3 to 6 month old babies: 

• Make sounds that are vowel-like (such as a/ah-e/eh-o-u) and throaty (k-g-ng)

• Repeat the same sounds like "guh-guh"

• Put different sounds together like “ah-goo”

• Make lip sounds with their lips pressed together (m-p-b)

• Some other early sounds include h-w-t-d-n

4 to 8 month old babies:

• Put more sounds together in patterns and repeat them such as "a-ka-ba" which is babbling 

• Play with loudness and pitch of their voice

• Try to imitate the speech sounds of others around them 

Around their first birthday, babies:  

• Make similar groups of sounds in their babbling like “tata”- “bibibi”- “upupup”

• First words start to show up. They usually start with these sounds: “b-m-p-t-d-w-n-h” with vowels (a-u-e-o-i)

• First words are usually the most common words  heard in their environment, like favorite objects/people:  “papa”- “mama”- “dada”- “nana”  

10 to 18 month old toddlers, toddlers: 

• Will often drop sounds at the end of words like “ba” for “ball” or “pa” for “park”

• Will sometimes use a shorter word to say a word like “nana” for “banana”

•  Will start using true words more often as they practice, hear, and repeat what adults around them are saying

• Might drop sounds in some words when building sentences and using more words

Because speech sound development is extremely varied between the ages of 12 to 36 months, caregivers should remember these general guidelines:

• First words are almost always one or two syllables like “dada”

• First words are generally a consonant-vowel combination like “ba”, “pa”, “da”

• Early words usually begin with consonants that are visible when spoken by caregivers (p-b-m-t-d-n)

• Early words can be approximations of the adult version like “gog” for dog and "tat” for tractor

• Some toddlers use clear words from an early age, but many will take until their 3rd birthday to use words that sound closer to the adult version