 How do babies learn to talk? From Ella, age 9. Before we learned to talk, we could tell people what we were feeling by crying, and babies do a lot of that. Even before birth, they are able to hear their mom's voice, as soon as the bones and cells inside their ears have grown and connected to their brains. This helps to introduce language to babies when they are still in their mom's tummy. Once born, baby's brains are sensitive to the language that is spoken around them. For example, a baby who hears lots of Cantonese or Mandarin will learn that difference in tones is important and can change the meaning of a word. This might be different from a baby that is learning English. Researchers say that talking to a baby with a higher pitch, more repetition, clearer vowels and slowed speech is good. This is called infant directed speech. It works because 1. Higher pitch gets baby's attention. 2. Exaggerating, simplifying, or repeating speech sounds like mama and dada gives babies a better chance of hearing the difference between words. 3. An affectionate tone of voice keeps them interested and draws their attention to different words. As they grow up, babies babble a lot. And that babble eventually turns into words. By the time of their first birthday, babies can usually understand as many as 50 words. And that is how babies learn to talk.