Says “mama” or “papa”

Your Child now says “mama”, “dada”, or “papa”, and your life has just become about fifty percent more amazing. 

Children usually begin with simple words, such as “mama” or “dada”, but soon, they also begin to understand that words can as well represent emotions — for example, they may express an amazing feeling with exclamations like “uh-oh!”. 

Most children start saying “mama” or “papa” one month after their first birthday, although about 1 in 10 may take up to 18 months to do so — boys tend to be a little bit slower in learning.

How to support this development
Keep Your Child talking and expressing emotions with words, focusing on 1 syllable word that matches the situation. You can read and point to things in the book to help the little one relate words with meanings. When talking to Your Child, speak slowly and clearly in a normal tone and wait to see how they respond. Activities, such as singing along can also help little children develop this skill even further. 

Note: All children develop differently and at their own pace. For children born preterm, the referred timeframe for achieving the various developmental milestones might be incorrect.

Source: The information and graphs about when children reach specific milestones are taken from various sources, including the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Denver Developmental Screening Test, and the State Institute of Early Childhood Research, Germany (IFP).