What a jump, from first words at a year of age, to saying little sentences at two. Your toddler has a tall task ahead of him to absorb the world of language and learn how to make his wants and needs known through the spoken word. Parents can use some simple strategies to encourage their tot’s talking, through his everyday experiences. As a speech-language pathologist, I often encounter well-meaning parents who are speaking for their child, robbing him of the opportunity to practice what he hears and use the words needed to begin verbal communication.
Typically toddlers at a year and a half understand far more than they can say. It is in this latter half of their second year of life that they experience a “vocabulary explosion,” where they can learn and use several new words each week, culminating in combining two words for their first little sentences by two years of age. Words begin to take over for gestures, as children take turns in conversation and name objects, people and actions in their day.
I share these easy strategies with parents to encourage their toddler’s talking during this exciting time:
- Follow the leader. Follow your child’s focus of attention and comment about what he is looking at or exploring in his environment. Give him the words to describe what he is interested in and looking at, “Yes, all the animals are riding in the wagon and the farmer is ready to start up the engine.” Use rich vocabulary as you describe these scenes so your child will learn new words like engine, or start up. Research has shown a strong correlation between the time that mothers of 12-18 month-olds shared their child’s focused interest and the size of their vocabularies later. It makes sense that children learn and internalize more vocabulary when we talk about what they are interested in and focused on at the moment.
- Name the point. When your child points to what he wants, pause and see if he will say something. If he doesn’t have the word, you provide it for him, “Juice, you want some juice, you must be thirsty for juice.” Use the word in several short sentences so he can hear it emphasized in that context. In the
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Parents are always asking me to recommend the best toys for their child’s age. They are tired of spending money on toys that end up in the toy bin, ignored and a waste of money. Since I spend several hours a day playing with children from 2-8 years of age, I can tell you what excites kids and maintains their interest because it changes as their imagination ignites.
I know this sounds simple but my pick is Play-Doh. Yes, that squishable brightly colored molding clay begins as a blob of undiscovered fun and can end as a sandwich for your tea party, a chair for your play figure to sit in, letters to mail or a favorite animal to roam the forest. The next playtime with your preschooler try these tips to build language and have fun:
- Pick a theme. Choose a theme associated with your child’s recent activity–a trip to the zoo, baking cookies, playing in the yard, going for a swim or visiting the playground. Or pick a theme based on your child’s interest such as pirates, castles, or dinosaurs. This is just a starting point. You are acting as the producer of his play by offering some fun components for him to use in creating his story and dialogue. Your child will take over as the director, beginning at the zoo and maybe ending up at the park for a snack. Put out the Play-Doh and start modeling with your hands as well as your language. Take out some large props as a background for your theme–Diego’s Talking Rescue Center, the Fisher Price Little People Sweet Sounds House or the Weebles Weebalot Castle. These provide the backdrop for your child’s story telling.
- Add the little people. Now you are ready for conversation with people or animals that you can animate. You pick up a figure and start the chat with an open ended question like, “I wonder where we should go today?” or “What should we take to the beach?” Encourage your child to pick a person too and move your people for face to face conversations, planning your next play move.
- Provide the Play-Doh. Show your child that anything is possible with a lump of dough. The animals at the zoo need food? No problem. Roll out some carrots, apples or hay out of the dough. Provide some starter thoughts on what to make and then sit back and let your child lead the imaginative play. Language is more greatly enhanced when a parent is involved in play but not directing the action.
- Offer the tools. Make sure you have plenty of scissors, forks, knives, rollers or cookie cutters to start his imagination going and adding to his play scheme. Don’t go for pre-packaged sets that provide all the supplies. Instead, offer the tools to create his own food, animals, furniture or toys. While playing with a small oven, I have seen kids fashion a square of Play-Doh, flatten it and hang it up on the towel rack to dry hands after baking!
- Give movable props. Provide a little wheelbarrow, shovel and bucket or oven to cook your delicacies. Slides, swings or vehicles can move your creations or provide an opportunity to change the action. Roll out a ball of Play-Doh for the park–sending it down the slide or pushing it in a swing. Use the shovel to dig and create crabs, fish, worms or whatever to transport in your bucket. Good props are open-ended so your child can use them in many ways, changing their stories and expanding language skills.
- Expand the story. After following your child’s lead in play, occasionally introduce a new prop or idea to expand their story. Don’t take over. They are still the leader of play, but you have raised the language level when you move the theme to a new topic. While playing with a train set, you might offer a play house to be the ticket office and mold some tickets to be sold.
- Introduce some themed props. While I find it easiest to gather props from different toy sets to create new stories, I do have some favorite sets based on themes that children love. Play-Doh’s “picnic bucket” and “beach bucket,” have cutouts, rollers, and props centered around food and the beach. The Play-Doh “Fun with Food-Meal Makin’ Kitchen Playset” has all the tools to cook up a tasty treat. Kids love to open and shut the oven, baking their creations and serving them up. After a trip to the beach, grab Play-Doh’s “Sand Sensations,” the brightly colored textured dough that feels like wet sand. Kids love to make castles and re-create their water experiences.
So be the producer of your child’s play, setting out some great props, Play-Doh and a creative child and watch the action begin!
Getting teenagers to talk and confide in their parents is a hot topic. But face it. These communication skills should be modeled and practiced from the time your child is very young.
Don’t we all want to hear about our child’s day–that she was included on the playground, had someone to sit with at lunch, understood what was going on in class, and most importantly had a “good” day? Recently I heard a mom’s conversation with her kindergartner after his first day of school. Her line of questioning went something like this, “Did you have fun today? Who did you play with at recess?” “Nobody?” “Wasn’t Jimmy there?” “How about gym class?” And so on, while her little one relayed his side of the story which sounded like he was a loner all day. In reality he was happy and enjoyed his first day and mom was a wreck because of his answers.
As a speech language pathologist, I have had to start and keep conversations going with kids from 1-18 (both ages have their challenges!) for over 30 years. So I want to offer some tips for getting your preschool and elementary-aged child to open up about school when she comes home:
- Ask open-ended questions. Surely, “How was school today?” does not bring about the most conversation. For many young children it is too vague and they need a more specific question to help them remember their day. Avoid questions that can be answered in one word–especially “yes” or “no.” Rather try some open-ended questions like, “Tell me about the game you played at recess today” or “That’s a beautiful picture of the farm. Tell me about it.” or “I wonder what you had for lunch today.”
- Use their artwork or take-home papers to start conversations. A research study by Marvin and Privratsky (1999) showed that when 4 year old children brought home objects from preschool including their art projects, the children referred to recent school activities significantly more than when they did not. Take advantage of these masterpieces, asking open ended questions of your little artist and don’t forget to listen. . Showing interest in their work can increase their self-esteem as well as link school and home. Recently a mom picked up her kindergartner’s two papers. One had a few identifiable drawings of sea creatures and the other was scribbly lines. She started describing the recognizable crab and fish and then pointed to the other drawings, pausing to let her son fill in. He proudly identified the drawings in question and went on to talk about how he made them. When asked about the scribbles he said, “Oh that just says I love you!”
- Know their school schedule so you can start talking about library day, gym or art class. “What kind of books did the librarian show you today?” or “What did you find at the library?” “Tell me about the books that you chose.” Take the time to sit down and read the books with her, affirming her choice, and encouraging reading.
- Know the themes they are learning--apples and farms, communities, the seashore, China or the rain forest. Have fun exploring the topics on the internet together, learning new facts to expand on her knowledge and discussing the themes.
- Model sharing about your day. “I had a great day today. I talked to grandma and grandpa about…” or “I met a new friend and we had coffee at the beach.” It is important to share your interests, friends, challenges and joys with your kids so they see that communication modeled for them. There is nothing quite so rewarding as when my grown sons say to me, “How was your day today, Mom?”
- Take time at the dinner table to talk about a good and bad thing that happened that day. Knowing that the family gathered at dinner is a safe place to share joys and disappointments, is comforting. Recently a mom of a 1 year-old told me that at her daughter’s first year check-up, one of the many questions the pediatrician asked her was, “Do you eat dinner as a family and talk about your day?” That pediatrician gets it! If parents start modeling communication with their one-year-old on a daily basis, they are more likely to have a teenager who knows how to share her day. Make it a game of thinking of a good and bad, happy and sad, or fun and challenging event that day. By encouraging your young child to talk about a hard thing that happened that day, you can provide emotion words to help her express herself such as, “You must have been disappointed when Sally didn’t let you join the game.” or “I bet you were frustrated when they were out of your favorite dessert at lunch.”
- Use books as conversation starters. Choose a book about school and see what conversation unfolds. For a laugh out loud, read What a Day it was at School! by Jack Prelutsky. His collection of poems about school–tipping over with a heavy backpack, throwing food in the cafeteria, hopelessly competing with a classmate in gym, or emitting an accidental noise during class–is outrageously silly, getting a child laughing and connecting the stories to her school experience. After reading the book to a second grader, I asked her what happens in her school if someone throws food at lunch? She went on to tell me the rules, and all about Cody and Will when they made a mess in the cafeteria.
- Take advantage of your child stalling at bedtime. One mother shared with me that if she lingers with her first-grade son after stories are read and the bedtime routine is over, she can count on about 10 minutes of chat about his day. He’s smart–he knows what mom likes and how to stay up longer!
- Listen, listen, and listen. Once your child gets started talking about her day, hold off more questions and let her go. As parents, we tend to jump in with more questions, but pausing is important. A child gains confidence as she relates her day and you affirm her.
It’s summer. School is out, so grab a book, cuddle up with your child and take a cool break .
Reading to your child sets the foundation for emergent literacy skills—what children need to know before they actually read and write. With each story read, you are building your child’s vocabulary, phonemic awareness (understanding that words are made up of individual sounds), knowledge of letters and the sounds they represent, and narrative skills or story telling. Reading to your child not only prepares him for academic success but also says I have time for you, strengthening the special bond you have with your child.
These new picture books will spark discussions with your child about feelings, reactions, situations, or predictions. The beautiful, intricate illustrations can encourage your young artist to illustrate their thoughts or reactions to the story. Help your child to relate her experiences to the story and the story line to her world, building language skills in the process.
Trainstop by Barbara Lehman
Climb aboard this train, but be sure to sit next to the little girl rather than her parents who are engrossed in the newspaper and fall asleep, missing the whole adventure. Her face is pressed against the glass of the train car window, anticipating the new world she will enter after passing through a tunnel. Stepping out of the train into a world of tiny people, she is asked to help retrieve a toy airplane and pilot from the apple tree. Friendships develop, but it’s time to hop back on the train to return to the city. The magic comes full circle when upon arriving home, the girl looks up to see her little friends flying by to deliver a tree of thanks.
Tips to Build Language and Literacy:
How can so many story possibilities be packed into a wordless book? That’s the point. Beautifully illustrated wordless books provide a platform for creative story telling and writing. Encourage your child to examine the drawings and describe characters, contrast them, predict what they will do, describe their emotions and give them dialogue. Look at the parents versus the little girl—engrossed in their paper, falling asleep, indifferent to their surroundings while the child is anticipating adventure.
Your child becomes the author-story teller as she orally illustrates each page and gives words to the drawings. Try collaborating by alternating as the storyteller—you describe the action on a page and let your child add on to the story on the next page. Or each invent your own story, share them and see how they differ. Make this a family activity, assigning one member to write down the story as it unfolds or illustrate it as a group.
Try these strategies to enhance language development with other magical wordless books:
Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman
Hogwash by Arthur Geisert
Lights Out by Arthur Geisert
Max’s Dragon by Kate Banks
Max’s earnest search for rhyming words, sends him through a croquet game, rainstorm and adventures with his dragon. Initially an annoyance to his brothers, Max keeps up his lines, “If my dragon isn’t faster, there’ll be a big disaster” until brothers Karl and Ben are contributing too. When the dragon is threatened there is only one thing to do—create another rhyme to save the day.
Tips to Build Language and Literacy:
What a delightful introduction to poetry and rhyme! Since the understanding of rhyme is a precursor to reading, it is important to play with rhyming words with your child. Read the rhymes to a younger child, emphasizing the changing first sound (the “f” in faster and “d” sound in disaster), and then just repeat the two words: faster, disaster. With a child 4 years old and up, create your own one-liners. Start them off with a phrase such as “I can’t wait or I’ll be (late).” Look at a fun illustration and create rhymes based on the pictures. Throw out a word and see how many rhyming words you and your child can generate. A first or second grader can write his own poem based on a favorite activity, imaginary friend, or object. Sometimes starting with an illustration will help generate the language.
The Rubber-Legged Ducky by John G. Keller
Watch out what you eat when you are expecting! Mama duck nibbled a rubber band along with a clump of grass before giving birth. When she hatched her brood, the fifth duckling bounced rather than waddled, and cried, “Bing-boing” instead of the typical “Quack, quack.” This delightful tale is all about being different, or special with true potential, as only a mother could declare. Five’s rubbery legs were good for strumming accompaniments to sing-alongs and lassoing bullies but his greatest act of bravery was to stand against the fox, using his special talents to protect his family.
Tips to Build Language and Literacy:
Take the opportunity to discuss with your child how friends are different, what special talents we all have—maybe a good listener, helper or storyteller–and celebrate the differences.
The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli
Take the challenge to write the best story and win the first prize ride on a roller coaster. This little girl sought her family’s advice and one by one wrote a draft according to their suggestions. First she packed her story with action—pirates, sharks, and tornados—to please her little brother, Tim. When Dad said good stories had plenty of humor, she put the pirates in pajamas and revised her draft. Aunt Jane countered that the best stories have to make you cry. The little girl’s revisions to cause tears didn’t seem right either. Finally, Mom, the source of all wisdom, said, “I think the best story comes from the heart. Your own heart.” The little girl began pulling her story out of her own heart and it was a winner, contest or not.
Tips to Build Language and Literacy:
Summer is a great time for your child to keep a journal and write from her heart. Write about the best thing that happened that day, a new word learned and explain it, a favorite storybook, or all about a beloved relative. If your child is too young to write her thoughts, you be the scribe and take down her words. Draw an illustration with special markers and make it into a book.
The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
Being grumpy is a lot of work. Mr. Fish can’t seem to be cheered up by his convincing pals, Ms Clam, Mr. Jelly (Fish), Mrs. Squid or Mr. Eight (legged octopus). In spite of the efforts by his best-intended buddies, this dreary, sulking fish is convinced he is doomed to a life of mope. An unexpected visitor appears to plant a kiss on our prince to get this grump out of his slump. This charming tale is filled with strong vocabulary, rhythm and rhyme with stanzas to be sung with your little one.
Tips to Build Language and Literacy:
Model putting words to your emotions throughout your daily experiences. “I’m frustrated, I can’t get this lid open” or “I’m tired and grumpy. I need a nap.” “Please be patient, I can’t help you right now.” Identify and name emotions in stories that you read aloud to your child. “The little girl is selfish—always wanting her own way” or “Grandma is disappointed in her behavior.” Brainstorm words that describe the main character and see how many you can list. After reading a story to a first grade class, I collected fourteen words to describe the “bossy, impolite, ungrateful” little girl. Our little pout pout fish is “glum,” “mopey,” “dreary,” with an “unattractive trait.”
Point out repeated words that are isolated in the text, “Blub, Bluuuub, and Bluuuuub!” Your child will begin to associate the sound with the letter as you stretch out the word and even “read” the word next time you encounter that page.
There is a huge push to read to your baby as soon as she is born–and even before since her auditory system is mature after the second trimester. Research shows that the amount of talking to your baby positively influences her language development. The more words your baby hears, the better it is for her language growth. Babies are hard-wired to learn language but the quantity of words you feed your baby is important. In the same way that it’s critical to narrate your day to your infant, filling her day with words, reading to your baby offers many of the same advantages. Your infant is hearing the “rhythm of language”, distinguishing her primary language from other languages based on timing, pitch and sounds. An article in a recent parenting magazine suggests that if you have an infant to 3 month old it is best to choose books that have one word on a page.
Not so for language development! The first three months are an opportunity to bathe your child in all kinds of language, through conversation as well as reading books. Try nursery rhymes, poems, stories or picture books. You have a little window when your infant will happily listen to anything. Around 3 months, she will be more attentive to a shorter text with all the rhyme and rhythm of Brown Bear Brown Bear or Moo Baa La La La ,
When visiting new Mom, Dad, and 2 week-old Caroline, I noticed Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose, Classic Fairy Tales and Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-me Book of Poems in. the nursery. Mom had researched these beautiful anthologies, bought them and was reading them to her daughter. Caroline was hearing the bouncy beat and rhyme of “Jack and Jill went up the hill,” the flowing language of classic fairy tales like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and the shorter rhyming phrases of poems by endearing authors. Another mom read the Madeleine series to her newborn daughter who happened to be named Madeleine.
As your infant gets older and more discerning for a bright, simple, shorter rhythmic rhyming tale, she might not have the patience for a longer story. This can happen around 3 months but don’t hesitate to keep reading longer, more complex stories to your child as long as she is interested.
Here are some of my favorites, old and new for your preschooler to encourage language through a great story:
The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens. Check out my review. Kids love this book for the zany antics of the prairie dogs with their fuzz and the wild vocabulary and comical alliteration.
Clancy the Courageous Cow by Lachie Hume. This is a new book with a clever story about being different, discrimination, and grace. There is lots to talk about as you encourage your child to predict what will happen, talk about feelings, solutions, and how to react to someone who is different.
Amos and Boris by William Steig. This is a clever book about adventure, rescue, friendship, and sacrifice. It is packed with good vocabulary. Try other books by this author.
Picnic at Mudsock Meadow by Patricia Polacco. This isn’t just another Halloween book, but a clever story of competition, courage and finally friendship. The illustrations are magnificent with their detail and action. Lots of predictions can be made based on these beautiful drawings.
Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs by Giles Andrede and Russel Ayto. This is every little boy’s dream, to uncover a pirate captain in a closet and set sail with him. Of course they encounter the ferocious pirate dinosaurs and a battle ensues. The illustrator has created beasts with “tonsils wobbling ferociously at the back of his throat” who have a whimsy about them who draw us in to a tale created in a little boy’s mind. Talk about what you would do if you met a pirate in the closet?
I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe is a lovely tale about self-esteem, listening to criticism, acceptance While the little cricket was wishing he was a butterfly, after the frog at the edge of the pond told him he was ugly, the ladybug wisely replies, “…you must learn to be content with what you are and not mind what a silly old frog tells you.” Friendship finally brings acceptance. There are many themes to talk about with your child after reading this story that relate to her life—teasing, feelings, self-worth, friendship and acceptance.
The Featherless Chicken by Chih-Yuan Chen. In this playful tale, a featherless chicken is trying to part of the gang of artfully adorned chickens. Finally when he acquires a costume of leaves, silverware and a fish can, he looks good enough to join the others. This is another story about fitting in, being transparent and having a roaring good time!After reading this book, it would be fun to make a collage costume for your own featherless chicken.
Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She was Extinct by Mo Willems. Loveable Edwina meets her match with the incorrigible Reginald who is trying to convince her she is extinct. This story is about winning over a bully with kindness. Talk about ways to show kindness to those who are nice and not nice to us.
Chuck Lends a Paw and Funny Bunnies on the Run by Robert Quakenbush are full of laugh-aloud consequences for the antics of bunnies and mice. You can use these books to ask questions like “Why did that happen?” since there is a reason for all the catastrophes in the stories! These are early readers but can also be used as read-alouds.
Your three-year-old is a delightful conversational companion, asking about their world and telling you about their experiences. Here are some strategies to encourage language development in your three-year-old:
- Be a daily play partner with your child. It will give her an opportunity to practice her conversational skills (taking turns), discussing her daily activities, and asking questions to gather more information. This undivided attention with pauses for her to continue the conversation, boost her emotional well being also.
- Make time to play one-on-one. If a new baby arrives, the time alone with your toddler can “fill her emotional tank” and alleviate some of the feelings she might have of competing for Mommy’s time.
- Keep the play times fun, enriching and natural. Don’t turn them into teaching sessions. Many children this age are starting to name colors, shapes and numbers. If you drill these concepts they will be uninteresting to your child, or he will only know them by rote, and will be unable to understand them in the context of play and language. Remember, language is learned through experience. For example, talk about the tall blue tower and the red boat going under 2 bridges!
- Follow her conversations that arise naturally. As with play, follow your child’s lead in play and conversation. Don’t force her to “finish” a play scheme if she has moved on to another idea.
- Have conversations with your child about what she has been doing, but now, in addition to the details, talk about “why” things happened, and her feelings about the event. This is an opportunity to use lots of new words and explain them in the context of an event such as “disappointed”, “grumpy”, “mad” or “sad”.
- Continue to use new, longer, more complex words in many contexts. “The hermit crab is leaving his shell. The hermit crab grew too big for his home. The hermit crab eats off the floor of the ocean.”
- Sometimes her words get jumbled when she is trying to explain something complicated for her . Affirm her with “yes” and then re-order her sentence correctly. For example, a little girl was playing with a car and play figures and she said, “The car sit and go” when she meant, “The Daddy sits and the car goes!” As your child’s language progresses, sometimes their mind thinks faster than they can talk!
- Expand on her conversations. If she says, “I rode the airplane” you could add, “Yes, you rode the airplane with Daddy at Rye Playland last night!” Often this will encourage her to add some details too.
- Take advantage of book time. In Jim Treslease’s well known book, The Read- Aloud Handbook, he says that a 3-year-old hears three times the rare words in books as she hears in conversation. This is a rich area for learning language and expanding vocabulary, grammar, and learning about new subjects. Emphasize rhyming words and select books that emphasize them such as Sheep in a Jeep and Sheep on a Ship by Nancy Shaw. Repeat the rhyming words and let your child hear that they have the same endings. Hearing that words are made up of different sounds, is a precursor to reading. Select some books that repeat a word in larger print and point out the word as you read it. Squeaky Clean by Simon Puttock repeats NO, PLOP, and EEK. Continue to choose books with rich stories such as Swimmy by Leo Lionni or Sheila Rae, The Brave by Kevin Henkes. Talk about feelings, why? and what might come next.
In addition to your “running commentary” describing your activities like a reporter to your baby, you should have have some times of using short, tuneful, simple sentences such as “Up we go” or “Bounce up high.” Each activity—changing a diaper, watching his mobile, feeding and dressing, provides a backdrop for a series of little sentences. Diaper time could include “Pick your feet up,” “Rip off the tabs,” “Ooh, the diaper is wet,” “Wipe your bottom” and “Now you’re dry.” You will naturally use some of the same expressions during each activity and your baby will start to learn the vocabulary associated with that category of activity.
Always use grammatically correct sentences. Confused by mixed messages in child guidance books, parents ask me whether to use short phrases like, “Put shoe on” versus “Put Will’s shoe on.” If your child’s language is developing normally, you would talk to him in grammatically correct sentences like the latter example, including all pertinent parts of speech. Your child benefits from hearing all parts of the sentence.
If it materializes that your child is delayed, you can try a shorter version, sometimes called “telegraphic speech.” “Put shoe on,” for a child who is delayed in speech, reduces language and makes it easier to learn. Children developing normally are hard-wired to learn language from adults speaking correctly. No baby talk!
When a stranger walks up to your baby and starts talking in a high pitched sing-song manner, “Hi Sweetheart, what a cute little girl you are!” your baby loves it. Many adults naturally approach a baby in this way with a higher pitch, shorter sentences, simpler grammar, and varied pitch with almost a musical quality. Stress and pauses emphasize important words, particularly at the end of a phrase or sentence such as “Let’s go to the beach and pick up some shells.” Once called “motherese,” mothers don’t have a monopoly on this type of talking. It is now referred to as “child-directed speech.” Unlike baby talk, child-directed speech uses simple, grammatically correct sentences and accurate vocabulary words. There are no substitutions of baby words like “ba ba” for blanket or “woofy” for dog.
Parents don’t have to use child-directed speech but it comes naturally to many moms, dads and certainly grandparents, and has its benefits. It not only maximizes communication but also shows affection.
There is evidence that babies actually prefer child-directed speech, since it gains their attention and they take in more language. The size and shape of his outer ear canal cause higher pitches to resonate better so he can actually hear these sounds better when delivered in child-directed speech. A slower cadence is easier for babies to follow since their nervous systems process auditory information slower than adults. Louder speech overcomes the fact that a baby’s hearing is less sensitive than that of adults and the simpler sentence structure and contrasting pitch and loudness levels allow the baby to more easily distinguish parts of speech. Research has shown that when mothers used child-directed-speech, their babies had greater vocabulary and grammatical accuracy than those who did not. In addition, when babies are spoken to this way, they are better able to make fine distinctions between sounds and words. Five-month-olds could only tell the difference between the pretend words “marana” and “malana” when spoken to in child-directed-speech. The two sounds, l and r, that differ in the words, are very similar acoustically and hard to distinguish. Babies spoken to in child-directed speech obviously have the advantage of hearing finer differences in sounds that differentiate words.
Do you ever get frustrated trying to hear a voice in a noisy restaurant or a crowded party? Babies have more difficulty distinguishing foreground sounds (such as calling his name), and background noise (TV, radio, or loud voices), than do adults and need a greater difference between the two in order to focus on the foreground sounds. A quiet setting allows them to hear language clearly, which stimulates the brain pathways for developing language. Providing a quiet environment for play during the first year can actually allow those discriminating skills to develop more easily.
When it’s time to play, turn off the TV, radio, electronic toys and music. Music is a wonderful listening experience for babies, but enjoy a separate music time where you focus on the songs, bang to the beat and sing along. Check with day care providers to make sure they have a quiet time or place for language exchange. Voices can be distracting background noise, too. A popular question from moms is, “When my husband comes home and he relaxes by watching TV, is that bad for my baby?” Obviously, parents are better parents when they have time to relax. Be aware that your baby is only awake and available for play for a short time, so it is wise to turn down the noise during your precious minutes of play.
In a quiet environment, very young babies are capable of hearing tiny differences between sounds. A researcher at Brown University showed that one-month-old babies could hear the difference between a “p” and “b” sound, which are very close acoustically. If you provide an environment with a quiet background, these discriminative abilities have a better chance to operate.
