Interesting research showing babies are learning to talk in their first year of life:
New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that during the first year of life, when babies spend so much time listening to language, they’re actually tracking word patterns that will support their process of word- learning that occurs between the ages of about 18 months and two years. …Lany’s studies show that babies as young as 12 months can identify “adjacent relationships” in which a phrase or sound like “it’s a” occurs immediately before an object.
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My experience with my own children has taught me that babies can understand language long before they can talk– in fact, within one or two weeks of being born, which means they probably understand some of it before they are born. Certainly, they can hear and process sounds before they are born. My youngest would react vigorously to certain kinds of music as early as 19 weeks of gestation.
I took it for granted with my first that since she couldn’t speak she couldn’t understand till one day I was describing how my daughter danced and she started doing so!
Same with my now 15 month old son… he understands when I ask him to do routine things like sit in his chair, dance etc. Truly amazing stuff!!!! 🙂