How To Help Your Baby Start Talking Early | Baby Speech Development Tips
Did you know that baby speech development begins as early as 6 months? However, many people say that at 6 months, babies just babble and don’t know that they’re actually saying words. That may be true. I didn’t hear my baby say his first word intentionally until he was 7 months. He said “hi” and I knew he knew exactly what he was saying because he also waved.
Before he said “hi” he was already babbling “momma” and “dadda”. And after he knowingly said his first word he just wouldn’t stop talking. He would say a new word every few days, it was amazing. By 16 months he was already saying 3-4 word sentences. He was repeating words he would hear in conversations and he was saying words that even others were able to understand. He knows almost all his letters in the alphabet and he had a vocabulary of over 80 words.
Early baby talking is a great sign that your child is developing very well. If your child is not speaking yet, don’t worry that is not a bad sign. Some kids start talking as late as 2 years old or even older. But if you want to encourage your baby to start talking, there are a few things you can do and I’ve listed them below. My partner and I continue to do them every day and our son’s vocabulary just keep growing and he is also learning so fast how to communicate with us and others more effectively.
1. Talk to your baby
Talk to your baby, even if you don’t get a response back. Hearing words helps your baby’s brain develop and it improves their understanding of language. It also helps them prepare for when they start speaking, they’ll know a more variety of words to use to communicate with you. Talking to them will even help build your relationship because you are giving them more attention and spending more time interacting with them.
2. Books
Our son’s pediatrician told us that we should be reading a book to him at least once a day. Reading helps stimulate the part of the brain that allows kids to understand what language is. It’s extremely beneficial that you read to your baby. Our son loves story time, when he started walking at 9 months, he would walk over to the book shelf and pick out books himself. We have so many books for him but I’ve mentioned the top 10 books that have really helped him develop his language and understanding skills fast.
Here are a few other of our favorite books that your baby will love. This is a boxset of 20 books and it includes books on ABC, numbers, animals, colors, shapes, fruits, vegetables and more.
3. Flashcards
Although some people say that flash cards are not an effective way to build language and literacy skills because they emphasize memorization, I disagree. Well, flashcards might not help literacy skills as much because babies will be looking at the images and not the words. But, they will for sure help build language skills because flash cards help introduce new words.
4. Music
Yes, you can use music to enhance your baby’s language skills. Not just any kind of music though, therapists suggest that you play children songs such as “The Wheels On The Bus”. The reason being that it includes many gestures and kids first learn to communicate with gestures. This song also includes the repetition of words, and those are the words that your kid is most likely going to remember and sing one day.
5. Name things
Everywhere we go, whether it’s the store, grandma’s house or park, we point things out for my baby and we name them. We even do it at home or when were traveling, it has played a huge role in his speech development.
I’m a grandmother. I keep one of my grandsons once a week. I try most of this with him! My DIL and Daughter do all of this and more! Can’t wait to see results!