My First Baby Milestones -first words

According to many "my first baby" books and websites,  a lot is written about all the practical aspects of looking after a baby. These are very important  but sometimes the "my first baby" articles don't tell you that by talking to your baby you will have a happpier baby who frets and cries less.

As a first-time parent, you are probably wondering when your baby's cooing will develop into his or her first words. Other questions about communication will usually come up too . As soon as a baby is born,  the lips and tongue start to acquire the capability essential to form speech. Plus, the brain also begins to match things up with their corresponding names. You need to be patient, though, as babies normally pronounce their first real words at 11 months and onwards.

The rate at which babies acheive this milestone will vary. If you want your baby will get to this stagephase more quickly you have to make an effort to help him (or her) do so.  And there is nothing tough about it. As a matter of fact , there are many of uncomplicated and exciting things you can do to teach baby talk.

How Do Babies Learn to Communicate?

Really your little one is basically mastering the capacity to communicate day in and day out . Each and every time he or she cries , you typically do your best to make him (or her) feel far better. The way you react and the manner in which you react to your baby's noise-making generally set the groundwork for language and how you help baby talk

By two months, your child is already capable of responding to your cues. Your cues are the words you say. In addition, the higher-pitched way in which you speak keeps him/her entertained and encourages understanding of words and sentences. That's why each time you speak to your little one, he or she stares back at you and makes cooing sounds in response. It's in this way that infants talk with their parents.

By the time your little one turns six months old , he or she will normally begin to babble. This will be a sequence of sounds a little like words, but which don't necessarily mean anything . Baby babbling is the way babies love practising and  exercising  the muscles of the mouth which they will bring into use later when speaking genuine words.  At first, the sounds will only be made up of vowels like ah. ow, oh, ee, uh. After that, his or her nonsense words will then contain consonants like m,b,d, because these are the consonants infants find easiest to pronounce at first . Inside a few months, your child will attempt to mimic your words and other sounds.

How To Teach Baby to Talk

Match up things up with names. - At mealtime , forillustration, give the names for eating utensils like the plate, spoon, fork, cup and the like. Each time you say the word, point to or hold the item and repeat the word at least three times.

Have fun . - Playing games like "peek-a-boo" really reinforces listening, mimicking and taking turns -all of which are required facets of carrying out a conversation.

Read together. --In the beginning , your infant won't comprehend the words you say. Nevertheless, reading to your baby will encourage his or her senses and foster an everlasting fondness for books, which will be an outstanding foundation for later accomplishment at school.

Prattle back. -- Each time your child babbles, say something similar in reply. For instance, if he or she says "ba ba", you might copy him and say "ba ba" yourself, or reply with something like "Hey, boo boo." The fun you can have with silly sounds, in fact make learning a lot more enjoyable. Just remember to pause for a short time to let your little one babble back to get used to the pattern of a real conversation.

Sing. -- Babies, by nature, have a fascination for music. Singing, therefore, is a terrific way of introducing a wide array of sounds and words.   Songs with animal sounds are great because they will delight baby and you can have fun with the sounds long before baby can actually say words.

Your little one's first word is, definitely, an exciting milestone. Remember , though, that babies develop at unique rates. You may also find out more about how to teach baby to talk by reading the "language and communication" section of My First Baby books. Also, congratulate yourself when your baby reaches the first words milestone and appreciate that you helped to teach your baby to talk.

Baby Talk is Bad ?

Baby Talk is Bad for Children, but not for Babies !

The"baby' is often used to describe young children of various ages up to about 3 years. In terms of learning different skills and development it is better to be more precise, and talk about young children as:

1. "infant" - under 1 year old
2. "toddler" - 12-30  months
3. "child" - 1 and 2 above and everything else up to 16?

When people say " talk to babies like they are adults" they are correct, but under the age of 12 months, using "baby talk" in ADDITION, supplies infants with many benefits. It is not a case of  baby talk OR adult talk, but BOTH.

Infants need to hear different types of talk and each teaches babies something different about the human voice and talking.

Each type of talk could be called "baby talk"

1) Baby Talk - A way of talking to babies using a special voice- also called Motherese, Parentese, Caretaker speech,  - high pitched, lilting, sing song voice where the actual words are the same as in adult speech, but spoken in a different way.

Research has shown that babies like, enjoy and pay more attention to "parentese" than the normal fast, flat, joined-up speech adults use to talk to each other.

2) Baby talk for "practice" - repetition of sounds for the pure joy of baby discovering  his own voice and practicing how to make the individual sounds in words.

3) Baby Talk - Mirroring - where the parent repeats the same sound the baby makes to create a conversation. This video below is an excellent example of 'mirroring"

 term

This video below shows three types of talk
"Parentese" - adult words spoken with special lilting voice
Mirroring -  repeating the sounds baby makes
Entertainment - the joy of repetition

Infants (under 12 months) learn different things from each type of speech. In various cultures and many different languages, parents and family members use similar types of " baby talk" called " infant-directed speech', 'parentese" or " motherese" when they talk to their infants.

Infants Become Toddlers

The point around 12 months when a baby changes from being an infant to a toddler marks a big leap forward in language learning. At this stage first words, like mama, dada, cup, hat, cat, no,  appear and it becomes essential to say words clearly, show your toddler the shapes your mouth and lips make. It is also the time when Mirroring 'baby talk",  that copies how infants talk, should not be used with toddlers. Once they begin to actually say words, they need clear, correct speech to copy. They need "parentese" , " motherese" - normal language spoken slowly an clearly with short sentences and a musical lilt.

Before 12 months, babies speech development needs are very different from the later months and years.  Babies will learn to talk well without baby talk, it is true, but it is not BAD. It is beneficial for bonding for the adults and infants it seems perverse to withhold it in the mistaken belief  that it is doing harm before the age of one year, when in fact it is does a lot of good.

Below is a list of links to articles by professionals in the child brain, speech and language development spheres, and other sources where "baby talk" is explained and encouraged for the good effects it has.

"Beweave" it or not, baby talk helps babies learn language. Research shows that babies prefer to listen to our silly baby talk from birth.     

Baby Talk: Communicating with Your Child -- Roberta Golinkoff, PhD 

Adults may feel silly when they talk to babies, but those babies will learn to speak sooner if adults talk to them like infants instead of like other adults, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon University Psychology Professor Erik Thiessen

Carnegie Mellon Study: Adults' Baby Talk Helps Infants Learn To Speak 

For a complete program of activities stretching from birth to age 3 years, you can learn how to best use the different types of "baby talk" while you teach your baby to talk

Baby Speech

Baby Speech - is all about practice

Baby speech is a topic that interests all parents and baby carers. They all are madly keen to hear a baby or toddler say its first words and most are keen to know how they can help this process. Some parents however have no idea that they play a role in helping their baby's speech to develop.

There is a frantic activity going on every second of the day and night in a baby's brain that organises the brain cells, grows new connections and lets some brain cells die.  Babies are learning something almost every second of the day. Recently I came across the expression " a baby learns what it lives" and I thought that was a brilliant and simple way to express how babies learn and gives a huge clue to parents and carers what they should be doing to help a baby learn anything, not just speech.  At a simple level we can apply the principal to any skill learning and get very specific.

Example
A child will learn to play the piano if it

1. has hands mature enough to move on the keys 
2. gets lessons
3. has an instrument to practice on -  a piano
4. has the time to practice every day and, most importantly -
5. the interest and encouragement of an adult, to practice every day.

You may see that we can apply that recipe to a child's learning anything.

To apply it to baby speech learning we could say the baby needs

1. ability to hear and make sounds
2. lessons in speech - being shown how
3. an instrument to practice on - the mouth and voice (without a soother or pacifier in the way)
4. time to practice every day
5. the interest and encouragement of an adult, to practice every day

We know from research that babies start to develop language skills while they are in the womb because by 21 weeks, hearing has developed and they can hear the voice of the mother and anyone else close by. So through the fluid surrounding it, the baby hears the rhythm of speech and it's tone. We know babies can recognise their own mothers voice just after birth compared to other women's voices. Also, researchers at Leicester University in the UK discovered that at the age of 12 months babies can recognise  a piece of music that was played to them in the last three months while it was in the womb.

Babies' brains are also hard-wired for speech learning so the moment baby is born and discovers his crying reflex, he learns that ( if he has caring parents)  crying will result in getting the attention of the carer, being fed, carried, cuddled, changed, spoken to or ( really nice!) sung to. This last point, being sung to, shows how pleasure and entertainment are key ingredients in babies' learning. Parents need to be aware that boredom is a principal cause of crying and is as important to deal with as hunger or a dirty diaper or nappy. So a crying baby may just be saying " I need entertainment. Talk to me! Sing to me! Make a funny face! Tell me a nursery rhyme! "

Human beings in general repeat actions that bring them pleasure. So babies will begin their speech development by making short little cooing sounds; if those sounds get a reaction (like a smile, or mirroring of the sound back to them) they will repeat them over and over until they eventually develop, over a period of months,  into words.  Its worth repeating "babies learn what they live". It is a really useful thing to make a mental note say, ten times a day - "What is my baby learning right now?". Parents and carers do deeply influence what a baby is learning just by taking an action or not taking an action. Learn strategies for making baby speech learning a daily and entertaining part of your day.

Huron Daily Tribune > News > Local News:

Parents don’t need a teaching degree — but they do need to teach

By Kate Hessling
Tribune Staff Writer

Published: Friday, April 8, 2011 11:35 AM EDT

HURON COUNTY — Let’s face it: Learning does not begin in preschool or kindergarten.

Experts upon experts have stated — based on an abundance of research — that parents truly are their child’s first teacher.

Last week, Dr. David Walsh, founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family, and author of “No! Why Kids Need It and How We Can Say It,” presented evidence that in order to instill self-discipline and raise self-reliant children, a parent’s job begins at their child’s birth.

“Talk, talk, talk, talk — read, read, read, read,” he said, noting that is the recipe for success, as research shows a child with a greater number of one-to-one conversations and whose parent regularly reads to them is going to be able to read much easier than a child who does not have as many one-on-one conversations to or isn’t read to that often.

He said it’s critically important for economically at-risk families to understand this concept, because it’s proven the number of one-on-one conversations a child in poverty hears gives the child a knowledge of only one-third of the words learned by a child not living in poverty.

By the time a child living in poverty enters kindergarten, the child has been read to 24 times, Walsh said. A child not living in poverty has been read to about 2,000 times by the time he or she enters kindergarten.

“Can you image the disadvantage?” he asked, as he stressed we need to help parents understand how important this is — and how important it is to engage their children in conversation.

He said it has to be personal interaction — not media, as primary language is acquired through the feedback loop between the child and the caregiver. Walsh said a lot of evidence shows having a television on actually interferes with a child learning its first language.

Yet 28 percent of babies under the age of 2 now have television screens in their bedroom, Walsh said. He attributed this fact to the plethora of products like Baby Einstein DVDs that target babies 5 months and older because that’s when children can focus eye sight and sit up.

He said the smartest thing about this product is the name, because it sends a threat to parents that if their child doesn’t have them, the child will be stupid.

Walsh said there’s no research stating it’s beneficial, and Disney actually was ordered to provide a full cash refund for any purchase of the Baby Einstein DVDs because they used deceptive advertising.

He said the images of the videos are harmless — but the end result is that they wire a baby’s brain to orient to screens before it can crawl or speak. And it results in a child expecting to be constantly entertained.

Baby Einstein, My Baby Can Read, Brainy Babies and Baby Mozart are just some of the products out there targeted to anxious parents who are afraid their child won’t get off to the right start, Walsh said. But while all of them promise to give children an advantage, there’s no evidence any of them can do so, he said.

That’s because a child’s real world experience is much more rich than what a child can get from a screen, Walsh said.

“Creativity and imagination should come from the child — not the screen,” he said.

Walsh stressed he is not “anti-technology.”

Huron County has a Parents as Teachers (PAT) program through the Huron Intermediate School District, according to Rebecca Gettel, Huron County Great Start Collaborative director.

PAT offers parents the knowledge and skills to help their children build a foundation for academic success.

It is a free home visiting program and is open to all families with children ages birth to 5. Home visits take place monthly and a trained parent educator gives parents developmental information and activities for their child(ren).

The information includes methods to enhance parent-child interaction that promote social and emotional development and age appropriate language, mathematics and early reading skills.

For more information about the local PAT program, contact Great Parents Great Start, located at 711 E. Soper Road in Bad Axe, or call (989) 269-3485.

Read the full version of this article in the Huron Daily Tribune or online in our e-Edition.

How Parents Can Use Baby Talk to Teach Baby to Talk

How Parents Influence Baby Talk

The serious business of ba-ba-ba

In The New York Times this week, pediatrician Perri Klass breaks down baby babble for us. As we know (but it’s always good to get a reminder), baby talk is not a random chaos of drooly sounds — it develops along a predictable path. And research shows parents have a big part in shaping it and helping their little one turn it into language.

Klass says that by seven months, the vowel strings, squeals, and gurgles that little babies make start to be punctuated with consonants. “Canonical babble” is just this — ba-ba-ba, or da-da-da. It takes a certain amount of oral-motor development, because the baby has to close her mouth and shape it in a distinct way, so as to push the air through and make the right noise. Pretty advanced stuff.

Canonical babble is a turning point for most parents, because we start to recognize and respond to these sounds as if the baby is really trying to say words. We’re finally having a conversation.

And how we respond (not just by mimicking) makes a difference.
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Learn more about how parents can respond to baby babbling to teach baby to talk