Helping to Mold Baby Talk And Toddler’s Questions Into A Child Who Can Tell You About Their Day

Although you might not see it for what it is, there’s a pattern in the ways your child learns to talk and converse. From those first cooing noises in the crib to the rapid fire play by play of the day in the life of a toddler, there’s a path your child travels down as they learn to talk and converse with a set of orderly steps you can learn to recognize and even help with.

Single vowels are the most your baby can muster from the time they are born until they’ve reached three months. As with any other stage in their development, interaction with Mom and Dad is a great way for babies to start down the path to having their own conversations. Around the four month mark, your baby will be starting to refine the cooing sounds that tell you when they’re happy and crying when sad or annoyed. This is the age where consonant sounds will mix with vowel sounds resulting in the first simple word like, “yaya.”

There are a few things you need to keep in mind here. First and foremost, if your child isn’t making eye contact and any vocal sounds by the time they’re six months old, you should talk to a healthcare expert.

Different intonations

At the five to six month age bracket, they should be experimenting with different intonations in response to your baby talk. Making faces at him should get him to respond and when you talk, he should be trying to imitate your voice by putting consonants and vowels together. By the time she’s approaching her first year, your daughter will be babbling as she constantly experiments with new intonations and sound combinations. At this point, you can help by participating in the pretend conversations she’ll be having with you as her skills develop by using props like the simple toys she already knows the names of like “Teddy” and “car.” Saying your child’s name and making eye contact is an important way to get her attention and a great way to help her understand you’re about to start talking to her.

The one year plateau is important for several different reasons. Although most experts in the field say that your toddler will have spoken their first word by now and might even use a few, their pronunciation needs work at this stage. Here Mom or Dad should be trying to focus on what their daughter or son is trying to say rather than how well they are saying it. Your child needs to feel comfortable about talking to you and making mistakes he can learn from.

Simple sentences

By 24 months, your daughter might know as many as fifty words and be able to put together simple sentences with two or more words like: “Want water.” Remember, by three years, they will be asking short questions and if your child only echoes your questions back rather than asking you some on their own, you need to consult with a doctor to make sure everything is fine.

Helping your toddler along here is about giving him lots of chances to talk during the day. Asking questions greases those emerging wheels of conversation but you need to leave a ten second gap so he will have time to answer.

By the fifth year, his speech should be grammatically correct. Making talking fun includes getting them to join in with nursery rhythms and playing games where you need to take turns will help them learn how to contribute to a conversation.

Read more info like this at All My Children.
Author: Rob Starr