Teach Baby to Talk with mirroring

The best time to start teaching your baby how to talk is from the instant the baby is born.
Hearing the voices of parents, family and carers creates profound changes in a baby's brain by making essential learning pathways.

The cells grow and link in ways that develop memory and awareness, which leads to an increased ability to learn even more. The impact is a bit like pouring water into a balloon. The more water you pour in, the larger the balloon gets.

Most human brain growth happens in the first three years of life, when the major skills are learned. Many Scientists believe that the brain development that takes place in the first three years of life is larger than all the development that occurs during a person’s complete lifetime.

It's good to know some basic methods to teach baby to talk.
This technique below, is called "Mirroring" and is valuable up to the age of about 12 months or one year.

1. make sure baby isn't hungry, sleepy or irritated by a wet or dirty diaper
2. hold baby so that your face is about 18 inches ( 40cm) away from baby's face.
   • lie baby on your lap when very young, or hold up with head supported
3. smile and open your eyes wide to get baby's interest
4. say a single uncomplicated sound, like "ah" in a slightly higher pitch than normal
5. exaggerate the movement of your mouth while you speak
6. wait for your baby to respond ( he possible won't say anything but he will be paying attention)
7. watch for signs of pleasure or excitement, like smiling, opening and closing fists, waving arms
8. repeat the sequence ( speak, wait)
9. when the infant responds maybe with the same sound or his own sound, smile and laugh to display you're pleasedhe made the effort.
10. YOU copy the sound BABY makes
11. repeat this sequence to develop the rhythm of "taking turns" like a conversation.

When you copy the sound an infant makes, you are sending a signal to an infant that what he just did is appreciated and that you want him to do it again. In other words, baby learns to exercise his mouth muscles and that speaking is fun.
In the video beneath, you can see a dad using these mirroring tactics brilliantly , using just vowel sounds and funny entertaining sounds:




Take note of the sounds your baby makes and as baby grows older, he will add more and more sounds.

You can also start to introduce new easy sounds like bah, mah, gah. The consonant sounds b,m,g are the easiest for young babies to say

As well as these focused, daily, 'instructing' sessions, you should be talking to baby all the time about what you are doing, what he's doing, using normal language, but spoken slowly, brightly and clearly.
At each and every phase of your baby's development, there are various tactics you can learn and use to teach baby to talk.

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.

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Learn more about teaching babies to talk.