7 week old baby shocks parents and says "Hello"

The tot who is now nine weeks old, mom claims has been trying to communicate for some time.

Most parenting advice says you don't have to worry if your baby doesn't start speaking until around 18 months.

But that won't be an issue for Toni and Paul McCann from Ireland whose adorable son Cillian said his first word at just seven weeks old.

The tiny tot, who is now nine weeks old, was filmed by his 36-year-old mother who says that she knew he had been trying to communicate for a while.

Toni said: 'He was trying to speak for a while but that day I knew he was trying to say something.

'I'd read that babies communicate from a young age and to give them space to answer when you talk to them.

'That was I was doing that day and because he was so alert and making such good eye contact I decided to video him. You can tell my total shock when he came out with "hello".'

She said: 'If I hadn't have videoed it I'm sure people wouldn't have believed me. I don't think I would have believed it myself!

'After that he said it again to my daughter Eva although it wasn't as clear. When he has been focused and interacting with me since that day I have been telling him "I love you" and I can see he is trying to copy that!

'I have three older girls and never experienced this with them although I think I probably just talked "at" them and didn't give them space to respond.'

Toni says that Cillian was very alert from a young age and had been trying to make out words since he was just five weeks old.

I don't know. It SOUNDS as if he said "hello", but could it have just been sounds that put together sound like what we want to hear? I'll be honest, I'm on the fence with this one. Thoughts guys?

Looks to me like he's trying to mouth what his mom is saying, he even fails the first time and tries again. It may be sound pareidolia but it sounds pretty convincing to me.

If this little guy turns out to be a genius or something then we may have a clearer answer. Maybe we can get an update in a few months.

a reply to: Anyafaj
Wow. I was not expecting it to be that enunciated.

This baby is going to grow up to be one hell of an oral speaker. Watch out Ted Talk!

to be one hell of an oral speaker.

a reply to: Lucid Lunacy

But what other kind of speaker is there? Now I'm curious... have I been missing out on a whole world besides oral?

That was simply amazing. Bravo, little guy.

a reply to: Baddogma
'Public speaking (sometimes termed oratory) is the process or act of performing a presentation (a speech) focused around an individual directly speaking to a live audience in a structured, deliberate manner in order to inform, influence, or entertain them."Link

I would like to ask the mother if her diet changed during pregnancy compared to her other children. Certain nutrients in foods may enhance development of the brain?? Ireland, I bet they have a more natural diet compared to this side.

Not sure on that. Does seem like he says hello.
Looks a quite bit older than nine weeks though, still too young to be talking.

a reply to: violet

Looks a quite bit older than nine weeks though

Supposedly 7 weeks in the video.

That was so adorable - what a precious baby!

As a mom of three, though... I have to say that this sounds like normal baby babble to me. We've had long "conversations" with each of our kids at around that age where they seems to be saying real words. Orange, hello, hi, mommy, I love you, etc etc. I've caught a few early "words" on video as well and I treasure listening to them! They are so cute and fun to hear but are really just a cross between random coos, imitation of sounds, and an audio ink blot test.

This baby could very well be destined for a life at the 99.999999th percentile, but I don't think this particular sound bite has anything to do with his future achievements.
But he is certainly loved - and for that he is fortunate.

Very cute video and adorable baby. . Thanks for posting it!

I'd like to see him say it more than once. But it sure does seem like he was trying awfully hard to imitate the mother!

When we thought our daughter was going to be deaf, we tried to teach our daughter lip reading. It was actually funny to see our daughter going around grabbing people's faces and pointing to her mouth and say, "I uh ooh!" (Her way of saying, "I love you." What she could hear was I uh ooh. Come to find out, it wasn't hearing damage, it was speech difficulties. (She was 2.) We found out when we went to get the hearing aid put in at age 3 and there was no hearing damage. It was definitely cute to watch though, because if we tried talking to her after that without holding her face or pointing to her lips, she'd grab OUR face and point to her lips as if we were doing it wrong. LOL Brings back memories.

I believe it.

I love this age, so precious.