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

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.