Milestones

When Do Babies Say Their First Words?

Updated 9 July 2026 · 6 min read

Somewhere around the first birthday, a sound stops being a sound and starts being a word. It's rarely the moment people imagine. There's no announcement. Usually a parent only realises it happened because the baby does it again the next day, and the day after that, pointing at the same scruffy dog every time.

Most babies say a first real word between 10 and 14 months. That number is easy to find, and it's a reasonable place to start. What almost nobody tells you is that the two organisations American parents are most likely to consult give different answers for what happens next. Knowing why they differ is worth more than any single number on this page.

The road to the first word

First words don't appear from nowhere. Months of quiet groundwork come first, and most of it doesn't sound like language at all.

• 4 to 6 months. Cooing, squealing, blowing raspberries. Your baby is testing what their mouth can do and copying the melody of your voice long before the words.
• 7 to 12 months. Babbling turns speech-like: "ba-ba-ba", "da-da-da". Gestures arrive too. Pointing, waving and reaching are communication, and they predict later vocabulary better than early babble does.
• 10 to 14 months. A first true word: one consistent sound, used to mean one consistent thing.

Why do the CDC and ASHA disagree?

Here is the thing that confuses everyone. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says a child "uses and understands at least 50 different words" at 19 to 24 months (ASHA). The CDC's checklist puts "says about 50 words" at 30 months (CDC, Learn the Signs. Act Early.).

Six months apart, for the same milestone. Neither is wrong. They're answering different questions.

In February 2022 the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics rebuilt the checklists around the 75th percentile instead of the 50th (Zubler et al., Evidence-Informed Milestones for Developmental Surveillance Tools, Pediatrics, 2022). A 50th-percentile milestone is the age at which half of children can do something, so half of perfectly typical children will miss it. That's how "wait and see" gets its foothold. A 75th-percentile milestone marks the age by which roughly three in four children have the skill, so missing one is a clearer signal that something's worth a conversation. As the follow-up in American Family Physician put it, the revisions "ensure that the milestones listed reflect what most children of that age (i.e., 75% or more) would be expected to achieve."

So the CDC's numbers look later because they mean something different. They aren't averages. They're the point at which not having a skill stops being unremarkable.

How to read the numbers you'll find online

Once you know the percentile trick, the internet's contradictory word counts stop being contradictory. Use both, for different jobs.

CDC entries at 12, 15, 18 and 24 months are paraphrased from the checklists; the 30-month entry and the ASHA 19–24 month entry are quoted. Follow the links in Sources for the full lists.

Think of the ASHA figures as a picture of a typical toddler, and the CDC figures as a tripwire. If your child clears ASHA's numbers, lovely. If they miss the CDC's, that's the moment to make a phone call, not to wait for the next birthday. Our baby first-words milestone chart lays both sets out side by side.

What if my baby isn't talking yet?

Word count is the least useful thing to look at in isolation. Before words, look for the machinery that produces them.

A 12-month-old who babbles constantly, points at what they want, waves goodbye, and turns when you say their name is doing the work, whether or not a word has arrived. Understanding almost always runs ahead of speaking. If your child fetches their shoes when you ask for shoes, they have language.

Raise it with your pediatrician if, at around 15 to 18 months, your child:

• Has no words and little babbling or gesturing
• Doesn't seem to understand simple everyday requests
• Has lost words or skills they clearly had before

That last one deserves its own sentence. Regression, meaning the loss of skills a child already had, is never a wait-and-see item. Bring it up the week you notice it.

And if a doctor tells you to wait, you're allowed to ask for a referral anyway. Early intervention is cheap, low-risk, and works better the earlier it starts. Nobody has ever regretted an evaluation that came back fine.

Two languages? Expect a different shape

If your child hears more than one language, don't measure a single language against the charts above. In a 2025 study of 302 bilingual toddlers, researchers found no significant difference from monolingual peers in the age of babbling, the first word, the 10th word, or the 50th word (Muszyńska et al., Journal of Child Language). The milestones are the same. Only the bookkeeping changes, and getting the bookkeeping wrong is what makes a typical bilingual child look behind. We cover it properly in raising a bilingual baby.

Common questions

What is the average age for a first word?

Most babies say a first true word between 10 and 14 months. The CDC's 12-month checklist expects a baby to call a parent "mama" or "dada" or another special name, and its 15-month checklist expects one or two words beyond those. A wide range around that is ordinary.

Why do the CDC and ASHA give different word counts?

ASHA lists at least 50 words at 19 to 24 months. The CDC lists about 50 words at 30 months. In 2022 the CDC rebuilt its checklists around the 75th percentile, the age by which about three-quarters of children have a skill, rather than the 50th. Same children, different question.

My baby is 15 months and not talking. Should I worry?

Not on word count alone. Babbling, pointing, waving, and understanding what you ask matter more at this stage than the number of words. If those are missing at 15 to 18 months, or if your child loses words they used to have, ask your pediatrician for a referral rather than waiting.

This article is general information for parents, not medical advice. Every child develops at their own pace. If you have concerns about your child's speech or hearing, talk to your pediatrician.