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From birth to one year your baby will
go from crying to cooing to talking. Those
are amazing milestones for your baby to
accomplishment in such a short period of
time as he develops his speech and
language skills, but keep in mind that
these stages of your baby's development
are broad and that no baby will fall
exactly within the timeframe of these
expected milestones.
Please be aware of your own behavior
- never, ever, talk 'baby talk' yourself.
Speak normally, using your normal tones,
as this will help your baby learn much
more quickly than if you start speaking
baby-talk yourself; all you will do is
hinder his speech progress.
Your baby will understand speech long
before he begins to speak. From birth he
will look at your face and listen to your
voice. He will make a small range of
noises that will start to mean something
to you, such as his way of exhibiting
hunger or pain. These noises will include
crying and certain sounds that your baby
makes while he is breathing. When your
baby is feeding he will make sucking
noises and sounds of contentment.
Your baby's cry is an important way for
him to communicate. Crying lays the
foundation for speech as your baby learns
to control the air that comes from his
lungs and learns how to use his vocal
cords. Crying is your baby's way of
telling you that he is hungry, upset or
cold. By listening carefully to your baby
and responding to his cries you are
letting him know that he is important.
This is how your baby first learns to
communicate with you.
Your two-month old baby will start to
pay more and more attention to his world.
He will be fascinated by the sound of your
voice and will follow it around the room
with great concentration. The different
tones of your voice will keep him
interested for short periods of time. Your
baby will respond with a variety of cooing
sounds, vowel-like sounds and sometimes
some consonant sounds such as a k. You
will find that your baby has quite a
collection of cooing sounds that he uses
to communicate with you as well as
discovering how to use the sound of his
own voice.
Talk to your baby as much as possible
to encourage her cooing response. Look
directly into your babys eyes to show that
you are listening. This helps to establish
signals of communication between the two
of you.
At three months your baby will
recognize your voice and will turn towards
you when he hears you talking. He will be
starting to laugh out loud and will often
startle himself until he learns that he is
the one making the sound. He will squeal
when he is happy and content, again often
startling himself as he learns his own
abilities.
Continue to talk to your baby as much
as possible as well as singing to him and
reading him stories. The more you
communicate with him and let him know that
you are listening the more he will attempt
to communicate with you.
At four months your baby is learning
more and more ways to communicate with
you. He will be smiling spontaneously at
everything around him and his soft
babbling will have an almost singsong
sound to it, often ranging into a high
pitch that delights him as he learns to
like the sound of his own voice. There
will be lots of repetition to the sounds
that your baby makes. Respond to your
baby's oohs and ahhs with your own voice
tones. This is your chat time with your
baby and you should take advantage of
these chat times as he learns what
conversation is all about. Your baby may
also be starting to let you know when he
is not in the mood for talking with you.
He will turn his head in the other
direction and may put his arm over his
face. He may be showing signs of anger or
frustration by crying out, especially if
something is taken away from him.
At five months your baby is becoming
better at communicating and he may start
to mimic sounds and gestures which allows
him to express his needs. He'll be able to
let you know if he is happy or sad; when
he wants attention he will start to babble
until you respond to him. If you respond
to his cooing, laughing sounds he'll
repeat his noises often because he knows
that he can get your attention this way.
Your baby will now be watching your mouth
when you talk. If you talk to him from
across the room he will be able to locate
you easily. He is also learning to control
his vocal sounds as watches your response
to his sounds.
At six months your baby is now using
consonant-vowel combinations. He has
discovered his image in the mirror and is
probably having conversations with his new
playmate. Your baby's language is becoming
much more precise.
There are several ways that you
can help him to continue to develop his
language skills by:
- Speaking clearly, slowly, and
accurately.
- Identify objects as you say their
names.
- Use short sentences.
- Use repetition when singing songs
and nursery rhymes; the repetition will
help him to learn.
- Read as often as you can to your
baby, asking questions about the
pictures in the books so that your baby
is interacting with you.
- Never talk at your baby, let him
respond in his own way.
Seven months and your baby continues to
learn how to use his language skills. He
has learned how to wave goodbye and may
accompany his wave with babbling sounds.
He can say mama or dada or variations of
these.
Eight months and your baby is playing
games such as pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo.
Even though he cannot speak the words that
belong to these games, he can babble and
talk to himself. Your baby understands
what the word no means, even though he
doesnt like hearing it.
After nine months continue to play lots
of games with your baby especially those
games that involve singing. Your baby is
responding to small sentences such as
'take mommy's hand'.
Ten to twelve months and your baby's
language skills continue to develop. He
will use his own gibberish language to
interact with you and have a conversation.
Your baby can now say short, one syllable
words such as 'bye' and continues to talk
in his conversational gibberish
language.
There are several ways that you
can help your baby as he learns and
practices his language skills:
- Talk often to your baby using
simple words to identify objects in his
life. Name trees, numbers, colors, and
animals as you take your baby for a
walk. Use your babys name as often as
you can so he starts to recognize
it.
- Be patient and listen when your
baby talks to you and respond to his
talk in a positive way, often repeating
one or two of the words he has used
correctly.
- Introduce concepts to your baby,
such as the big dog or the little
mouse.
- Give your baby time to get his
words out; don't be tempted to complete
sentences for him.
- Continue to read to your baby as
much as possible. Reading should be
part of your daily routine.
At the one year mark your baby's
language skills will continue to progress
as he discovers more and more about the
world around him. Before you know it your
baby will be talking non-stop as he
masters his language and vocal skills.
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