What is the earliest stage of oral language development?

Cooing represents the earliest stage of oral language development in infants, typically occurring between six weeks and three months of age. During this stage, infants produce a variety of cooing sounds, which include prolonged vowel sounds like "oo" and "ah." These early vocalizations are crucial as they mark the beginning of a child's ability to produce sounds that are not just reflexive but also intentional, laying the groundwork for later stages of language development.

In contrast, babbling comes next, occurring around four to six months, where infants begin to produce consonant-vowel combinations like "ba," "da," and "ma." This stage is important for practicing the sounds of their future language. The one-word stage follows, typically occurring around one year of age, when children start using single words to express complete thoughts or ideas. Finally, the telegraphic stage occurs when toddlers begin to string together two or three words to form simple sentences, demonstrating their growing understanding of grammar and syntax. Thus, cooing is correctly identified as the foundational stage in the trajectory of language development.