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A Child's Gift of Communication:
Birth - Age One




graphic from Mother's Little Helpers site


Most children don't begin to "talk" until well after their first birthday, but their brains are developing language abilities earlier than many people think. Even a child's earliest smiles, expressions, gestures, and sounds are signs of his blossoming ability to communicate.

This information is about "normal" language development in young children. It is intended to help you enjoy the miracle unfolding in your child, and to give you some ideas on things you might do with him. My choice of this subject is not intended to imply that language development is any more important than - say - motor skills or emotional development. Nor is it meant to suggest that this is a way to tell which children are "smarter" than others. Each child develops at his own rate, according to his genetic programming and temperament, not according to an external timetable. Furthermore, parents have been successfully raising kids for many millenia without child-rearing books and developmental charts!

I have compiled this information from some sources I have been consulting. I am a parent with some psychology background. I don't claim to be an "expert;" this should in no way be a substitute for the advice of a qualified pediatrician or speech/language specialist.



1-3 MONTHS
Your Child Might Be:
  • smiling -most babies will be doing this by about two months of age.
  • cooing
  • squealing in delight
  • communicating with facial expressions and body movements (e.g. wiggling, frowning)
  • laughing
  • beginning to babble - saying "ah-goo" or some other vowel-constant combination.


To Help Stimulate Language Development:
  • Sing to your baby.
  • Play him different kinds of music: tapes, music boxes, mobiles.
  • Talk to your baby - use simple, animated phrases; cll your baby by name



4-7 MONTHS
Your Child Might Be:
  • laughing -most kids will do this by about four months of age.
  • squealing in delight-most kids will do this by about five months of age.
  • responding to his name
  • beginning to respond to "no" (not necessarily by obeying.
  • making sounds in response to sounds he hears
  • using his voice to express his feelings
  • babbling chains of constants (e.g. "ma-ma-ma-ma")
  • being able to guess your feelings by listening to your tone of voice.
To Help Stimulate Language Development:
  • talk and sing to your baby as much as possible. If he doesn't seem to be listening, or imitating your sounds, check with your pediatrician for reassurance and a hearing test or developmental screen, if necessary.
  • develop a repertoire of songs, nursery rhymes and fingerplays. Local libraries often offer language enrichment programs to teach rhymes, songs and games.
  • play "pattycake" and "peekaboo."
  • emphasize single words when you talk to your baby - "Here comes the doggy. Doggy. That's the doggy"
  • mimic his sounds, to engage him in "conversation."
  • read books to him everyday. Board books, with bright pictures, few words, and which can withstand some serious chewing are good choices.



8-12 MONTHS
Your Child Might Be:
  • being more attentive to your speech
  • trying to imitate words
  • saying "dada" and "mama"
  • saying 1-3 words other than "mama" or "dada" - your child's doctor will probably tell you not to be concerned if your baby is not using ANY intelligible words until well past his first birthday. Look for other signs that he is comprehending language and learning to communicate. Does he seem to understand what you say to him (even if he doesn;t always choose to listen?) Does he communicate with gestures (such as pointing, waving, nodding?)
  • responding to "no"
  • making sentence-like sounds (babbling with inflection. Many babies have very animated conversations, consisting of nothing but "jabber" long before we can decipher their words. "Talk" back to him - and enjoy! This stage is fun!)
  • responding to simple requests with gestures ("give me the book" with hand out)
  • responding to simple requests without gestures - this is considered rare at this age. Most kids will master this skill by 1-1/2 years.

To Help Stimulate Language Development:
  • talk and sing to your baby as much as possible.
  • read to your baby every day. Books with vivid illustrations and few words are still good choices, although an occasionals peculiar baby may actually sit still for a story - LOL. I made picturebooks for my daughter using cheap photo albums with adhesive pages. I included pictures clipped from magazines and duplicate photos - including many pictures of herself. I inserted a brief line of handwritten text on each page explaining the picture. The lines comprised a short rhyming story. This held my daughter's interest and encouraged her to say her first words.
  • play peekaboo and pattycake.
  • teach your baby a few simple gestures (i.e. waving "bye-bye," nodding "yes" and "no")
  • this might be a good time to introduce a few simple signs (you could find a child's book on beginning sign language at the library, demonstrate a few signs, and integrate them into your conversations). Some research has indicated that teaching pre-verbal kids to communicate with signs boosts verbal skills later.



    MOST OF THE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE IS FROM:

    Eisenberg, Arlene, Murkoff, Heidi, & Hathaway, Sandee (1989) What to Expect the First Year Workman Publishing Co.

    Shelov, Steven, ed. AAP(1991)Caring for Your Baby and Child Birth to Age 5 Bantam Books.



    COMING SOON: MOTHER GOOSE PAGE: ACTIVITIES, RHYMES, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES TO HELP STIMULATE YOUR CHILD'S LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

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