Emma Rose has just started talking recently (since about 14.5 months) -- her first word was "Dada", and now she says "Hi", "Dada", "Baba" (bottle) and "Noo" (the dog, whose name is Noodle).

I've read that "Dada" is the most popular choice for a first word! When babies are learning to talk, they'll often babble endless streams of sounds that don't sound like anything to us, but from time to time they'll throw in semi-recognisable words like "Dada" and similar. Emma Rose babbles away constantly now (she didn't for a long time, but now that her ears seem clear of all the lovely infections she's had, her speech is really improving) and if you're hearing her but not listening for words, it sounds just like adult speech -- similar cadences, "sentence structure", questions and answers, etc.

I'd call it speaking when they are looking at you or a toy or the dog and babbling away, but not necessarily saying words you recognise. I think that the INTENT of speech is what's important in the beginning -- that they are using their voices to communicate and realising that is what voices do. You can usually tell when this is happening because they will watch your mouth and make noises while looking at you -- they are starting to realise where their (and your) voices come from. They also imitate you (Em loves to say "Ah....BA!" over and over with me) and will look at you and babble away. So even when Em is babbling to the dog and I don't hear any of the four words she uses, I still think of it as "talking" because she's exploring language in her own little way.

For your mum's or Dad's with older children.... 

When did you baby start to talk?

What did your baby say?

What did you class as talking?

Thanks for your help