Babbling: Function, Tasks, Role & Diseases

Babbling is the preliminary stage of speech. After the first form of communication, crying, the baby learns to string vowels and consonants together. This results in babbling, which adults consider cute and is essential to forming words.

What is babbling?

Babbling is the preliminary stage of speech. After the first form of communication, crying, the baby learns to string vowels and consonants together. Whether a baby is hungry, thirsty, has a diaper full or longs for closeness, at first it communicates only by crying. Only with increasing social, emotional and mental development does the baby learn words and descriptions of everything it sees, hears, feels and thinks and to use these words. Long before the first spoken word, a baby has learned language rules and how to use language just like an adult. Language is linked to listening. The child first learns how words sound by listening and later how sentences are constructed. Language understanding is already present in the womb. The baby already adjusts to the sound of the mother’s voice and to her heartbeat here. At first, the baby makes sounds with its tongue, lips, palate and first teeth. After the first “oohs” and “aahs” in the babbling phase, babbling begins. The baby’s first spoken word is audible from around the fourth month and is an event for all family members. But until then, it must pass through important stages of linguistic development. By the age of two at the latest, it should be able to speak intelligibly.

Function and task

The child’s communication begins with crying and screaming. Soon the baby differentiates different pitches. This ranges from light whimpering to loud screaming. Over time, it develops an extensive repertoire of different sounds: it coos, sighs, gurgles and giggles. From about the fourth week, it can already distinguish between similar-sounding syllables such as “la” and “ma”. From the fourth month, the baby begins to babble, combining consonants and vowels. When babbling, the baby repeats the connected vowels and consonants several times in a row. The child tries to imitate the language that surrounds him. Thus, babbling is not the same for all babies, but sounds different depending on nationality and the respective language. During these “speech exercises”, the infant trains many muscles and learns to refine movements, from which its language ultimately develops. Over time, it masters its laryngeal muscles better and better, which has an effect on the differentiated formation of sounds. For the child itself, learning to speak is a great journey of discovery. The more he is encouraged by his environment, the more intensively he wants to practice. After the vowels, the baby begins to form silvers and he speaks the first nasal consonants (B, D, T, P). The baby wants to express something and uses mainly the tone of voice to do so. It is still in the protolanguage, a prototype of the actual language. In this phase, language is like a playground. For fun, the baby simply tries out all the sounds. If it receives a lot of encouragement in the process, it makes more frequent contact with its environment. Words and speech rhythms develop from this. Language is a collective activity. For healthy language development, it is therefore important that parents respond to their baby’s vocal exercises as often as possible. Their response has a decisive influence on their child’s language development.

Diseases and ailments

When you speak, the nerve cells in the speech center of the brain are connected. Like a computer network, it becomes more and more powerful. To stimulate the formation of neural connections, parents should stay in conversation with their children throughout the day, if possible. Above all, they should repeat and confirm their baby’s utterances and offer new words. If this crucial step in language development is impeded or does not take place at all, a language disorder can result. There are linguistic early starters and late bloomers, so parents should not panic at supposed delays. In most cases, they are no cause for concern. In many children, language development is only lagging behind because they are busy with other learning tasks. A language development disorder is only spoken of if the child does not respond to sounds or does not make contact with parents in the first year of life.If mute remains, although actually the babbling phase should have begun, the visit to the doctor is appropriate. This phase is elementary for normal language development. If, even at one year of age, the child cannot understand simple prompts and cannot speak the first words, if imitation attempts are lacking, there is usually a language development disorder. There are many causes for this. On the one hand, genetic reasons come into consideration, but there can also be organic and neurological causes. Speech development disorders occur, for example, in connection with hearing loss, deafness or an intellectual disability. Psychological restrictions can also inhibit language development. However, the reason can equally be the lack of linguistic stimulation. Adults must therefore talk to their child again and again. This is the only way to develop a love of language and to give the child the opportunity to imitate, because the baby needs stimulation to speak. A speech development disorder can be treated by speech therapists. In a playful way, the speech therapist tries to awaken joy of speech in the child. Targeted exercises improve listening, concentration, oral motor skills and learning ability. If a speech development disorder has been diagnosed, the child does not have to struggle with it for the rest of his or her life. Speech therapy treatments are now so sophisticated that after a certain period of time, there is no longer any lagging behind.