Your baby’s first words are like music to your ears! Every child has their own way and pace of learning language and speech development. But there are some activities and a few milestones that you can carry out in order to develop their speech skills.
By the end of 3 months, your child starts to recognize your voice and may respond to your voice and smile towards you. They will start to make cooing sounds and cry for various needs. When babies complete 6 months, they start to babble or make even different sounds. By the end of 7 months the baby starts to recognize their name and the native language. At the age of 12 months, your baby starts to say words like “mama”, “baba”, “yes or no” and understands simple instructions too.
All of it doesn’t happen on its own though! You have to do some work to make your baby talk at the right age. Here we’re are sharing some useful tips of activities for your child’s language development.
Try to use simple sounds, consonants and vowels such as “baa” “daa” “lalaa”, so that when they grow they start imitating you. If you think playing videos on YouTube or TV can be effective in your child’s language’s development, then you are wrong! Contact with people in real life is what actually contributes towards language development. Talk to your baby when you are changing their clothes or diapers, while feeding them etc, but talk slowly and patiently with friendly tones. Playing with your child is another good way to communicate with them. It also helps in the development of their motor skills. Read good story books to your child. You don’t have to read out every single word but you can talk about the pictures (make sure that the pictures are large and colorful). Singing nursery rhymes together is a fun way of speech development for your baby. Make your baby learn different animal sounds as well, like the dog says “whoof-whoof”.
Try to avoid using complicated words and keep your language level simple so that they may remember what you say. Reducing the background noise will minimize distractions for the baby to learn and develop their language skills.
Every baby has a different level and pace of understanding words and learning language. You should pay attention when your child talks to you. Utilize everyday activities as a source of language learning for your baby.
Author: Ume Laila