do you think..

[BabyMamma93]

when a baby first says words, they actually know what it means, my boys first words were dada and hiya.. do u reckon they actually know 'dada' is his dad?
i mean he looks at him when he says it, and now he looks for him when he says it, he always says yeah, hiya, and other short words but i always wonder if its just a noise atm rather than a actual word, yano like they 'make the noise' we repeat it back and because of that they then learn it as a word?

do i make sense or am i rambling haha

 

[MindUtopia]

At first it's just a noise. Things like mama and dada are just part of babbling anyway (as well as like 'nananana' and 'babababa'). I think when we repeat certain sounds and reference a person or object, it starts to take on a meaning. My daughter was saying dada and mama from 9 months, but it was just a sound. Around the 1 year mark, it took on obvious significance. My husband would come in the door and she would shout 'dada!'. It was obvious by that point that she was using it in context and not just as a repetitive sound (she wouldn't necessarily say it when daddy wasn't around). Same as things like 'hiya'. If you say it a lot, they'll repeat it. Eventually, they'll see how you use it in context (when you see someone for the first time) and understand it's a greeting and will mimic you saying it when you see someone. But it's a bit of a grey area between just being a sound and being obvious that it's being used in context, since we can't be inside their heads. My daughter's first real word (other than mama or dada) was 'cat' because we were visiting family and she got to pet a cat for the first time and we kept saying 'cat' a lot all day and then finally, she started to say 'cat' every time she saw the cat and would point at it. So then it was really clear that it was a word rather than a sound.

 

[BabyMamma93]

Yeah thats what i always thought, of corse its only a sound at first but we all like to think its a word, M said 'dada' at about 6.5-7 month old, he says it when OH comes in the room, and he does it when we are in his bedroom & OH is in our bedroom, he peeks round the corner shouting 'dada' i know like Nana is a sound bcos he hasnt seen my mum since xmas but the other day started saying nananana its nice that it sounds like a word, i mean my mum cried when she heard him say it last night, i didnt want to burst her bubble by saying its just him babbling haha

 

[StaceyKor]

First sounds, absolutely no idea. DD2 is 6 months today and has babbled dada for a month now. she says it when he's not here. She now babbles wah wah, baba, dada and occasional mama..,but it means nothing to her. DD1 was 7.5 months when she first said dada and mama...again still babbling. Her first proper word was duck. She was 10 months and said it in the bath to her duck. My friends LO said hiya at 9 months when she seen new people so i'd say thats in context.
I dont count mama, dada etc as words but some do. I waited til DD1 said mummy to count it xx

 

[mummytobe_93]

I think it's hard to know at first. My daughter definitely just babbled words at first but now at 13 months she knows I'm mama, dad is dadda and her doll is baba. She also knows that our cat is a 'cat' and can say again 'hen' for example if she wants another go on the swings. But I would say that's only just come in to context the last month or two x

 

[BabyMamma93]

yeah i mean it may just be coincidence that he peeks round the corner looking for OH while saying dada, and when he said nana i was actually saying mama to him so that is more babbling and i get that.
the other day i shouted 'Bentley' at my dog so M was saying B over and over same when i say 'Presh' at my other dog he says P over and over i think it is just them picking up on things and repeating them but not fully understanding the meaning until they are taught it