BABY
TALK is the undignified, high-pitched talk
that comes naturally to some parents when referring to a baby. Notice I said
some because some others feel like absolute idiots!
Though the baby will learn your language
even if you never learn his, his speech will develop faster and better if you
make a conscious effort at early communication. Babies who aren’t communicated
with at all suffer not just in language development but in all areas of growth.
But that rarely happens. Even the parent
who’s bashful about baby talk communicates with his or her baby all day long _
while cuddling him, responding to his crying, singing him a lullaby, saying:
“It´s time for a walk”, or muttering, “Oh, not the phone again!”
Parents teach language when they talk to
each other as well as when they talk to their baby. Babies pick up almost as
much from second-hand dialogue as they do when they’re part of a conversation.
Some popular baby talk words are for
example, “boo boo”, for when the baby has a wound, a scratch, or a bruise; and
“bee bo” for belly button.
BABY’S
FIRST WORDS
Just when a baby makes the transition from
sounds that mimic real words but have no meaning to meaningful speech is
difficult to pinpoint exactly.
Some babies find easier the consonant D or
M (mummy, daddy).
When the first real word is spoken varies a
great deal. According to the experts, the average baby can be expected to
say what she means and mean what she says for the first time anywhere between
ten and fourteen months. (word level)
A small percentage of children start a
couple of months earlier and some perfectly normal babies don’t utter a single
recognizable word until midway through their second year.
Long before the baby utters her first word,
she will be developing her linguistic skills:
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First by learning to understand
what is said. This receptive language starts developing at birth, with the
first words the baby hears.
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Gradually she begins to sort
out individual words from the jumble of language around her,
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and then one day, about the
middle of the first year , you say her name and she turns around. She’s
recognized a word!
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Pretty soon thereafter she
should begin to understand the names of other people and objects she
sees daily, such as, mummy, daddy, bottle, cup, water, biscuit
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In a few months she will begin
to follow simple commands, such as wave bye bye, kiss mummy.
Here
are some hints on how to help develop a baby’s language:
- Label, label, label!
Verbally label objects in baby’s environment (bath, changing table, nappy,
mat, cot, chair, and so on) Play “eyes-nose-mouth”
(take baby’s hand and touch your eyes, your nose, and your mouth, kissing
the hand at the last stop). Don’t leave out people! point at other care
takers, teachers, babies…
- Listen, listen, listen! As important as what you say to the baby is how much you let
your baby say to you. Even if no words are identified yet, listen to
his/her garbled speech and respond: “Oh,
that’s very interesting!”, or “Is that so?”
- Concentrate on concepts. Be sure to say the word for the concept as you and baby act
it out.
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Hot and cold: let baby touch the outside
of his/her warm bottle, then an ice cube; or cold water, then warm water.
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Up and down: gently lift baby up in the
air, then lower to the ground;
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Stand and sit: hold babies hand and help
him/her stand, then sit down together (use ring-a-ring o’ roses to help with
this concept)
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Wet and dry: compare a wet wipe/flannel
and a dry towel.
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Big and little: Set a large ball beside
a small one; show baby that you are big and baby little in the mirror.
- Become colour conscious. Start identifying colours whenever is appropriate. “See, that balloon is red just like your
shirt” or “That truck is green, your socks are green too”
- Urge baby to talk back. “Do you want bread or
crackers?”, “Do you want the red or the blue dummy?”. Get baby to help
you locate things: “Can you find the
ball?”
- Keep directions simple. Sometime around the first birthday most toddlers can begin
following simple commands, but only one step at a time. Instead of “Please, pick up the spoon and give it
to me”, try “Please, pick up the
spoon”, and when that’s been done, add “Now, please, give the spoon to Daddy”.
- Correct carefully.
When a baby mispronounces a word use a more subtle approach to say it
correctly to protect the baby’s ego. If the baby says “pelota blue”, respond with, “That’s right. It’s a blue ball”.
- Think numerically. Counting
may be a long way off for the baby, but the concept of one or many isn’t.
Comments like “Here, you can have
one biscuit”, or “Look, see how many bubbles!” Count or recite, “One, two, buckle my shoe..”
Integrate counting into the baby’s life when you do sit-ups with him or
when you’re feeding him with the spoon..
USING
BABY SIGNS TO COMMUNICATE
Sign language, once used only among the
deaf, is becoming a popular form of communication between children who can hear
but can’t yet speak and their parents, who are anxious to understand them.
Preverbal babies have always used hand
gestures and motions in an effort to express what they weren’t able to through
speech. Like ei. waving to let his parents know that he wants to go bye bye, or
out and about!
Hand games, like “pat a cake”, and finger
songs, like “Incy Wincy Spider”, have been favourites for generations because
they allow babies to play along even though they’re not able to sing along.
Baby signing offers many advantages:
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it increases comprehension
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it decreases frustration and
therefore tantrums.
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bolsters a child’s self-esteem
by making him feel more confident.
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this confidence translates in
an increased motivation to speak
The advantages of baby signing, however,
seem mostly to be short term.
Once a child can speak and be understood,
the benefits of having used signs diminish and eventually disappear.
How to use baby signs:
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Get an early start on
signing. Begin as soon as your baby shows an active
interest in communicating with you. At least by eight or nine months. Most
babies will start signing back somewhere between ten and fourteen months.
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Sign what comes naturally
for you and the baby. Any simple gesture that fits
a word or phrase well can work. For example: flapping arms for bird, scratching
under the arms for monkey, hand together and supporting a tilted head for
sleep, a rubbed belly for hungry, a finger touched to the nose for smell
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Give the baby the signs he
needs. The most important signs are the ones your
baby requires to express his everyday needs, such as hunger, thirst and
fatigue.
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Sign consistently. By seeing the same signs over and over, the baby will come to
understand them and imitate them quickly.
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Speak and sign at the same
time. To make sure the baby learns both the sign
and the spoken word, use both together.
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Follow the baby’s signs. Many babies invent their own signs. If they do use the sign of
their desire.
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Don’t push the signs. Signing like any other form of communication should develop
naturally and at a child’s own pace. If the baby seems frustrated don’t force
the agenda.
GAMES
BABIES PLAY (improve socialization)
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Peekaboo. teaches such concepts as
object permanence. “Where’s mummy/
Noemí?” then uncover your face and say “pekaboo
I see you!” Be ready to repeat until you collapse. Most babies have a
voracious appetite for this game.
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Clap hands. As you sing “clap, clap, clap your hands, clap your
hands together” or any other ditty take the babies hands and show her how
to clap. Can add a hiding game: “clap
your hands, one two three, play a clapping game with me. Now your hands have
gone away, find your hands so we can play!” The pat a cake rhyme is very appropriate too.
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The itsy bitsy spider. Thumb and pointer
fingers.
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This little piggy went to market. This
little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy
had roast beef, this little piggy had none and this little piggy cried wee,
wee, wee, all the way home!
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How big is baby? or how big another
student and then help the child spread his or her arms as wide as possible and
exclaim “So big”
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Eyes, nose, mouth, kiss! Take both
baby’s hands. Nothing teaches these body parts faster!
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Ring-a-ring o’ rosies. “Ring-a ring o’ rosies, a pocket full of
posies, A-tishoo!, A-tishoo! We all fall down”.
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One two, buckle my shoe.
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Pop goes the weasel. Half a pound of tuppenny rice, Half a pound
of treacle, That’s the way the money goes, Pop goes the weasel. www.rhymes.org.uk
READING
TO BABY
It’s probably never too soon to start
reading to a child!
But it isn’t until the second half of the
first year that a baby becomes an active participant in the reading process, if
only by chewing on the corners of the book to start with. (Bath books are ideal
at this stage)
Soon she begins to pay attention to the
words as you read them (at this point to the rhythm and sounds of the words
rather than their meanings) and to the illustrations (enjoying the colour and
patterns, but not necessarily relating the pictures to known objects)
To make sure a baby catches the bookworm
early, use the following strategies:
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Read to yourself. Children are
much more likely to do as you do than to do as you say.
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Read a few pages out loud while
you nurse or give the baby a bottle,
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read a book in her room while
she plays, keep a book on your bedside table for reading before you fall asleep
and for showing your baby (this is Daddy’s book)
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At age one, a few children are
ready for very simple stories, though most won’t be willing to sit still for
them for several months yet. Even those who are ready can’t handle more than
three or four minutes with a book at this age. You’d hold it longer if you make
reading interactive, a process baby can participate fully. Stop to discuss the
pictures, ask the baby to point to familiar objects and name those he hasn’t
seen before. Rhymes are still favourites with babies entering their toddler
years, as are books with colourful pictures.
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Giving children the opportunity to both
tell and hear stories encourages them to develop active speaking and listening
skills.
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Storytelling fuels the imagination and
allows children to develop their own mental images of the story.
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Storytelling develops the memory
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Storytelling is fun and exciting – and
children love it!
PLAYING
DVD’S
- Oxbridge baby DVD Learn to talk
- Baby Einstein DVD’s
Adopted and adapted from Noemí León´s material for course 2016 Crif "Las Acacias"
