With babies being able to hear sounds from outside the womb
around the 7 month of pregnancy, doctors and researchers have begun to explore
how early learning really begins.
Infants immediately begin to learn from their environment and the
individuals that surround them. Early
exposure to speech and language is crucial to a child’s development. This leaves parents wondering what more they
can do to encourage speech and language development so that their baby is at an
utmost advantage. Here are 10 simple
things you can with you littlest one!
Most of these ideas can be started around 4 months old, but don’t feel
silly starting them sooner either!
The great thing about peek-a-boo is that you can play it any place, anytime. You don’t need anything at all! So hide behind your hands, a book, a wall, a blanket, a toy and pop out! This simple game is great for teaching babies, “If I do this, you’ll do that.” Understanding this cause/effect concept is one of the first steps of problem solving and a precursor to language development. After “popping out” from the same place a few times, switch it up – come from a different direction. This will keep your baby thinking and wondering! Whenever Matthew is in his highchair and the other boys are eating, we play peek-a-boo. I hide behind his highchair suction toy. It’s cool because he can actually see my through the toy, but bursts with excitement when I pop out one of the sides. Super simple and you’re helping your baby develop a very important concept.
2. Let out some hot
air.
Puff your cheeks up with air, then take your baby’s hands
and have them poke or press on your cheeks.
Next, let the air out of your mouth!
This is another game that builds on the concept of “If I do this, you’ll
do that.” As your baby gets older and
can better coordinate his/her motor movements, he/she will start to reach for
your cheeks all by him/herself. We are
actually all born with the desire to problem solve, and you can encourage your
baby to work on this skill with simple games like this.
3. Monkey See, Monkey
Do
As your baby grows, you will see him/her start to study your
face and movements and then try to imitate them him/herself. Imitation is one of the greatest ways we
learn. Think about how you learn. Many times, we see what someone else does,
and then we try it ourselves. To
encourage imitation and raise baby’s own awareness of his/her actions, you
should imitate them. Baby sticks out
his/her tongue, stick it out right back.
Baby is making raspberries, you make raspberries too. You can also use imitating to create more
meaningful behaviors. Just yesterday,
Matthew was trying to raise his hands while sitting up. I imitated his movements by reaching my own
arms up to the sky and paired it will, “so big!” Every time Matthew raised his arms, I would
raise mine too and repeat, “So big!”
4. Build it UP!!!
Building anticipation during play time is a great way to
engage and connect with your baby. These
social connections help serve as a motivator for communication. As in – I like that, I like you, I want more
so let me try and find a way to get you!
This little dump truck has been a favorite of all of my boys when they
were babies. It should have been an
indication to me of the truck and digger obsession that was going to follow us
throughout the toddler years. It was
also a lifesaver for dreaded tummy time with my first baby boy who wanted
nothing to do with being on his belly.
Here’s how I build some anticipation with it. I lay a few feet away from the baby on my
tummy facing him. I hold the truck in my hand and roll it towards him and away
from him but don’t send it to him yet! I
count while I roll and use big exaggerated emotions, “1… 2… 3…
BIG PAUSE… GO!!!” I send the truck
rolling right towards the baby (not too hard of course!). It’s so fun to see my son’s excitement
building as I repeat this very simple activity again and again!
5. Switch it up.
We tend to change the baby in the same places, feed him/her
in the same positions, and have things in his/her environment set up in the
same spot day after day. As your baby
becomes more and more aware of his environment, he/she will develop a memory
for where things are. This is an amazing
thing but to give your baby a little brain work out, switch it up a bit. My favorite thing to do is move the highchair
to another place in the dining room – give the baby a whole new view to take
in!
6. Establish routines.
Although it is beneficial to switch things up a bit, babies
also thrive off of routines. If you go
through the same motions each time you do a certain activity – say bath time or
dinner time – your baby will know what to expect and will begin thinking about
what comes next. This skill is great for
working on memory, which in turns benefits language development as well!
7. Say it, Sign it!
Teaching your baby simple signs at an early age can help
advance language development before your baby is ready to produce speech. This doesn’t mean you have to be proficient
in American Sign Language, making up your own signs to mean words that are
important to your baby works just as well.
You can start using these signs with your baby as early as 4 or 5
months. Don’t expect them to start
signing right back but once they start making the connection between your words
paired with a sign to what they want to express, you’ll be amazed at what your
baby will start doing! Some words that
you can pair with signs are “more,” “milk,” “eat,” “sleep” or any words that
are a major part of your daily routines.
I used the Baby Signs program with my oldest son and he really took to
it. At 9 months he was signing “light,” “more,”
and “flower.” By 15 months, he was
combining a sign with a word to increase his language production (Example: He
would sign “more” then say milk.). My
son Michael will still sign at times when he feels like we aren’t getting the
point of what he’s saying. It’s so
cute. He’ll say, “mo nilk pease” (more
milk please) and if we don’t get it right away, he’ll repeat it again but add
the signs that he knows (and angry tone of course).
8. Keep the
conversation going.
It’ll be a while before your baby starts engaging you in
full blown conversation, so for now, you’re going to have to do all the
work. Ask your baby questions, and then
respond with the answers. Your baby
makes a sound, pretend like you know exactly what he/she said and respond right
back. Talking to your baby is probably
the most beneficial thing you can do.
Describe your surroundings, name everything, narrate what you’re doing and
what you’re babies doing, describe how he/she is feeling – there is always
something to talk about!
9. Read books and ask
questions even if you’re the only one who knows the answers.
While reading your favorite stories, ask your baby
questions. Animals in your story – ask what
each one says, and then you say the answer.
Ask what’s going to happen next, and then give away the ending. It keeps your conversation going. It gets your baby in tune to questions and
provides a model for what to answer.
10. Over and over
again…
Babies and toddlers and children and even adults love to
read the same book over and over again.
We like knowing what to expect, anticipating our favorite part, and
listening to the sounds of the words over and over again. If you read the same stories again and again,
you’ll start to see your baby have the same reactions each time you read
it. Two of my favorites are Goodnight
Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Ratthman. The rhythm of Goodnight Moon is soothing and
the simple pictures and objects named throughout the story are great for
building vocabulary. Goodnight Gorilla
is mostly a wordless book, which is great because you can make the story as
simple or as complicated as you want.
The snoring gorilla at the end brings giggles too! I must have read that book a thousand times
to my son when he was a baby and after a while when we got to the very last
page, he would turn around to look at me when I was about to make the snoring
sound.
These 10 simple activities can become a part of your everyday
life and can allow you to encourage your baby’s language development in so many
ways!
Check out my SUPER SLP onesie!!
Love & Language,
Marisa
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