Babies need to learn many words before they begin to figure out phonics or the patterns of the written language. Remember, that babies and toddlers learn grammar by listening to people speak – not from adults teaching them the rules of grammar. The same concept works for babies and toddlers who are learning the written language. Babies would not learn grammar in this way if they only heard a small number of words (or if people did not speak in complete sentences). With the written language, I have found that babies usually have to learn to read around 200 words before they figure out many phonetic patterns. Therefore, babies and toddlers need to see the same 200 words repeatedly for many months in a wide variety of contexts.