What the most common first words tell us about how toddlers learn language

Have you ever wondered what the most common 'first words' are? This is a question that has been examined by researchers worldwide. While there are some minor differences when comparing the first words of toddlers across countries, the commonalities among these vocabularies are undeniable. For instance, Tardif and colleagues (2008) examined the first words of toddlers from the United States, Hong Kong and Beijing. These researchers noted a ton of overlap in the presence of the following six words across hundreds of children: "Daddy", "Mommy", "Bye", "Hi", "Uh Oh" and "Woof Woof". So what do these words have in common, exactly?

1. The words are meaningful to them - is it any wonder why Dada and Mama top the lists of first words? These are some of the most meaningful people in the toddler's life! Of course toddlers will be motivated to call their parents by name to help them get their needs met.

2. The words are frequently encountered (I.e. they get TONS of repetition) - first words tend to be common nouns (people, places, things), meaning that toddlers see these things OFTEN and hear their names all the time. This repetition helps them make the connection between the person, place or thing and the spoken word: a necessary process in adding new words.

3. The words are easier to say - there's a reason why words like 'elephant' and 'alligator' don't tend to top the list of first words. In fact, toddlers are quite clever in their ability to use the sounds that they have already mastered when producing some of their first words. Consider how much practice they've had producing 'dada' and 'mama' while babbling away as babies!

This tells us a lot about how toddlers learn language and what our priorities should be as parents and clinicians. Letters, numbers and colours did not top any of the lists of first words for these toddlers. This is because these concepts are not functional for toddlers yet. Instead, we should be modelling words that are meaningful to them which will help toddlers get their needs met. These should also be words that they hear often in their environments and words that are easy to imitate. This is what will motivate them to continue building their vocabularies. Words like 'elephant' will come around later on, but for now, we'll see you later 'alligator'.

-- Meg

Reference:

Tardif, T., Fletcher, P., Liang, W., Zhang, Z., Kaciroti, N., & Marchman, V. A. (2008). Baby’s First 10 Words. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 929–938. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.4.929