At what age does the babbling stage of language development typically begin?

The babbling stage of language development typically begins around 4 months of age. During this stage, infants start to produce a range of consonant-vowel combinations, such as "ba," "da," and "ga." This stage is significant because it marks the beginning of vocal experimentation, where babies practice sounds that will eventually play a role in the formation of words. Babbling helps develop their motor skills for speech and is a crucial step in language acquisition, allowing infants to explore the phonetic components of their surrounding language.

As infants continue to babble, they start to refine sounds that are more prevalent in the languages spoken around them, which further assists their language development. Thus, the choice of 4 months reflects the age at which this important linguistic milestone typically occurs.