A newborn communicates through crying, which will quickly turn into a vocabulary. If you've been listening attentively, you will probably be able to distinguish cries of pain, hunger, and exhaustion. At around a month you may find your baby imitating you by opening and closing his mouth when you speak.

Around six weeks or so, you'll begin to hear classic baby coos. These are strings of vowel sounds, like aahh, eeeh, uhh.

LANGUAGE MILESTONES

Somewhere between four and eight months your baby will add consonants, like gagaga and dadada. Since the most common first consonants are g, k, l, and d, he won't, however, be saying “mama” yet, unfair as that may seem. By ten months or so he'll progress from repeating the same syllable to babbling strings of different syllables in a cadence that sounds a lot like talking.

Meanwhile, he's learned to understand his name, the word no, and a few other simple words. Between ten and twelve months he will respond to a simple, spoken request, such as “wave bye-bye,” or “give me the ball.” (Enjoy this phase; in about another year he'll quite gleefully do the opposite of what you ask.)

Between eight and fourteen months he'll begin to point. That's a recognizable attempt at sign language and, if you're interested in signing with your baby, a signal that he's ready to learn more signs (see page 197).

Sometime between ten and eighteen months he'll say his first words.