Baby/Toddler Communication
What to Expect and How to Help
Your precious baby is home. How are you going to communicate with him and how will he communicate with you? After all, communication is “the key to any successful relationship.”
What to Expect as Your Baby Develops Communication Skills
Birth - 6 months
- Makes pleasure sounds
- Smiles when spoken to
- Makes eye contact
- Cries for different reasons (hunger, discomfort)
6 - 12 months
- Gestures to show needs
- Follows simple instructions (give to mama, put down)
- Babbles using different sounds (mamama, mamababa)
- Responds to name
- Waves for “bye bye”
- Shakes head “no”
12 - 18 months
- Uses simple words (mama, dada, bye bye, up)
- Points to named pictures in book
- Points to a few body parts (nose, ears)
- Imitates many different sounds and words
18 months - 2 years
- Uses two word phrases (up mama, more book)
- Understands names of common objects (shoes, cup)
- Pronounces words clearly 50% of the time (2 years)
Now that you know what to expect as your child begins the fabulous journey of communication with those around him, how can you foster this development and make sure your child reaches his full communication potential? Here’s how to help:
Talk to Your Baby
The minute your arms are around your precious bundle, start talking to him. Tell him what you’re thinking. Tell him about the things around him. Talk to him in a soothing and interesting manner. Fluctuate your voice so that it goes up and down to peak his interest. Use this special talking, called “motherese,” when you are face to face with your baby. A great ritual is to introduce your baby to all the new faces he sees (“Baby, this is your Nana. She’s going to spoil you, love you, and make you lots of cookies.”) Talking to your baby from the beginning provides him with an increased understanding of what’s going on around him (time for bath) and results in a larger vocabulary.
Use Sign Language
This helps decrease frustration during your “pre-verbal” days with your baby. Research shows that sign language does not prevent a child from developing speech. In fact it’s the exact opposite. The use of sign language promotes the development of communication skills. To start, pick three useful signs (more, milk, mommy) and use them throughout the day.
Read Books
Twenty minutes of reading each day is ideal. During the first year choose books that have “real” pictures of things rather than cartoon drawings. Check out Bright Baby and First Word books. Reading provides a great time to bond, develop focus, improve comprehension, and develop language skills. Reading different books provides your child with a variety of language styles different from yours, which further develops their communication skills.
Choose Toys Carefully
You, as a parent, are the best and most interesting toy for your child. That being said, of course you’re going to want to buy toys to help entertain your little munchkin. The best general guideline for toy purchases is to choose toys that are open ended. Examples of “open ended toys” are: balls, blocks, bubbles, stuffed animals, and cars. These toys offer an endless amount of possibilities during play and leave an open platform for communication. Toys to avoid, or at least minimize your purchase of, include the modern toys that talk, light up, and have a simple cause-effect concept (your child pushes a button and something happens). Learning cause-effect is important, but is just as easily accomplished with the open-ended toys (cause: push car; effect: car rolls). The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises no television before the second birthday, so fight the urge to buy those cute baby DVDs.
If at any time you have concerns about your child’s communication skills, consult your pediatrician about whether or not a speech-language evaluation is needed. A speech-language evaluation gives information on a child’s articulation (pronunciation), expressive language (vocabulary), receptive language (comprehension), pragmatics (social language), and oral motor skills (how the mouth moves). Speech-language evaluations can be done on children of all ages. Most evaluations include a parent interview, testing, and observation of your child.