When do babies start talking?

The question skips most of the milestones

When do babies usually start speaking. It's the natural question and it points at the wrong target, because by the time words arrive most of the work has already happened.

The things worth watching for come much earlier and look nothing like talking.

The actual sequence

Cooing and vowel sounds from around two months corrected — the long aaah and ooh noises that turn up when she's content.

Taking turns not long after. You speak, she makes a sound, you respond. That back-and-forth is conversation before either of you is saying anything.

Babbling with consonants from around six months — bababa, dadada. Repetitive, and it doesn't mean anything yet.

Gestures from around nine to twelve months. Pointing, waving, holding things out to show you. This is the big one, and it predicts language better than any word count.

And then words, often somewhere around a year, with an enormous range either side.

Understanding comes first

She'll understand a great deal before she says anything, and that gap is normal rather than a delay.

So the useful question isn't how many words she has. It's whether she's communicating — trying to get your attention, responding to her name, following your gaze, and reacting when you talk to her. Ari learnt her name quite early in the game, and would turn whenever she heard her name. There were 2 languages happening at the time, we still don’t know if that matters or not. We are waiting until she is 2 to add the third language in to not slow down her speech. This is old wives tale and probably not scientifically proven but as parents we want our daughter to be able to communicate with us fster rather than slower so we doing this anyways.

Narrating out loud, constantly, in a way that feels faintly ridiculous. It's the single strongest thing you can do and it costs nothing.

Leaving gaps. Ask, then wait five seconds. Far longer than feels natural, and most of us fill the silence long before she's had a chance to answer.

Following her attention rather than directing it — naming what she's already looking at.

And books daily, pointing at pictures rather than reading the words.

If you're raising her with more than one language, that does not cause delay. It's a persistent myth and people will repeat it confidently. Count her words across all her languages.