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I got into a conversation this week about children's first words. Daughter, LYS and LOS were respectively Dada, Dak-dak (tractor) and 'Dan'. (Daniel, the Spaniel.) He acquired 'dair' (there) at about the same time, and could differentiate between Dan and any other do' that crossed his radar.

Long ago as a student I learned that babies all over the world do the same babble sounds, which are mama, nana, baba, papa, dada, tata. Wherever you go you'll find that the words commonly used for mother, father and baby derive from these sounds. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Until I was two and a half I only ever said 'haha' which meant my sister, and 'gowgow'. Gowgow was anything that wasn't my sister, and these two got me everything I wanted. The day she started school she shed a few tears at first, and I followed Mum around for the rest of the day telling her that Haha was crying.

'Haha' is actually quite difficult for a child to say. If I was capable of that I could have managed mama, dada, and all those words too, and I knew how to do sentences. I chose not to say more than I had to, and only spoke when I had no alternative. How times change.

But I can't remember a time when I didn't have a story in my head.