It really is a show-stopping moment that almost brings the house down, when your baby says those memorable First words. Yet, before she actually made her speaking debut, your baby has been learning her lines and rehearsing tirelessly for months.

The learning process begins even before birth. What we have heard from our grandmas and read in our Indian epics (Which we didn´t believe and did as we liked by watching scary, violent and romantic movies.) holds true to some extent. Only now it is backed by years and years of scientific research and study.

Babies can hear and react to sounds in the womb, but they cannot speak until their physical and intellectual development makes it possible. The baby has to understand the meaning of simple terms such as " Mommy," "Juice," and " bye-bye". It is important to talk to your baby frequently right from the start. You can describe what´s happening as you bathe her, feed and change her. You can show her, objects on the road when you take her for her daily walks.You can have animated conversations with her as you play. She may not respond verbally, but her excited look and body language will let you know she´s listening and learning.

Your baby is not only learning vocabulary from these early chats, but is also learning the rate, rhythm and vocal quality of your speech. Babies´ speech patterns are set down as early as the first year of life.

They start rehearsing speech by making cooing sounds beginning at around two months of age. At around four months, they graduate from cooing to babbling and start to mix simple consonant sounds with baby-vowels such as : "BA," "MA," KA,"DA," AND "PA". Babies are somehow "programmed to babble" until they are six months of age. Actually they continue to babble until their first birthday, and at about nine months they "delight" their parents by saying " Mama," "Dada," ( "Honda," "Toyota")

Now for a little reality check for eager parents: Even though many babies say "dada" before they say "mama", they are really not expressing any kind of preference for you Dads out there. It´s just easier to form the "D" sound, putting the tongue behind the front teeth, than it is to form the "M" sound by pressing the lips together and releasing them explosively.

Many babies can say single, meaningful words, by one year of age . At eighteen to twenty-four months, the fun will really begin, as your toddler will start stringing words together into meaningful two-word phrases like " bye-bye daddy" . Depending on how much you speak to her, her vocabulary may comprise as many as 500 words.

Your toddler´s vocabulary and her language skills will be expanding rapidly. Between the ages of two and three, they will learn to form simple sentences, complete with subject, a verb and an object. ( Of course what your child´s first sentences are, might depend on, some extent as to whether your child is your first, or second ...born. For instance my first born´s first sentence was " A for apple, B for ball........." Whereas my second one´s first sentence was "Mommy, didi (big sister) distuuurbing me. Don´t WANT it!!!" )

Just as children grow physically at different rates, their speech and language abilities develop at varying paces. A number of factors such as physical maturity, heredity and environment, influence the progress of speech and language development.

While we do not recommend that you drill your Baby with flash cards or enroll her in a "teach-your-baby-to-read" classes, you can simply expose her to the pleasures of spoken and printed words by reading to them. You can start with cloth or board books, since they are "sturdy" and "drool-proof." You can point out car, puppy or ice-cream as you say each of these words.

Watching the "apple of your eye", or, as we say in India "Ankhon ka tara", grow up and graduate from cries ....to coos, "Mommy".... to "Don´t want it " , we as parents must stand back, watch them grow and marvel, as the miracle of speech transforms, your little infant, into a talkative toddler.