never too young to encourage bubs to talk.. the best way to do that is to talk to THEM! :-) describe everything you are doing as you are doing it, give them opportunities to copy your noises, and also copy their noises etc. with the ta thing, i never make my DD say ta before i give her something. this would frustrate her heaps and she is too little to understand. so basically just offer her the chance to say ta, if she doesnt i say it for her and then give her whatever it is.

:-)