Starting from as early as 3 months.

Begin to label objects, people, and actions that she is looking at.  This will give her an idea of nouns and verbs.  For instance, if she is looking at a dog, say: “Oh, there is a dog!  That is a dog.”  Or, if the dog is running, you can say: “Look, the dog is running!  He is running so fast.”

WHY? William Fowler, an educational psychologist, developed a program that emphasizes how and when to speak to babies.  The essence of his program is to introduce language development stages before the baby has exhibited meeting each stage.  He studied the program’s effectiveness on 30 children and found: first words spoken between 7-9 months; some spoke sentences at 10 months; and most became proficient in basic rules of grammar by the age of 2 years old.  These basic language milestones were achieved several months ahead, and in the case of grammar, achieved it a whooping 2 years ahead when compared to babies in normal environments.

Parentese, which is how most people naturally want to speak to babies and toddlers, is higher pitched overall with wide swings in pitch when spoken.  This gives parentese its singsong quality.  Along with its high intonation(variations in pitch) characteristics, parentese allows for babies to pick up different speech patterns as well as distinct words, vowels, and syllables.

Parents all over the world speak in parentese, regardless of the language spoken.  Let your natural instinct and voice come out as you talk with your child.  Remember, communicating early and often is the best recipe for language development!

The sing-song voice we naturally want to speak with babies and small children is called parentese.  And, wouldn’t you know, this natural instinct has been shown to be preferred by babies.  It is a great vehicle for children to pick up speech and speech patterns.

If you have been talking parentese to your little one already- great!  Keep it up, and aim to pick 3 times today when you find you are not talking to your little one.  Stop what you’re doing and converse with her.  If you haven’t been using parentese or feel foolish for doing so, now is the time to start.  This is the best way for babies to pick up language.  Spread the word about the impact parentese has on a child’s language development.  Aim to speak to your baby in parentese today.

Make it a point at meals and snacks today to converse with your child.  Aim to both be sitting so that you can have a focused conversation.  Speak to what interests her or pick a subject that draws her attention.  For example: “I always make sandwiches with loaf bread.  I like how spongy the bread is.  And the meat and cheese go right in the middle between slices of bread.  One bread piece on top, one piece on bottom.”  “If I want to clean off your spoon to scoop up some fruit instead, I ‘clank, clank, clank’ the spoon against the bowl to get off all the extra food on there.” “I’m glad I got a spoon for your peas.  Can you imagine if I got a fork?  Wouldn’t it be hard to pick them up with a fork?  What do you think?”

Have a conversation with your baby, face-to-face!  Let him learn the patterns of conversation through turn taking.  You say something, maybe ending with a question, and then pause to let him have a chance to “say” something.  All that babbling is him talking to you!  Even if he isn’t babbling back yet, still pause before talking again.  Engage in conversation as long as he is interested- aim for 10-15minutes.  Soon, you’ll be amazed how quickly he understands turn taking!  He will just love spending quality, focused time with you just talking!