by about 9 months.
- Limits
- Only four countries and no rural areas, children from city clinics, and only healthy children (about half of those who came were left out for health reasons). It gives the age for half of children, not the full spread.
A study that questioned earlier findings
Vocal development in a large-scale crosslinguistic corpus
Margaret Cychosz, Alejandrina Cristia, Elika Bergelson, Marisa Casillas, Gladys Baudet, Anne S. Warlaumont, Camila Scaff, Lisa Yankowitz, Amanda Seidl · 2021 · Developmental Science
- Children
- 49 babies and toddlers
- Where
- Five communities with different languages and cultures
- Ages
- 1 to 36 months
- How
- Day-long audio recordings at home. Volunteers listened to short clips and marked whether they contained babble.
- What it found
- Babble became a steadily bigger share of children's sounds as they grew, passing the level researchers use for "has started babbling" at around 7 months.
- Limits
- A small group of children, and the volunteer listeners agreed with each other less than trained experts do. We read the summary, not yet the full paper.
A main source for the ages
Canonical Babbling: A Marker for Earlier Identification of Late Detected Developmental Disorders?
Sigrun Lang, Katrin D. Bartl-Pokorny, Florian B. Pokorny, Dunia Garrido, Nivedita Mani, Annette V. Fox-Boyer, Dajie Zhang, Peter B. Marschik · 2019 · Current Developmental Disorders Reports
- Children
- A review of earlier studies
- Where
- Studies in many languages, including English, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, German, Mandarin and Cantonese
- Ages
- Babies in their first year
- How
- Researchers summarised earlier studies of when babies start babbling
- What it found
- Says typically developing babies start babbling between about 5 and 10 months, at similar ages across many languages.
- Limits
- A summary of other studies, not new measurements. Its main focus is babies with particular conditions, which we don't cover.
A main source for the ages
Canonical Babbling Ratio Development in Infancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Methodological and Ambient Language Influences
Margaret Cychosz, Helen L. Long · 2026 · Developmental Science
- Children
- 1,277 babies, from 42 studies
- Where
- 16 language communities
- Ages
- 5 to 24 months
- How
- Pulled together results from 42 studies that measured how much of babies' sounds were babble
- What it found
- The share of babbling sounds grew steadily, from about 1 in 8 at 5 months to about 2 in 3 at 24 months. Babies learning languages with simpler syllables babbled more at first, but the difference faded by about 20 months.
- Limits
- It measures how much babies babble, not when they start, and smaller studies tended to report higher numbers. We read the summary, not the full paper.
A main source for the ages
Evidence-Informed Milestones for Developmental Surveillance Tools
Jennifer M. Zubler, Lisa D. Wiggins, Michelle M. Macias, Toni M. Whitaker, Judith S. Shaw, Jane K. Squires, Julie A. Pajek, Rebecca B. Wolf, Karnesha S. Slaughter, Amber S. Broughton, Krysta L. Gerndt, Bethany J. Mlodoch, Paul H. Lipkin · 2022 · Pediatrics
- Children
- A review of 34 studies and common checklists, not one group of children
- Where
- Studies from many countries (14 of the 24 with age data were from countries where English isn't the main language)
- Ages
- 2 months to 5 years
- How
- Experts reviewed studies and checklists, then placed each milestone at the check-up age by which about 3 in 4 children do it
- What it found
- Places calling a parent "mama" or "dada" at 12 months, and saying 1 or 2 other words at 15 months. These are ages by which about 3 in 4 children have started, rounded up to a check-up age.
- Limits
- Experts' judgement set the ages, and some milestones rest on opinion rather than measured ages. The lists haven't been tested to see whether they help.
If you’re worried about your child, talk to your child and family health nurse or GP.
Last checked 2 November 2026