Babies' first words are often seen as a important and precious moment in their development, marking the beginning of their journey into verbal communication. For instance, when the baby looks at his or her parent and says "mama" for the first time, it brightens up the parent's face with joy but it is a meaningful connection in their bond that is growing. For parents, these are some sources of pride and joy. But how do you determine whether your child's speech and language are progressing?

Understanding the communication milestones will help monitor a child's development and spot potential issues before they become more serious. The milestones serve as benchmarks to guide health care providers on whether a child needs further assistance.

Importance of Communication Development in Early Years

The first five years of a child's life are the time of massive growth and brain development at an incredible speed. All domains of development find their roots within this period, including communication. From the day they were born, babies start crying to communicate, and within weeks or months, they begin to babble, imitate sounds, and eventually words. Communication is not only important to express needs but also for understanding the world and building relationships. It is an important tool that supports cognitive, emotional, and social development.

Speech Milestones by Age

Babies learn communication skills at their own pace. General milestones can, however serve as a guideline for typical development. Let's go through these milestones by age:

Newborn (0-3 Months)

At this point, the babies communicate mostly through crying. They give cues as to their needs by responding with actions like smacking the lips when hungry or arching the back when they feel overstimulated. At the end of three months, you may also observe:

• Smiles in response to your appearance.
• Cooing sounds.
• Quiets or smiles when spoken to.
• Your voice.
• Different cries for specific needs.

Upto 6 Months

By six months, babies start experimenting with sounds and use their voice to play. Major developments include:

• Making gurgling sounds during play.
• Babbling with different sounds.
• Vocalizing likes and dislikes.
• Responding to the change in tone of voice.
• Turning eyes toward sounds.
• Showing interest in music and sound-making toys.

Till 12 Months

By the first birthday, there are some significant communication milestones that have been achieved:

• Trying to imitate speech sounds.
• Speaking basic words like "mama," "dada," or "uh-oh."
• Responding to simple commands, such as "Come here."
• Recognizing common items by name, like "shoe."
• Turning toward sounds and voices.

Upto 18 Months

In this stage, children learn to understand and use words in a consistent manner. Some of the important milestones are:

• Knows the names of people, objects, and body parts.
• Responds to simple commands with gestures.
• The child says up to 10 words.

End of 24 Months

By two years of age, children usually have more developed communication skills:

• Using simple sentences, like "more milk."
• Asking one- to two-word questions, such as "Go bye-bye?"
• Following simple directions and answering simple questions.
• Saying 50 or more words.
• Being understood by family members at least half the time.

Ways Parents Can Support Development

Parents can be very supportive in developing the communication skills of their child. Here are some effective strategies:

1. Pay Attention to Hearing: Ensure your child responds to sounds and voices. Notice if they react to noise or look at you when spoken to. If you suspect hearing issues, consult your pediatrician promptly.

2. Engage in Conversation: Respond to your baby’s coos and babbles. Talk to them frequently about daily activities, like “Mommy is making breakfast,” or “We’re going to the park.”

3. Imitation Training: Teach your baby to imitate actions and gestures of others, such as clapping, waving, or peek-a-boo. These activities encourage her to understand turn-taking and even nonverbal communication.

4. Animals Sound: Learning time must be fun. Train your baby to imitate an animal's sound, "A cow says 'moo.'". This encourages sound production along with word association.

5. Read and Sing Together: Reading stories and singing songs expose your child to language patterns and rhythm. Make it a daily habit to promote vocabulary growth.

6. Use Your Native Language: Speak to your child in the language you’re most comfortable with. Early exposure to rich language environments helps babies learn effectively.

7. Strengthen Their Attempts: Cheer every time your child tries to speak. Repeat the words and sounds and gently correct as needed. A little "baby talk" is okay but clearly say simple words for them to imitate.

When to Seek Medical Attention

Though every child develops at his own rate, there are some delays that point toward professional intervention. Talk with your child's health care provider if:

- Doesn't turn toward sounds or his name.

- By 12 months, he isn't babbling, and by 18 months, he has not spoken a single word.

- Uses speech in a peculiar manner or shows delayed speech.

Your pediatrician can refer you to some specialist who could be an audiologist or speech-language pathologist for more extensive testing. In the case of a bilingual child, he will also be evaluated by a bilingual speech-language pathologist.

Communication milestones form a kind of roadmap in understanding how your baby develops. This means through conversation, play, and learning activities, you could be able to enhance language skills while promoting your child's development. When concerned about delay, consult professional help, as this might make all the difference by having communication skills set up to meet a great future for your child.

Communication Milestones: Birth to 1 Year. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Parenting expert Bethany Braun-Silva in a conversation with ABC News says that 2025 was the banner year for gentle parenting, but the tide is shifting now. However, she notes, "parents are understanding now that emotional awareness and empathy is as important as setting firm boundaries and parental expectations." This is why 2026 is now becoming a year when there is a shift away from gentle parenting. She notes that gentle parenting actually stands for firm boundaries, however, "some people rode that 'gentle' train too seriously".

An article by Mother.ly notes that critics often argue that gentle parenting often blurs the line between kindness and permissiveness. It argues that this leaves parents at the risk of being seen as pushovers. In fact, new research shows that it is the Gen Z parents who are moving away form "gentle parenting".

What Is The New FAFO Parenting Style Gen Z Moms And Dad Are Switching Too?

Another Wall Street Journal piece notes that more and more parents are now embracing FAFO, which is short for F-Around and Find Out. What does it mean? The idea is that parents can ask and warn their children, but if the child breaks the rules, parents cannot stand in the line of repercussions. "Won’t bring your raincoat? Walk home in the downpour. Didn’t feel like having lasagna for dinner? Survive until breakfast. Left your toy on the floor again? Go find it in the trash under the lasagna you didn’t eat," notes the WSJ.

Parenting styles that emphasized minimal discipline have shaped child-rearing over the past few decades. Critics now argue that this approach has contributed to some of Gen Z’s struggles in adulthood. They point to surveys showing young adults grappling with workplace relationships and rising anxiety and depression, questioning whether constant parental intervention and a reluctance to say “no” played a role.

For parents who have spent years trying to balance emotional support without tipping into permissiveness, FAFO can feel refreshingly straightforward.

What Is Wrong With Gentle Parenting?

The argument is that gentle parenting puts a lot of pressure on parents, and promote unrealistic expectations. Emily Edlynn, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in pediatric health psychologist writes for Psychology Today, that gentle parenting "adds stress to parenting that we don’t need. Higher stress undoubtedly impacts our relationship with our child in a negative way, more so than having our authentic moments of being human".

She argues that it is okay for parents to show frustration with a child who has asked the same question for the seventeenth time because the child did not like the answer. She says that expressing is better than holding all the frustration in. In fact this shows a natural demonstration of feelings and teaches the child to be expressive too.

Gentle parenting discussions often blur the line between punishment and discipline. Decades of research show that behavioral tools are not inherently punitive and can be an effective part of discipline. Discipline is meant to teach, while punishment is not. It is possible to combine emotional connection with clear consequences.

A habit that all parents hate could improve children's mental health. What is this? A new study published in The Journal of Affective Disorders is challenging one of the most common weekend arguments between parents and teenagers. Letting teens sleep in on weekends, something many parents see as laziness or poor discipline, may actually protect their mental health and lower the risk of depression.

The research was conducted by scientists from the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. They analyzed data from more than 1,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24. Participants reported their usual sleep and wake times during the week and on weekends, including how much extra sleep they got by sleeping in on non-school days.

What Did The Study Find?

The findings were striking. Teens and young adults who allowed themselves to catch up on sleep over the weekend were significantly less likely to report symptoms of depression. In fact, those who slept in had a 41 per cent lower risk of depression compared to peers who stuck to the same early wake-up routine even on weekends.

This may sound counterintuitive to parents who believe that waking up early every day builds discipline and mental toughness. But researchers say adolescent biology tells a very different story. During puberty, the body’s internal clock shifts, making teens naturally inclined to fall asleep later at night and wake up later in the morning.

“Instead of being a morning lark, you’re going to become more of a night owl,” Melynda Casement, associate professor at the University of Oregon and co-author of the study, explained in a conversation with ScienceDaily. She added that this shift toward later bedtimes often lasts until around the ages of 18 to 20 before gradually stabilizing.

Why Does This Problem Arise?

The problem is that school schedules and daily responsibilities do not adapt to this biological change. Early school start times, homework, coaching classes, extracurricular activities, social commitments and even part-time jobs mean many teens are forced to wake up before their bodies are ready. Over time, this leads to what experts call “sleep debt”.

Casement points out that teenagers ideally need eight to ten hours of sleep each night, but most fail to get enough during the week. This chronic sleep deprivation has been closely linked to low mood, emotional regulation issues and a higher risk of depression. Weekend sleep, she says, can help offset some of that damage.

“It’s normal for teens to be night owls,” Casement notes. Allowing them to catch up on sleep over the weekend, especially when weekday schedules make adequate rest impossible, may offer meaningful mental health protection.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence supporting this idea. A 2025 meta-analysis of 10 studies found that weekend catch-up sleep was associated with a 20 per cent lower risk of depression. Taken together, the research suggests that sleeping in is not simply teenage rebellion or laziness, but a coping mechanism for an exhausting weekly routine.

At a time when concerns about adolescent mental health are rising globally, those extra hours of weekend sleep may be doing more good than parents realize. Sometimes, letting your teen sleep in might be one battle worth losing.

Not too long ago, in 2000, 1.6 million girls were missing from the number given at the natural sex ratio at birth, 26 years later, the number is at 200,000, and it is still falling. What has changed? The Economist reported that more and more parents are now preferring girl child over boys.

Earlier, parents were desperate for a boy, or did not just want a large family. In fact, in China, people would routinely terminate females. The practice of aborting girls is now becoming less common. The natural ratio is about 105 boy babies for every 100 girls. This is also because boys are more likely to die young, which could lead to rough parity at reproductive age. Sex ratio at birth has become more even across Asia. In 2006, China reported the peak of 117.8 boys per 100 girls, which went down to 109.8 in 2025. India too fell from 109.6 in 2010 to 106.8. In South Korea, in 1990, it was 115.7, which has now come back to normal.

Why Is There A Shift In Baby Preference?

There was a sexist tradition that believed that men mattered more. This came from the expectation that daughters will grow up and serve her husband's family. This is why parents preferred baby boys who would look after them in old age. Another idea is of dowry, to marry off a woman, the parents needed to have a stronger financial and economic backing, so the dowry could be paid at the time of her marriage. This is why many families did not want girl child. While these sexist ideas have not completely vanished, there are evidences that they are slowly fading away.

Secondly, this selective abortion has become a weapon against men, as it has led to lifelong bachelorhood. In China, they are known as "bare branches", and they were the ones who resented it intensely. Their anger also had wider social consequences. Large numbers of young, unmarried men are more likely to fuel instability and violence. Studies across several Asian countries have linked distorted sex ratios to higher rates of rape, violent crime in China, stricter policing to control unrest, and even greater risks of civil conflict or war elsewhere.

In India, especially in Haryana, bride buying, a controversial practice was found as a substitute for the lack of girls to marry the sons. These brides were purchased from backward economic background, which often led to exploitation.

As son preference declines, many societies are becoming safer.

At the same time, a subtle shift toward preferring daughters is emerging in some regions. This trend is far less extreme: parents are not eliminating boys, nor does any major country show a surplus of girls. Instead, the preference appears in attitudes and behavior. In Japan, couples wanting just one child tend to favour girls. Globally, parents often want both sexes, but in the US and Scandinavia, couples with sons are more likely to have additional children, suggesting a desire for daughters. Adoption data show families willing to pay more for girls, and where sex selection through IVF is legal, more women are choosing female embryos.

What Makes Parents Prefer Girl Child?

People are preferring girls for all sorts of reasons, which are:

• Some thing they are easier to bring up
• Some cherish what they see as "feminine" traits
• Some think that daughters are better at looking after elderly parents

The emerging preference for daughters also mirrors growing anxiety about how boys are faring. Boys have long been more likely to run into trouble, globally, 93% of the prison population is male. In many countries, they are also falling behind girls in education. In wealthier nations, 54% of young women hold a tertiary degree, compared with 41% of young men. While men remain overrepresented at the very top, in boardrooms, they are also increasingly overrepresented at the bottom, disengaged, isolated, and angry.

These trends have put boys’ struggles on governments’ radar. Because boys tend to mature later, some experts argue for starting them a year later in school. Others suggest more male teachers, especially in primary education, where they are scarce, to provide role models. Stronger vocational training could also steer boys toward careers traditionally avoided by men, such as nursing. Supporting struggling boys does not mean disadvantaging girls, just as giving glasses to someone with poor eyesight does not harm those with perfect vision.

Looking ahead, technology will give parents more choices. Some will be widely accepted, such as editing genes to prevent severe inherited diseases. But expanding access to sex-selection technologies raises harder questions. Couples undergoing fertility treatment can already choose sperm or embryos by sex, and as these methods become cheaper, their use may spread. Even more concerning, early blood tests can reveal an embryo’s sex within weeks, potentially enabling sex-selective abortions through medication, even among parents who conceive naturally.