1. Pray for your baby
3. Talk to your baby
"Research suggests that poor children hear about 600 words per hour, while affluent children hear 2,000. By age 4, a poor child has a listening vocabulary of about 3,000 words, while a wealthier child wields a 20,000-word listening vocabulary. So it’s no surprise that poor children tend to enter kindergarten already behind their wealthier peers. But it’s not just the poverty that holds them back—it’s the lack of words. In fact, the single-best predictor of a child’s academic success is not parental education or socioeconomic status, but rather the quality and quantity of the words that a baby hears during his or her first three years.
Those early years are critical. By age three, 85 percent of neural connections are formed, meaning it’s difficult for a child who has heard few words to catch up to his peers once he enters the school system."
How Do You Talk To A Baby?
1. Do a running commentary
Don’t make a move, at least when you’re around your baby, without talking about it. Narrate the dressing process: ‘Now I’m putting on your nappy… here goes the T-shirt over your head… now I’m buttoning your dungarees.’
In the kitchen, describe the washing of the dishes, or the process of seasoning the pasta sauce.
During the bath, explain about soap and rinsing, and that a shampoo makes the hair shiny and clean.
It doesn’t matter that your baby hasn’t the slightest inkling of what you’re talking about. Blow-by-blow descriptions help get you talking and baby listening – thereby starting him or her on the path to understanding.
2. Ask a lot
Don’t wait until your baby starts having answers to start asking questions. Think of yourself as a reporter, your baby as an intriguing interviewee. The questions can be as varied as your day: ‘Would you like to wear the red trousers or the green dungarees?’ ‘Should I buy green beans or broccoli for dinner?’ Pause for an answer (one day your baby will surprise you with one), and then supply the answer yourself, our loud (‘Broccoli? Good choice’).
3. Give baby a chance
Studies show that infants whose parents talk with them rather than at them learn to talk earlier. Give your baby a chance to get in a coo, a gurgle or a giggle. In your running commentaries, be sure to leave some opening for baby’s comments.
4. Keep it simple – some of the time
Though right now your baby would probably derive listening pleasure from a dramatic recitation of Hamlet’s soliloquy or an animated assessment of the economy, as he or she gets a bit older, you’ll want to make it easier to pick out individual words. So at least part of the time, make a conscious effort to use simple sentences and phrases: ‘See the light,’ ‘Bye-bye’, ‘Baby’s finger, baby’s toes,’ and ‘Nice doggie’.
5. Put aside pronouns
It’s difficult for a baby to grasp that ‘I’ or ‘me’ or ‘you’ can be mummy, or daddy, or grandma, or even baby – depending on who’s talking. So most of the time, refer to yourself as ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’ (or ‘grandma’) and to your baby by name: ‘Now Daddy is going to change Amanda’s nappy’.
6. Raise your pitch
Most babies prefer a high-pitched voice, which may be why women’s voices are usually naturally higher-pitched that men’s, and why most mothers’ (and fathers’) voice climb an octave or two when addressing their infants. Try raising your pitch when talking directly to your baby, and watch the reaction. (A few infants prefer a lower pitch; experiment to see which appeals to yours.)
7. Bring on the baby talk… or not
If the silly stuff (‘Who’s my little bunny-wunny?’) comes naturally to you, babble away in baby talk. If it doesn’t, feel free to skip it. If you’re big on baby talk, don’t forget to throw some correct, more adult English into your conversations with your infant, too, so that he or she won’t growing up thinking all words end with a y or ie.
8. Stick to the here and now
Though you can muse about almost anything to your baby, there won’t be any noticeable comprehension for a while. As comprehension does develop, you will want to stick more to what the baby can see or is experiencing to the moment. A young baby doesn’t have a memory for the past or a concept of the future.
9. Imitate
Babies love the flattery that comes with imitation. When baby coos, coo back; when he or she utters an ‘Ahh’, utter one, too Imitation will quickly become a game that you’ll both enjoy, and which will set the foundation for baby’s imitating your language – it will also help build self-esteem (‘What I say matters!’).
10. Take your cues from baby
Incessant chatter and song can be tiresome for anyone, even an infant. When your baby becomes inattentive to your wordplay, closes or averts his or her eyes, become fussy or cranky, or otherwise indicates the verbal saturation point has been reached, give it a rest.
References:
http://www.globalchilddevelopment.org/news/talk-your-baby-public-health-initiative
http://prettymomguide.com/how-do-you-talk-to-a-baby.html
4. Sing to your baby
5. Read to your baby
Though at first the words will have no meaning to baby, it’s never too early to begin reading some simple rhyming store is or board books out loud. When you aren’t in the mood for a baby talk and crave some adult-level stimulation, share your love of literature (or recipes or gossip or politics) with your little one by reading what you like to read, aloud.
6. Feed & burp your baby
9. Play with your baby
I tend to over-focus on this, as I have a soft spot for toys and neglect the other things mentioned in this post. In fact, I have made a post on what I think are the best baby development toys for 0-1 year old.
However, toys are not the most important. The most important are these 8-10 things mentioned in this post: pray, smile, talk, sing, read to your baby... etc.
10. Bath your baby
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