Baby Talk

I love watching young children. They amaze me, especially the babies. There are so many skills that they acquire in the their first year. They go from little bundles that cry, eat, sleep, and make LOTS of dirty diapers to crawling, walking, running, babbling, finger-feeeding bundles of energy. I am convinced I could never learn that much in a year!

In as little as the first three months, you may notice that your baby already recognizes your voice and quiets or smiles when they see or hear you. By 4-6 months, your baby is likely noticing sounds and visually tracking the direction of the sound. He will have a variety of sounds that he can make, including some consonant sounds like p, b, or m.

Somewhere around their first birthday you will see that they have progressed to playing peek-a-boo, responding to simple requests such as "come here" or "hand me the cup", and will even begin speaking their first words.

In order to help with this amazing progression, try some of these suggestions:

• Play finger plays and other games with your child, such as itsy bitsy spider and patty cake


• Talk, talk, talk to your child


• Reinforce your babies attempts at communication by mimicking their sounds and maintaining eye contact


• Play around with animal sounds