Let’s Talk Baby!
It is such a joyous sound hearing a baby find their voice as they begin to interact and communicate with their new surroundings, displaying an incredibly wide range of expressions and noise levels! Gentle gurgling and babbling can suddenly be replaced with a frustrated cry of hunger, tiredness or discomfort. As soon as a child is born (and as research suggests, as early as from inside the womb) a baby will be hearing the sounds that will eventually help them to speak and communicate with the world. For this reason, it is so vital that we provide as much opportunity as possible for them to hear voices, speech and of course music. All exposure to language and music is useful and important for cognitive growth and development. It is very comforting to know that a baby can respond to familiar sounds and voices at a very early stage, so all our input is good!
Everyone who is significant in a baby’s life will be playing their part in helping the baby learn to talk: mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, maternity nurse, maternity nanny and all family members. Their speech and chatter with and around the baby contributes to their understanding of the world and forms the basis for speech, word formation and communication.
There are some really easy steps to increase your level of communication with a baby and the best place to start is with what is happening right here, right now!
As you go about your daily routine, speak about how the day is progressing and what actions you are doing. Good examples would be going to the supermarket, walking the dog, going to the park/swimming pool, getting a meal ready. For every action and situation, the important thing is that the baby is able to see you and if possible, your face, because speech and chatter is usually accompanied by some good facial expressions! By describing your actions, you are opening up a world of vocabulary for them to hear and learn and at the same time you are painting a wonderful picture of the world.
For examole:
“Let’s go for a walk in the park: Let’s go to the pond and feed the ducks”; ‘I am putting on my coat and I’m going to wrap you in your cosy blanket”; “look at all the delicious fruit, and vegetables:there are lots of lovely red apples, yellow bananas and orange carrots!”
“This coffee smells really delicious”; I wonder if we will see any ponies on the way”.
Whatever you feel comfortable about describing – sights, smells and sounds – use a vivid range of descriptive language which is all beneficial, particularly for colour, texture, size and so on.
Some other good topics to chat about could be:
- Emotions and how you/someone else might be feeling. Describe when something /someone has made you happy or sad, excited, annoyed or angry
- Friends & family visitors– describe who they are and where they live
- Day-to-day activities such as cooking, hoovering or doing the washing
- While changing a nappy: this is a great time for close eye contact and giving the baby an opportunity to see your face up close. This can be a lovely time to sing them a song or teach them a rhyme
- Story time.: talk about what sort of book you are going to read to them & tell them all about the characters
- Dressing: tell them about the clothes you’re putting on yourself or them and point out the different parts of the body
- Mealtimes: talk about different foods groups, what foods you like eating yourself and about cooking meals and following recipes. If they are a little bit older and you are starting to introduce different food tastes and textures to them, chat about what new foods they will be trying out that day
Always encourage family and people visiting to chat to the baby as well as all interaction and communication is good for helping the baby learn sounds and vocabulary and stimulating their interest in the busy world around them.
Just one important point to remember: all language is good but don’t fall into the trap of saying/teaching them a ‘baby word’ such as “woof woof” for dog, “biccie” for biscuit, “baa baa” for sheep etc. Teach the correct word right from the start. This way, even though you may have had good intentions ie you want to give the child an easier, gentle sound to copy, it actually means that in the long run they end up having to learn 2 words instead of one! (Imagine yourself learning a new language and proudly saying “that’s a moo moo” only to be told that you are not actually correct and it should be a cow). Teach the correct word first and then the ‘sound’ that goes with it.
The main thing is to enjoy chatting with the baby and you will see how much they will love the sound of your voice and being involved in ‘conversations’.
