Talk to Your Baby

The health and nutrition of a new baby is most likely foremost on the minds of new and seasoned moms alike. Moms take special care to provide a loving environment for their babies to grow up in. Many moms are making choices on health options, like breastfeeding or cord blood banking for example, in order to give them the healthiest start possible. In addition, moms are making efforts to spend quality time snuggling and playing with their babies.

Talking to your baby can have a huge impact on his or her ability to acquire language. It's startling to think that in just the first year of life your baby will hear all of the sounds in the English language. Hearing these sounds over and over is what your baby needs in order to start speaking the sounds. The more your baby is immersed in language, the easier it will be for him or her to start uttering those precious first words.

Narrate the Day

There's no reason to stay quiet just because your baby can't understand what you're saying. Treat your baby like any adult that's hanging around the house by talking conversationally to him or her throughout the day. If you're folding the laundry, say, "Mom has to fold this whole pile of laundry, and then we're going to go for a walk in the stroller." Let your baby know where you're going, who you're seeing and what you're doing as you go about the day. Although it may feel strange at first, it will become natural as time passes. Talking to your baby from birth provides a wonderful introduction to language and gives your baby the necessary foundation to learn to speak.

Read

When you read to your baby, you are introducing important concepts about print and language. Reading with expression allows your baby to hear many different forms of expression. The pictures provide visual stimulation, and just sitting with mom for this special time provides a sense of security and love for your little one. Babies learn valuable information about communication and the world through books. Books also stimulate memory, listening and vocabulary skills. Pick up a book and share a cuddle with your baby every single day.

Sing

Singing is just another form of language that babies should be exposed to. Your baby doesn't care whether you can carry a tune or not. Engage your babe with silly little songs as you change his or her diaper, feed him or her or calm him or her down for a nap. Singing will help your baby develop those all-important language skills that he or she intends to wow you with in about a year.

With so many health preparations a mother makes to try to ensure her baby grows up as healthy as possible, it’s equally important for a mother to work to help her baby grow mentally and talking, singing and reading to baby is a great way to do it—and a great bonding experience for both too!

This is a guest post written by Katie Moore. Katie is an active writer within the Mom-o-sphere of the blogging world. Just after becoming a Mom herself, Katie took to blogging to share her knowledge and passion for motherhood, pregnancy, children, fitness and overall health. She enjoys spending time with her family, writing and researching, and connecting with others! If you have any questions or would like to connect with Katie please contact by visiting her blog “Moore From Katie,” or her twitter @moorekm26.

Baby's first words

How do you know when your baby is really saying his first word? 

Right from the start they make goo goo ga ga noises that at times sound like they could be words. My youngest said "mama" from about 2 weeks old. It was clear enough that when he did it whilst we were queuing at a supermarket check out the other people waiting said "wow! he can talk already!". As much as I'd like to think my son is a genius, I think it's fair to say he wasn't saying his first word. Then it would have been a bit too advanced.

His first word is "mama" though. Now he is 7 months old and shows intent when he calls "mama". Usually when he's getting tired or hungry, he will search for me and call out.

The first word my elder son said was "ball". Although he made lots of gang and ging noises at the beginning the first real word came at about 8 months old. He loved playing with his ball and we would sit opposite each other rolling it back and forth. One day I paused to do something and he started saying "ball". At first I thought I'd imagined it but it soon became clear that he was using the word in it's true sense.

The first real word is the one he uses with intent. 

Typical first words

Babies general start using words with repeated syllables like mama, dada, papa, etc... 

As he grows he will likely have attached a meaning to the word before you realise what his uttering means e.g. "bobo" for bottle. 

First words are also often nouns as we tend to label objects when talking to babies.

How to Help Baby Say His First Words

1. Talk to baby often. Narrate what you're doing.
   
2. Let baby practice conversation and answer his babbles. If you have no idea what he's saying it doesn't matter. Baby is taking in all kinds of communication skills like tone, inflections and patterns.
   
3. Read to baby everyday. While you read the story let baby point to different objects. Let baby finish your sentences. This works especially well with rhyming stories.
   
4. Sing with baby. Teach baby simple children's songs and fingerplays.
   
5. When baby becomes toddler, don't stop the talk. It's important for his development to answer all his questions. 

What was your baby's first word?

Ready for a second language?

I'm English and my husband is Italian. I've often thought about my son's use of language and, as my Pediatric can confirm, I've asked numerous questions about what language I should speak in, how to tell if he's ready for both, how much should he be talking etc...

I came across this article about 2-year-olds learning multiple languages and thought I'd share it here. The full article can be read here.

2-year-old
Since your child is picking up English so rapidly, you might wonder if now's also the time to expose him to other languages. There's evidence that children learn languages more easily in the early years because their brains are so feverishly making new neural connections. They can literally hear all the unique sounds of a foreign tongue better than a teenager or an adult. Kids who grow up in a bilingual household have been found to have smaller vocabularies in each language, but the total number of words they know is about the same as English-only speakers, and being bilingual has been shown to have lasting cognitive benefits.

The catch is that the best way for your child to learn a language now is through conversation with a native speaker. Tapes or weekly classes are less effective, because it's the face-to-face observations and repetition that help the brain most. Your child is also far more likely to retain the second language if continuously exposed to it as he grows. Chinese lessons only from ages 2 to 4 will not make your child proficient at 18. Some research, though, shows there may be a brain-connection boost, even if your child never becomes fluent.

If you like the idea of exposing your preschooler to another language, look for translations of popular children's books to read together. If your child's babysitter is bilingual, encourage her to speak her native language with your child.

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