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At what age do children usually speak their first meaningful words?
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speech
Speech is the faculty of producing articulated sounds, which, when blended together, form language.
Most infants typically speak their first meaningful words between 12 and 14 months of age.1
While children begin producing consonant-vowel utterances, such as "mama" or "dada," around 11 to 12 months, these are often distinguished from "true speech," which requires the child to develop meaningful associations with the words they use. Before they begin speaking these first meaningful words, infants typically demonstrate the ability to comprehend a number of words.213
Following this initial milestone, children generally progress to using a vocabulary of about 50 words by 18 months, eventually moving toward two-word combinations and more complex sentences as they continue their language acquisition.14