My baby’s developing language
Naming things your child points to is one powerful way to support language development. You also help build their language when you notice and respond to their gestures, describe their actions, sing, and play rhyming games.
Babies love “serve and return” experiences (those back-and-forth interactions when your baby does something and you respond to it). Babies may not use words, but they do participate in conversations by using gestures, sounds, and smiles. Be sure to watch and respond to their cues! As children grow, language makes it easier for them to explain their feelings, to make friends, to solve problems peacefully and to learn new things.
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- My baby and I take turns talking.
- My baby may not say words,
- But my baby is learning that conversations go back and forth, with each person taking a turn talking then listening.
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- My baby is starting to look at the things I point to.
- Sometimes my baby also points at things around us.
- Talking about and naming the things we are looking at shows that I am interested and helps my baby learn new words.
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- My toddler is learning that body parts have names.
- The words that my toddler most easily learns are the names of familiar things that can be seen and touched,
- Like ears, eyes, nose… and knuckles.
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- My child is starting to do pretend play, acting out things from our daily routines, like shopping and cooking.
- When I play along, I can talk about what my child is doing, name objects, and ask questions.
- I know that playing together and having lots of conversations helps my child learn new words and supports language development.
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- When I read a book that my child knows well, I pause and point to pictures, to see if my child will say some of the words.
- I ask questions about the story so it’s like we are having a conversation about it.
- These things keep my child interested and support language development.
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