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[–] 20 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Because people learn to understand language much faster than being able to produce it, both in terms of formulation and pronunciation. For babies in particular, they struggle with the fine motor skills required to produce sounds reliably. Babies can learn to produce nonverbal communication faster than vocal language because it's easier in terms of bodily control.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I think "mama", "papa", and "baba" are also some of the easiest things for human babies to say.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    They are. Mama/dada/papa/nana or similar sounds made with the lips or tongue against the gums are near universal terms for parents across languages because that’s just easy sounds for babies to make early on. We just roll with it and adopted their “words” as the foundation of assigning meanings to a specific sound.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    We taught our babies the sign language for "eat" and that made things a lot easier for everyone.

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  • [–] 2 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

    When did you teach the sign? I'm curious from when on they start being able to sign.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

    During breastfeeding. When the baby appears hungry, you do the eat gesture and then feed them.

    It's the cutest thing to see a baby angrily signing "eat" at you.

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