Chorevia

Day 216 of 300 · Week 29

Mamamama

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 10 sources · Plain-text version

Lots of different sounds like 'mamamama' and 'bababababa' are a 9-month skill, and babies reshape their babble within minutes when it's answered right away. The syllable volley.

A Black father holding his thirty-week-old face to face at arm's length on a sunlit porch step, both with mouths open mid-sound, the white mother in the doorway behind them.

There's a sound coming out of the crib in the mornings now that isn't crying and isn't a coo. Today is that sound, and the one thing you can do with it that research says changes it.

Heart

By 9 months, most babies make lots of different sounds like "mamamama" and "bababababa" (CDC). Coos turn into syllables like "ba," "da," and "ma," and babies understand more than they can say (AAP). From about 6 or 7 months, they get much better at imitating the sounds you make (AAP). "Mamamama" this month is a sound, not yet a name; calling a parent "mama," "dada," or another special name is a 12-month milestone (CDC). Take it anyway.

Head

In a lab experiment, 9.5-month-olds whose mothers answered their babble right away quickly reshaped it using sounds from their mothers' speech; babies answered at random times didn't (Goldstein & Schwade, 2008). The timing was the whole difference: the same attention, given a few seconds off the beat, did nothing. In a randomized trial of 71 families, coaching parents at 6, 10, and 14 months increased parentese and back-and-forth turns (Ferjan Ramírez et al., 2020), and in a follow-up of 59 children, the coached group had larger vocabularies through 30 months (Huber et al., 2023). Small studies, one lab group, but they point the same way: answer, then pause.

Body

The how is short. Repeat their sounds, add simple words, and describe what they see (CDC). Keep names consistent ("cat" today, not "kitty" tomorrow), ask questions, and wait for an answer (AAP). And the one line to hold on to: the AAP advises telling your pediatrician if your baby doesn't babble or imitate any sounds by 7 months, since that can signal a hearing problem (AAP). Your baby is 7 months old, so if the mornings are silent, that's a call this week, not a wait.

Try today

  1. The mother on the porch step now, nose to nose with the baby on her knees, her mouth shaped in a 'ba,' the baby's eyes fixed on her lips, the father's hand on the baby's back.

    The syllable volley

    Time: 2 minutes, whenever the babble starts · Talk back with words in the guide

    1. When a string comes ("bababa"), look at your baby and answer right away with the same string (Goldstein & Schwade, 2008).

    2. Add one word on the end: "Bababa. Ball."

    3. Stop and wait. The pause is their turn; count to five in your head if you have to.

    4. Whatever comes back, repeat it and add one word again. Five volleys, then let it go.

    Make it work:

    Right away is the point. The babies answered at random times didn't change their babble (Goldstein & Schwade, 2008).

Watch for

  • Normal

    "bababa" and "dadada" before any "mama" at all (CDC).

    Talk with your pediatrician

    if your baby doesn't babble or imitate any sounds by 7 months (AAP).

  • Normal

    looking when you call their name some of the time; it's a 9-month skill (CDC).

    Bring it up

    if your baby doesn't respond to sounds (AAP) or seems not to hear well (AAP).

  • Normal

    a scratchy, quieter babble with a cold.

    Call your pediatrician right away

    for trouble breathing that isn't severe, or great trouble swallowing fluids or spit (AAP); call 911 if your baby is struggling for each breath or can barely cry (AAP).

For you

The mother alone on the porch step at dusk with a cup of tea, the baby monitor beside her, looking out at the street and saying nothing.

The pause after your reply is where the learning is. In the experiment, the mothers who changed their babies' babble weren't the ones who talked most; they were the ones who answered on time and then let the baby go next (Goldstein & Schwade, 2008). The coaching trial measured back-and-forth turns, not words per hour (Ferjan Ramírez et al., 2020). So the days you're too tired to narrate are fine. Answer the string, add one word, and be quiet. The quiet counts.

It works the other way too. Say your own hard sentence to someone today, and let them answer before you fill the silence.

If you're the partner: five volleys at bath time. Same string back, one word, wait.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

Get each day’s note the morning it applies

Add your baby to a free Chorevia household with their date of birth, and every morning for 300 days the day’s note arrives in the app and by email: what’s developing, one thing to try, what to watch for, and a word for you.

Create your household