When children begin to coo?

When their baby begins to make sounds other than crying, parents find this to be one of the most exciting times. These early vocalizations, which are sometimes referred to as "cooing," are an infant’s first attempt at speaking. It’s an amazing achievement that typically starts in the first few months of life.

Typically, a baby begins to coo at 6 to 8 weeks of age. Your infant will start to make gentle, vowel-like sounds, like "ooh" and "aah." These noises indicate that your child is exploring their range of sounds and learning how to control their voice.

It’s crucial to keep in mind that each child grows at a unique rate. Cooing is a normal part of a baby’s development, though some babies may start a little earlier or later. This new skill can be strengthened by talking to your baby, smiling, and reacting to their coos.

During the age of six to eight weeks, babies typically start cooing as a part of their early communication development. A baby uses this quiet, vowel-like sound to communicate joy, contentment, or excitement. One of the earliest stages of language development is cooing, which aids in a baby’s vocal practice and socialization with their caregivers. While each child may reach this milestone at a slightly different time, a baby’s journey toward more advanced speech sounds usually begins with cooing.

When to expect sounds?

The term "cooing" does not exist in medicine, there is the concept of "cooing", which includes various options for pronouncing the first sounds. Babies begin to coo and coo at a certain stage of pre-speech development. The first step in it is a cry. It is he who accompanies the birth of a person and in the first weeks is the only means of communication of the baby with others. A newborn baby cries because of hunger or cold, because of heat or infant colic, because of damp diapers, and from the age of one month also because of the need to communicate with the mother. At the age of 2-3 months, as the baby"s hearing and vision develop, he learns to smile, imitate the sounds he hears. It is at this time that he begins to coo and gurgle. But the first sounds can be expected later – up to 7 months, some children are stubbornly silent.

The next stage in speech development is babbling – cooing and gurgling become more complex, syllables and sounds characteristic of the baby"s native language become distinguishable in them. Babies do not begin to coo of their own free will and certainly not because of the efforts of adults to teach the child to do this. It is simply that cooing and gurgling are provided for by physiological and psychophysical development. Even deaf children coo, but at the stage of babbling their pre-speech development is inhibited, since they cannot hear themselves. At first, children sing simple vowels in all sorts of ways, and then, at the height of the cooing period, add guttural and laryngeal consonants to them – "g", "k".

Most people agree that a healthy child can produce entire sequences of repeating sounds by the time they are four to five months old.

Reasons for silence

Should you worry and run to the doctor if your child does not coo at three months? Of course not, because speech and pre-speech development of children is subject to the rules of individuality and cannot be the same for everyone. In addition, periods of speech development can alternate with periods of complete and frightening silence for parents. So, a baby who has been delighting his mother with his “agu” and “aga” since 2 months may well become silent. If your baby has stopped cooing at 4 months or later, do not doubt that this is a temporary phenomenon caused by fear, stress, illness, teething. The baby seems to forget the new skill for a while, but under favorable circumstances he returns to cooing again. A baby may not coo according to “family tradition”. If the family members are all silent, not accustomed to smiling, laughing, expressing their emotions brightly, then the children grow up the same. The more you talk to your child, communicate with him, smile at him, the more you sing songs and read nursery rhymes, the faster he will begin to repeat the sounds he hears, and these attempts will become cooing and babbling.

A reason to visit a doctor may be unusual cooing or babbling in the form of a squeal or mooing, which the child uses to communicate after six months of age. Mooing, devoid of an emotional shade, mood, can be the first sign of brain disorders or mental deviations. The absence of babbling during the first year of life is typical for children with autism, Down syndrome and other genetic syndromes. Sometimes the absence of sounds natural for babies indicates that the child has received a head injury, a cerebral hemorrhage at birth or immediately after it, damage to individual centers, including the speech center and sound recognition. Premature babies begin to coo later than their full-term peers.

Babies who are weak from continuous illness or congenital conditions also start to coo later, as do very gloomy and lethargic babies who are just that way by nature.

Is it possible to teach a baby to coo?

Although you cannot teach this, you can assist the child. The mother’s regular and adequate communication with the infant will be her greatest ally in this regard.

If the baby is awake, the mother must speak up and explain everything she does, regardless of what is going on at the moment. When an adult makes eye contact with a baby, it’s appropriate to read songs and poems to them so that the infant can learn to read facial expressions as well.

If the mother speaks to the baby in a soothing tone, frequently altering her intonation, and using a sing-song voice, the baby will voluntarily start cooing. It is not necessary to yell or whisper when speaking; children are most sensitive to the middle frequencies of human speech.

This is what parents should strive for: mutual imitation. Put differently, the infant will imitate specific sounds from their mother, and the mother must do the same. Subsequently, the infant will exhibit sound recognition and begin to laugh. There will be more emotion in communication. Mom really needs to make a big effort to name every toy and item she gives him. However, you must make pre-speech contact with the infant during a quiet period in the apartment. Children are easily distracted by background noise, such as TV, loud adult conversations, and other children’s screams, so it’s important to choose a good time for communication.

Massage of the palms and fingers of the baby will help teach the baby to reproduce sounds, since the speech center of the brain and fine motor skills are closely interconnected. Speech therapy massage based on light touches to the larynx and submandibular region is useful. If nothing helps, you can try to apply the "passive imitation" technique. This is what speech therapists and early childhood defectologists call lip exercises. Mom will need to pronounce "gu" and "ga" herself, while simultaneously opening the baby"s lower lip with her finger, as if repeating her own articulation. Children are in dire need of approval, and therefore any first sounds produced should be appreciated by adults. If mom and dad are sincerely happy with them and show this joy to the child, then this will be the best incentive for the further development of cooing and babbling. When the baby begins to pronounce the first sounds, it is imperative to record them on a phone or voice recorder. This will come in handy not only to please grandparents, but also in case the baby suddenly falls silent during a certain period of its development. Then you can use the "imitation of yourself" technique.

To get the effect of skill recognition and replication again, you can play a recording of a baby being heard.

Since each child is different, there is no set age at which they start cooing. While six to eight weeks is when most babies begin cooing, some babies may begin a little earlier or later. It’s critical to keep in mind that their language development is only getting started with this primitive mode of communication.

By interacting with their infant, conversing with them, and reacting to their noises, parents can promote cooing. These exchanges strengthen the bond between them and aid in their educational process. Babies’ initial voice discovery is a unique moment in their lives.

All things considered, cooing is a normal and delightful developmental milestone that indicates a child’s expanding capacity for communication with their environment. As your baby continues to explore and express themselves, cherish these moments and relish the journey.

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