Baby’s First Grunt May Be a Milestone : Research: Scientist says the sound is a form of communication. The grunt Monica Seles makes when she smashes an overhead volley is the same sound young children make when gesturing to a favorite toy, she said.

Every parent waits expectantly to hear baby’s first word. But a Rutgers University professor finds just as much significance in an even earlier form of communication: baby’s first grunt.

“Grunts are the missing link . . . the link between sound and meaning,” Lorraine McCune said. “Before people can speak, they grunt.”

The grunt has been a form of communication since cavemen grunted in satisfaction at the first fire, said McCune, who is a professor of developmental psychology.

She has studied the sounds babies make--the grunts, gurgles and coos--and has determined that it is their first attempt at communication.

“How does the child know that the sound they make means what they want?” McCune asked.

After observing infants for the last 16 years, McCune believes they think about what they want before attempting to communicate.

“Parents worry when their children do not speak early enough and (instead) grunt,” McCune said. “They should be happy--the grunt is an advance in the baby’s development.”

Parents are too obsessed with a baby’s first word, agreed Linda Milosky, professor of communication sciences and disorders at Syracuse University in New York.

“When children are young, it is important not to discourage communications,” Milosky said.

Too many times, she said, parents discourage their children from grunting by demanding that they speak, instead of welcoming the grunt as an effort at communication.

Milosky agreed with McCune on the importance of the grunt in a child’s development.

“When grunts are meaningful and with intention, they are indeed significant,” she said.

Study of pre-adolescent sounds is gaining ground in the academic world, Milosky said. A number of speech and language pathologists and developmental psychologists have taken up the study of baby grunts. Milosky said grunt research is viewed as legitimate scholarly work and is gaining more research funds.

McCune first got into analyzing grunts in 1978 after receiving a $130,000 grant from National Institutes of Health to study the way children play and begin to talk.

The grunt is not forgotten by babies as they begin to talk, she said, but stays with them their entire lives.

“Ever remember straining as you picked up a heavy box?” McCune asked. “You probably grunted.”

The sound brings to mind tennis superstar Monica Seles, whose grunts during matches have been widely reported and have drawn complaints from her competitors.

The sound Seles makes when she smashes an overhead volley is the same sound young children make when gesturing to a favorite toy, McCune said.

The grunt is a natural expression, she said, adding it may not be something that is controlled, but is instead the body expressing itself.

McCune is trying to secure another grunt grant as she continues her research, but said finding more money has not been easy.

“The work is so new that many do not take it seriously,” she said.