Perhaps the baby isn’t hearing properly, or perhaps the problem is cognitive. Or, as is sometimes the case, the baby’s parents aren’t speaking to the baby enough. Because experts believe that while some capacity for language is ingrained, learning how to actually speak is learned. And it’s something that must be learned by hearing live human speech. So if around six months or so a baby hasn’t progressed beyond early babbling to canonical babbling, that’s a clue that something’s not right, and that it’s best to consult a pediatrician or infant speech expert.