How to help your baby learn to talk
How much are you looking forward to your baby’s first words? My son’s first word was “book” (apart from mummy and daddy of course). Did you know that “daddy” is a more common first word than “mummy”?
Babies and toddlers learn to talk and understand language by listening to others talking. The greater the exposure a baby or toddler has to the spoken word, the greater their understanding will be and the larger their vocabulary. Chatty parents make for chatty babies. To help your baby’s language development you need to be talking to them all the time.
You don’t have to wait until your precious bundle is born, you can start making a difference whilst they are still in the womb. Your baby’s hearing system is almost fully developed and functioning at six months in utero, which means that they will be able to hear and respond to sounds in the womb. Studies have shown that babies can recognise nursery rhymes that they have heard in the womb. Babies can also recognise familiar voices, especially their mother’s; a mother’s voice is transmitted through body tissue and bone as well as soundwaves, which makes it more easily heard it and is less subject to distortion.
So, what can you do to help?
Talk to your baby in the womb
Maybe choose a favourite nursery rhyme and sing it or read it aloud every day – repetition is important and you may find that your baby will recognise this particular song and respond to it after they are born.
If you are generally quite quiet (we don’t all talk to ourselves round the house or your office may be quiet), then maybe play a daily selection of songs, listen to music and sing along.
A partner, friends or family may enjoy chatting to your baby but babies will not be able to hear them as well as your voice which travels though your body too.
Once a baby is born, they very quickly start learning all the relevant information that will help them understand and produce words. A baby will need to solve the language puzzle (they do not just learn through repetition but through trial and error and experimentation).
Do you find yourself talking to your baby with a slightly higher pitch, is it more sing song, shorter sentences and you repeat the phrase? This a natural and instinctive way that all parents and carers talk to their babies. This infant-directed speech is preferred by babies, and may make language learning and social development easier for them
Talk, talk and talk
Quantity and quality – both are valuable. The more you talk the more chance your baby has to pick things up. This is your excuse to meet up with friends, grab a coffee, share your troubles, listening to grown up talking is also valuable and including them in that conversation will introduce them to social conversations and talking turns at talking. Other ideas…
- Narrate the day as it evolves and describe all the activities that take place
- Read to your baby. It is never too early to start reading
- When you read picture books, tell them what they are looking at to help them associate words with objects
- Tell your baby made up stories – the more fanciful the more it will excite their imagination, maybe put them in the story and use their name
- Use television, computers and noisy toys sparingly. While there are some good educational programmes which can be beneficial to your baby, TV shows and computers don’t interact with or respond to babies. Interaction and responsiveness are the two catalysts that babies need to learn language
Listen and respond
Once your baby starts producing a first few words you can help promote expansion of their language skills in a variety of ways. At this stage, although its still vital that you continue to talk and talk to them, make sure you are giving them plenty of opportunity to express themselves too. Be sure to include them in your conversations with your partner and older children to give them a chance to chat. You might like to read our article about Whole Body Listening for tips on how to actively listen to your little ones
- Responding to their words with more words. If they yell “car!”, then you could reply “Yes, it is a red car like Grandma’s car”
- Asking questions. Two-sided conversations will help your child to practice their new skills, so pose questions to your toddler that call for more than a yes or no answer
- Devoting your full attention. Stay focused when they are speaking. If you get distracted, they will as well
- Use colourful and interesting picture books to help initiate conversations or as well as special tasks which focus on spoken language, such as ‘Which noise does each animal make?’.
- Use toys and props to help develop role play – what would a certain character (toy) do now?
- Toys which have many features and functions are good for language skills – farms and animals, dolls houses
Sing!
Music is a really important and effective way to help children pick up the rhythm of language and the repeated sounds and words. They will quite often learn to sing before they talk if they hear plenty of singing and music around them and that will boost the memory needed to work out the puzzle of language. Within a familiar tune words will start to appear with the tune providing the structure for the sentence.
Action rhymes too, especially those that require children to copy you and maybe point to parts of their bodies (ike Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) will help add vocabulary and make language fun
These are just a few of the ways in which you can help your baby’s language development and encourage baby’s first words. So please, just keep talking, listening, responding and singing…
Baby College is involved in a research project along with Goldsmiths University on this topic. Find out more about that here The Little Seed Project
