Baby Talk Help???

Maya started making recognisable sounds about 7 months, saying Da-da etc. but I didn't really consider it talking till about 9 months when she would say Mama very deliberately. By about 15-16 months she was putting two words together, her first two word sentence was "peck-nose" from the nursery rhyme about the blackbird that came and pecked off the King's nose, closely followed by Spongebob-Squarepants
Mercedes has said Mama a couple of times, and Dada once that we've heard and thought she knew what she was saying coz she was reaching out for us, but other than that just a constant stream of nonsensical babble.

I consider it talking when they make the noisee deliberately to mean something. Taine has been doing it for a while - says "hi da" quite definitely and has just started "thank you" first word was duck I'm pretty sure.

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.

My girls have said the odd word from about 10mos+, names of us and names of favourite foods come first LOL. Briona is almost 2, she is starting to say 3 word sentences such as "cake - all gone" and "please Nona - bibbit" (Please for Briona, a biscuit). Hannah.... doesn't stop talking!