According to Thibaut, babies begin clearly articulating their first words between 8 and 20 months because they have been absorbing and retaining the sounds of a language and associating meanings to those sounds. "Before that time they start uttering 'proto-words,' otherwise known as babbling, as young as 5 months," Thibaut says. "Although their babbling sounds insensible to us, the babies are beginning to talk to us, are trying to convey meaning and attempting to repeat what adults around them are saying."

Thibaut says babies are highly sensitive and receptive to everything they hear and see. Their brains are programmed to imprint and later recall every sound and every word pattern. "A baby's brain forms a separate neuron with which to store each different sound they hear," Thibaut says. "Let's program children to become the most articulate and communicative adults they possibly can become."

Thibaut's program does just that with language immersion action games, structured games, visual aid games, props and vocabulary-rich songs. "Between 8 and 20 months, toddlers start what linguists term their 'one-word stage,'" Thibaut says. "Before that they simply listen and store what they hear. This is the prime of their critical period – the time of their greatest neurological capacity to absorb and store language."

Obviously, very young babies can learn. With stimulation and attention, your child may learn to do what they were born to do – communicate with their parents. And even if they don't become the next boy wonder, you may have given them a lifelong gift – a love of learning and communication.

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