At what age can infants typically say monosyllabic words?

Infants typically begin to say monosyllabic words around the age of 9 months. This is a developmental milestone where babies start to articulate simple sounds that can resemble words, such as "ma" or "da." By this age, they have usually developed the necessary motor skills and vocal capabilities to produce these basic sounds, which are often aligned with their attempts to communicate with caregivers.

Around 6 months, infants are more engaged in babbling rather than forming actual words, producing repetitive consonant-vowel combinations like "bababa" or "dadada." While some sounds may resemble words, they are not purposeful speech at this stage. By the first year, particularly around 12 months, children typically begin to vocalize true monosyllabic words with meaning, such as "mama" or "dada," in reference to their parents. Thus, recognizing that the onset of true monosyllabic speech appears more reliably around 9 months provides clarity in understanding the typical language development sequence in infants.