Babies' first words are often seen as a important and precious moment in their development, marking the beginning of their journey into verbal communication. For instance, when the baby looks at his or her parent and says "mama" for the first time, it brightens up the parent's face with joy but it is a meaningful connection in their bond that is growing. For parents, these are some sources of pride and joy. But how do you determine whether your child's speech and language are progressing?

Understanding the communication milestones will help monitor a child's development and spot potential issues before they become more serious. The milestones serve as benchmarks to guide health care providers on whether a child needs further assistance.

Importance of Communication Development in Early Years

The first five years of a child's life are the time of massive growth and brain development at an incredible speed. All domains of development find their roots within this period, including communication. From the day they were born, babies start crying to communicate, and within weeks or months, they begin to babble, imitate sounds, and eventually words. Communication is not only important to express needs but also for understanding the world and building relationships. It is an important tool that supports cognitive, emotional, and social development.

Speech Milestones by Age

Babies learn communication skills at their own pace. General milestones can, however serve as a guideline for typical development. Let's go through these milestones by age:

Newborn (0-3 Months)

At this point, the babies communicate mostly through crying. They give cues as to their needs by responding with actions like smacking the lips when hungry or arching the back when they feel overstimulated. At the end of three months, you may also observe:

• Smiles in response to your appearance.
• Cooing sounds.
• Quiets or smiles when spoken to.
• Your voice.
• Different cries for specific needs.

Upto 6 Months

By six months, babies start experimenting with sounds and use their voice to play. Major developments include:

• Making gurgling sounds during play.
• Babbling with different sounds.
• Vocalizing likes and dislikes.
• Responding to the change in tone of voice.
• Turning eyes toward sounds.
• Showing interest in music and sound-making toys.

Till 12 Months

By the first birthday, there are some significant communication milestones that have been achieved:

• Trying to imitate speech sounds.
• Speaking basic words like "mama," "dada," or "uh-oh."
• Responding to simple commands, such as "Come here."
• Recognizing common items by name, like "shoe."
• Turning toward sounds and voices.

Upto 18 Months

In this stage, children learn to understand and use words in a consistent manner. Some of the important milestones are:

• Knows the names of people, objects, and body parts.
• Responds to simple commands with gestures.
• The child says up to 10 words.

End of 24 Months

By two years of age, children usually have more developed communication skills:

• Using simple sentences, like "more milk."
• Asking one- to two-word questions, such as "Go bye-bye?"
• Following simple directions and answering simple questions.
• Saying 50 or more words.
• Being understood by family members at least half the time.

Ways Parents Can Support Development

Parents can be very supportive in developing the communication skills of their child. Here are some effective strategies:

1. Pay Attention to Hearing: Ensure your child responds to sounds and voices. Notice if they react to noise or look at you when spoken to. If you suspect hearing issues, consult your pediatrician promptly.

2. Engage in Conversation: Respond to your baby’s coos and babbles. Talk to them frequently about daily activities, like “Mommy is making breakfast,” or “We’re going to the park.”

3. Imitation Training: Teach your baby to imitate actions and gestures of others, such as clapping, waving, or peek-a-boo. These activities encourage her to understand turn-taking and even nonverbal communication.

4. Animals Sound: Learning time must be fun. Train your baby to imitate an animal's sound, "A cow says 'moo.'". This encourages sound production along with word association.

5. Read and Sing Together: Reading stories and singing songs expose your child to language patterns and rhythm. Make it a daily habit to promote vocabulary growth.

6. Use Your Native Language: Speak to your child in the language you’re most comfortable with. Early exposure to rich language environments helps babies learn effectively.

7. Strengthen Their Attempts: Cheer every time your child tries to speak. Repeat the words and sounds and gently correct as needed. A little "baby talk" is okay but clearly say simple words for them to imitate.

When to Seek Medical Attention

Though every child develops at his own rate, there are some delays that point toward professional intervention. Talk with your child's health care provider if:

- Doesn't turn toward sounds or his name.

- By 12 months, he isn't babbling, and by 18 months, he has not spoken a single word.

- Uses speech in a peculiar manner or shows delayed speech.

Your pediatrician can refer you to some specialist who could be an audiologist or speech-language pathologist for more extensive testing. In the case of a bilingual child, he will also be evaluated by a bilingual speech-language pathologist.

Communication milestones form a kind of roadmap in understanding how your baby develops. This means through conversation, play, and learning activities, you could be able to enhance language skills while promoting your child's development. When concerned about delay, consult professional help, as this might make all the difference by having communication skills set up to meet a great future for your child.

Communication Milestones: Birth to 1 Year. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Think of when you go to someone's house who has a kid. What is the first thing that happens? The kid is asked to sing, dance, or recite a poem for the guests. If the kid does it, he or she receives applause, and the parents become instantly happy. If the kid fails to do so or hesitates, while the parents smile, and behind it is a pattern that child psychologist call the Trophy Child Syndrome.

This happens when parents view their child's talents, grades, or charm as the reflection of their own. While this may seem like a common, everyday household, tradition, it bears a lasting impact on the child. This is what experts call the 'showcase parenting'.

What Is A Trophy Child?

Paul Opiyo, who writes for Medium says that when a child is exceptionally good at something his or her success is often put at par with parent's reflection. However, this comes in many shapes, for instance, writes Opiyo, if the child shows great athletic talent, the parents initiate a 'Project Mbappe', or when the child demonstrates intellectual gifts, the parents shove a 'Project Einstein' on them.

In other parents, from very early on the child discovered that it is not them or their personality, but actually what they do is what's considered important.

This is true especially in households with parents who have high narcissistic traits, who are controlling or who are enmeshed. This is where the child is seen just as the extension of a parent and nothing more than that. This forms predictable patterns of family dynamics. The family operates on winning love and approbation. This is not just a competition, but a habit, that gets amped up and becomes the standard by which family members are judged.

Are There Signs Of A Trophy Child?

While the child may recognize that he or she is a trophy child, there could be many signs that may hint towards those.

Perfectionism

The child has a strong need to be perfect at everything they do. The child is also highly sensitive to criticism, because any mistake to the child feels like a failure to meet expectations.

People Pleasing

The child has a hard time saying 'no', this is because the child has had a habit of seeking validation from others.

External Validation

The child's self worth is also tied to their accomplishments and achievements, which are only celebrated outside, and not private goals. The child learns to feel valuable only when there is something that the child is 'winning' at.

Loss Of Identity

In the race to become someone else or to behave like someone else, personal goals or the child's own interests often gets sidelined. this could lead to a weak sense of self.

Experts point out that these kids internalize the message that they are valued for what they do and not who they are. This very feeling creates deep insecurities in them as they enter adulthood. Because even after they have grown up, they feel the constant pressure to prove their worth.

Experts also point out that social media has further fueled fire to this. Thanks to social media, many parents are asking their kids to do certain things, record it online and upload it for likes and views.

However, there is a way to break the cycle, the first step is to acknowledge that this is happening with you and then to approach a practitioner.

Childhood obesity is a growing global health problem. According to the World Health Organization, in 2024, 35 million children under the age of five were overweight. While many parents ignore the issue, assuming children will lose weight as they grow, childhood obesity is linked to numerous adulthood problems, including a higher risk of heart disease and hypertension.

However, how much of the fault lies in the children, is it just because of their diet and willingness to stay active?

A new and significant study by a European research group, the EndObesity Consortium, has made a surprising discovery: they think this health crisis might actually start even before a baby is even conceived. This group of scientists has been searching for new and effective ways to stop the rising number of children who are becoming obese.

What Role Does Parenting Play in Childhood Obesity?

The study identified a critical period called the “first 1,000 days,” which it says is the most important window to prevent childhood obesity. The scientists, whose work was published in the Pediatric Obesity journal, explain that this key window begins before the child is conceived and lasts until the child turns two years old.

The researchers found that the health programs currently used to fight obesity by changing people's habits are usually put into place too late. Also, these programs often fail to deal with the social and economic problems that make it hard for people to lose weight. Because of this, the study suggests a much wider plan is needed. This plan would involve both parents making healthy changes before they conceive a child and also include big changes to government policies.

How To Change Your Lifestyle To Beat Obesity?

The researchers are convinced that the period from before conception until the child is two is the absolute best time to focus on stopping obesity. They noted that simply telling people to make lifestyle changes right now hasn't worked well. They argue that we need a solution with many parts. This solution must mix personalized help for families with supportive government rules, which could include things like:

• Regularly checking families for obesity risks.
• Teaching the public more about healthy habits.
• Creating places and rules that make living a healthy life easy right from the start.

What are The Risk Factors Of Childhood Obesity?

This new approach aims to stop the problem of obesity being passed from parents to children. The research team listed several ways the mother's and father's lifestyle before conception could increase the child’s risk of obesity:

• The parent being overweight or obese themselves.
• The mother gaining too much weight during pregnancy.
• Eating a diet that is unhealthy, high in fat, and full of sugar.
• Not getting enough essential vitamins and minerals.
• Not getting enough physical activity or exercise.
• Smoking.
• Having high levels of stress.

Once the baby is born, other things can affect their risk of becoming obese, such as:

• Not breastfeeding or having issues with it.
• Using baby formula that isn't ideal.
• The child gaining weight too fast.
• An unhealthy diet during the first years of life.
• Poor quality sleep.

Do Obese Parents Affect Child’s Health?

Research shows that parental obesity increases the likelihood of children also becoming obese, creating a challenging cycle.

This link happens because adults who carry too much weight have a higher risk of health issues like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. These conditions can negatively affect the health and quality of a woman's eggs and the environment inside her ovary. This in turn can hurt the earliest development of the fetus, which is how the cycle of obesity risk begins for the next generation.

Suicide attempts and overdose cases are rising among young people across the country. However, what is the cause behind this rise? In a new study, researchers found a concerning link between late-night screen time and these cases.

To find out the link, a research team from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, led by Dr. Abhishek Reddy, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, is working to find better ways for families to protect their children before a crisis hits.

The researchers talked to teenagers between 12 and 17 years old who had been hospitalized after intentionally overdosing. Their main goal was to find out the when, how, and why of these dangerous events so that parents, doctors, and schools can step in much sooner.

They looked at three things together: the time of day the overdose happened, the teen's phone or screen use just before, and the type of medicine they took.

How Does Late Night Screen Time Affect Children?

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry explains that on an average, children between the age of 8-18 in the US spend 7.5 hours watching or using screens, whether it is to entertain, teach or just to occupy themselves.

The study found very clear patterns. Most overdoses happened late at night, often while the teens were on their phones or computers, or right after. The pills used were a mix of both prescription drugs and simple over-the-counter medicines. This shows that it's the easy access to pills, not just strong ones, that can lead to a suicide attempt.

The researchers realized that late-night hours seem to be when young people feel the most emotional stress. When that feeling is mixed with instant access to social media and medicines readily available at home, the situation becomes very dangerous.

Experts warn that even common pills we think are safe, like pain relievers or allergy medicines, can be deadly in an overdose. Knowing the time and method helps create practical prevention plans that families can actually use. This information backs up national data showing that suspected suicide attempts by poisoning among teens jumped by over 30% recently.

Can Parents Prevent Overdosage In Children?

Even though the findings are serious, they point to things every family can do right away. The researchers suggest three main ways to help prevent overdoses:

• Limit screens late at night.
• Help teens develop good sleep habits.
• Lock up all medicines—both prescription and over-the-counter.

Simple changes can make a huge difference. Parents should set "digital curfews," perhaps by using apps to limit screen time or by making sure phones and tablets stay outside the bedroom after a set hour.

Help kids create a relaxing bedtime routine, like reading a book, to help them sleep better. It is just as important to lock or safely store all medicines, count how many pills are left, and immediately throw away any old or unused pills.

The researchers also stress that talking openly and honestly with your kids is key. Distress late at night, especially after arguments or seeing upsetting content online, can lead to impulsive actions. Checking in with your children about how they are feeling and what's happening in their online life can help defuse those risky moments.

Dr. Reddy said this research gives everyone specific things they can change—things like screen time and medicine storage. This is very valuable because we can move from simply knowing there is a crisis to taking concrete steps to stop it. The team hopes these ideas will lead to new programs focused on digital safety, safe medicine habits, and support for teens in crisis who need help late at night.

The main goal is to use this data to create simple, effective ways to prevent tragedies every day. Since suicide is a leading cause of death for children, and overdoses on easily found pills are common, helping parents focus on these safety measures could save young lives.