When do babies start responding to their name?
I talk a lot with my almost two-months daughter. In many cases I mention her name, even though I don't think it means anything to her yet.
But I was wondering: when do newborns / babies start responding to their name? When do they understand the fact that it points to exactly themselves?
I read When will my baby respond to her name? and they mention 7 months. However, I still wonder: does the word itself represent anything to them?
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The answer varies depending on the child and his or her environment and interactions with parent(s). In general, it is around 6 months of age. Both my daughter and my son started reacting to their names right around then. Whether they understood that it was their name is another matter. :)
First of it is really good that you are talking a lot to your daughter, that is the most important thing for early language development.
Your baby will probably start to feel some connection to her name several months before she is able to tell you so in her own words. Meaning that your daughter will be able to understand before she will be able to respond.
In the beginning, she may also associate the word "Baby" with herself as if it was her name.
It is likely that the first true indication that she understands her name will be pointing at herself when you ask "Where is baby?" (or you can use her name).
There are quite a lot of different language development milestones, you may want to read up on. Check out below three articles:
Baby milestones related to understanding new words: www.adam-mila.com/milestones/language-development/vocabulary/
And milestones realted to talking, which may be what you are looking: www.adam-mila.com/milestones/language-development/speaking/
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