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

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.

Speech Development Oral Motor Skills | Caring for Baby

Speech Development Oral Motor Skills | Caring for Baby: "Why chewing is important for speech development
Cherie Lyden
March 24, 2011

The introduction of solids in your baby’s diet is not only important for nutritional reasons, but for the developmental of oral motor skills. These are the actions of the mouth, lips, tongue, cheeks and jaw as they suck, bite, chew and lick. These motor skills work the same muscles in the mouth as those which are needed for speech development.

When foods are introduced into your baby’s diet, it’s important that as your baby’s feeding skills develop, that textures change from liquid to solid. Different textures require different oral motor skills, which are important for speech development. For example, pureed and lumpy food encourage chewing. Chewing helps develop the use of the tongue by giving it a good workout, which is important for many different speech sounds, i.e. t, d, k and g, as well as speech development. Solid foods help develop and strengthen the jaw, as well as the lips and tongue muscles, which are required for speech. The lips also help to keep food in the mouth, and is important for sounds m, p and b.

A delay in introducing solids with different textures as your baby develops, can lead to a fussy infant unwilling to accept new tastes and textures, as well as a delay in chewing and muscle development, which can affect speech sounds later on.

Here is a brief overview of what to expect and when, as well as the types of food to introduce in the first 12 months:

Newborns
Babies are only able to suck and swallow at this stage, and they have an immature digestive system, therefore require breastmilk or formula as their primary source of food. The jaw action used in breastfeeding helps a baby to chew.

3 months
Babies have better head control, are able to put fingers in their mouth, and have a better range of mouth and lip movements. Their digestive system is still immature to receive anything but breastmilk or formula as their primary source of food.

4-6 months
Babies now have better jaw and lip control, with the ability to move their tongue up and down which makes it easier to suck, chew and move food to the back of the mouth to be swallowed. Usually around 4-6 months, babies show signs that they are ready to be introduced to foods, which complements their primary source of food, either breastmilk or formula. A baby’s digestive system is still maturing but from about 6 months, a baby needs more nutrients than breastmilk or formula alone can offer, therefore solid foods are introduced. These solid foods need to be varied, nutrient and energy dense and have a silky smooth texture (pureed or mashed), which will make it easier to swallow and digest. Breast milk or formula must be continued for the first 12 months of a baby’s life and always offered before solids.

Note: Some signs that a baby might show that he/she is ready for solid foods include the baby is able to sit upright, has good control of head and neck, wants to put things in his/her mouth, ability to suck pureed food from a spoon, interest in food, and not satisfied with the breast or bottle alone.

7-9 months
Solids should now be well established with a lumpy, mashed and finely chopped texture, as well as well-cooked or soft finger foods from about 8 months (avoiding hard foods that a baby can choke on i.e. whole grapes, nuts and raw carrots). With better eye-hand coordination, a baby will show interest in self-feeding, which includes finger foods and the use of a spoon. Finger foods are more effective than purees to encourage chewing and development of muscles in the mouth. Babies should be encouraged to drink a little water from a cup.

10-12 months
Solids can now be coarsely chopped and consist of more soft finger foods. Babies are more independent with eating and are able to chew food well, separating what needs more chewing and what can be swallowed. Lip muscles are now stronger and are able to hold more food and liquid in the mouth. Babies should be able to hold a cup to drink water from.

1 year onwards
Children should now be eating frequently i.e. 3 meals and 2-3 snacks a day, and a wide variety of family foods. Children now start to develop a rotary chewing movement, as well as a more stable jaw, which accommodates the action of the tongue. As children continue to grow, their motor skills become more refined and they learn more oral motor control. This is an ongoing process, which continues to develop speech.

If you are at all concerned about your child’s speech development I encourage you to seek a referral for a qualified speech therapist.

Cherie Lyden is a Nutritionist and Mother – www.lydenvitality.com

Help Baby Talk with Rhythm and Pattern

This week we're thinking about how rhythm and pattern helps babies learn to talk.

Speech and language have a pattern. Each language has it's own rhythm and pattern. Human beings also love rhythm as experienced in music, dancing and poetry.  If you were ever taught a foreign language at school, you probably learned a simple song or poem in that language and you can probably still sing it or recite it word for word today, even if you can't remember other words in that language now!

So using rhythm and pattern when you to talk to your baby is a great way to delight your baby and embed the sounds and rhythms in baby's memory. Rhythmic actions and physical movement patterns also help baby's brain to develop at this time when the brain is at it's most ready to grow.

There are a number of ways you can do this.

One way is to create a movement series, like taking baby's hands and clapping them lightly together and saying:

Clap clap clap your hands, clap clap clap ( say the last "clap" louder)

Repeat the sequence several times ( at least three and up to six) until baby gets used to the idea, then hold baby's feet and tap them lightly together and say:

"Tap tap tap your feet, tap tap tap ( say the last "tap" louder )

Now you have the basis of a rhyming routine, you can say:
the clapping line first then the tapping line.

Do this routine several times a day for about a week.

Each week, think of a new line to add, like:

Tap tap tap your nose, tap tap tap.  ( touch baby's nose lightly with your finger)  ADD this new line to the previous lines in the series, so the whole routine gets longer each week. Instead of 'tap' or "clap" you could say "kiss" - "Kiss your knee"

As the weeks go by, baby will recognise the routine and anticipate what's coming next. Baby is learning about patterns and rhythms.

I'd love to hear how you and your baby enjoy this. So please leave a comment below.

Click this link to learn more about how to help baby talk

Newborn Toys

Playtime For Newborns

Before we look at newborn toys that can be bought, the best newborn toys are the faces of the adults caring for the newborn. So your face, your partner's face the faces of friends and family - these are the most fascinating "toys" for a newborn.

However there are toys you can buy that are beneficial for a newborn's entertainment and development . It's true that a newborn is not going to be able to hold and manipulate a toy that is intended for their entertainment like an older child would do. However there are different things that you can buy for your newborn that are going to be toys and also going to help them in their development.

Teaching babies to talk by singing

I found a great video on Youtube which is a perfect illustration of how to teach babies to talk using singing.

Points to note before you watch the video:

Why would singing help the baby to learn to talk?

• The baby's gaze is focussed on the mother's face ( attention)
• There is no background noise ( no distractions )
• The mother sings a slow song ( a simple tune and the words are well-spaced out)
• The baby is enjoying listening to the song ( she smiles and gurgles)
• The mother sings the words very clearly ( good pronunciation )
• The mother stops singing and leaves a silence, prompting baby to respond. ( taking turns)
• The baby tries to copy the mother's singing ( mimicking what she sees and hears)
• The baby experiments making a wide range of mouth and throat muscles (practicing)
  

This little exchange between mother and baby shows important steps in teaching babies to talk.

The baby's talking skills are being developed by learning that:

1. hearing a song is exciting, fun and stimulating
   
2. communicating is about "taking turns"
3. she can move various muscles in her mouth
4. she can make l..o..n..g sounds by controlling her breath
5. she can make a wide range of sounds
6. her mother wants her to respond
7. her mother adds some "extra talk" ( she says "words" and "song" and "can you SING it?" )

The mother understand that one way of teaching a baby to talk is to sing to her. But more than that...
She understands the need to stop and create a silence - a space in the "conversation" when baby can respond.
This mother understand the techniques for teaching babies to talk.

Please leave a comment below.

Learn more about teaching babies to talk.

Teaching Babies to Talk

"Some people might question the idea of teaching babies to talk, or at least using the word "teaching". They say you can't teach a baby to talk, you can only "encourage". That's more than a bit puzzling. It implies that "talking" isn't something that can be learned, when, in fact, babies do ‘learn' to talk. How fast and how well they learn depends on how well they are taught, among other things."

To learn more about Teaching Babies to Talk be sure to read the rest of this article.