What First Words Should I Teach My Baby or Toddler to Help Them Start Talking?
Research-Based Early Words in Approximate Order: Suggested Teaching Sequence (Top to Bottom)
✔ Social Words (HIGH motivation, early developing): hi, bye, wow, uh-oh, yay
✔ People Words: mama, dada, baby
✔Power Words (core vocabulary): more, help, again, all done, no, yes
✔ Action Words (verbs): go, eat, open, want, push, stop
✔Favorite things (High-interest nouns): milk, ball, bubbles, car, banana, shoes
✔Location Words (relational): in, out, up, down (but not taught in pairs at first)
✔Describing Words: hot, big, yummy, dirty
⭐ What Makes a Good First Word?
1. Functional (pragmatically useful)
The child should be able to use it to get something, tell you something, or interact.
Example: more, open, all done, help, hi.
2. Used across daily routines
A word that works during meals, play, bath, books, going outside.
Example: up, go, in, on, mine.
3. Easy to model (and to imitate)
Simple syllables (CV, VC, CVCV).
Uses sounds the child already has (p, b, m, d, n, h, w are first).
Example: up, no, more, mama, bye-bye, open (“oh-puh”).
4. Relational words (not only labels)
Lahey & Bloom emphasized words that express relationships, not just objects.
Example: in, out, on, off, big, more, all done.
5. Avoid teaching opposite pairs
→ Don’t teach up/down or hot/cold together.
Children must first learn one concept strongly (e.g., “up”), not a contrast pair.
