BabblePlay responds to your baby’s vocalizations with fun colourful moving shapes, encouraging your baby to vocalise more. Will your baby discover that by making sounds they can activate the display? When that happens, your baby may feel something very special – perhaps for the first time your baby will have actually controlled an appliance or a toy on their own – getting it to do what they want when they want it!

Meanwhile, while interacting with the app your baby may vocalise more, practicing the sounds that will later help them start to produce their very first words.

Our app also contains a diary, helping you to keep track of developmental milestones that your baby reaches: learning to sit, learning to hold things, and learning to talk.

The app was developed by a team of researchers at the University of York and James Madison University who are interested in voice and speech, and in particular in how producing sounds prepares babies for starting to talk. We hope that the interaction with the app will motivate your baby to vocalise more, and that this will provide a solid foundation for early word use. That is something we are interested in studying, with your help!