Article: Help Your Child Learn to Speak

Being able to talk is vital for making friends, as well as learning and understanding the world around you. Talking to your child from the day they are born is very important.

Babies have to understand words before they can start to talk.

You can help your child learn by holding them close, making eye contact and talking to them as soon as they’re born. They will look back at you and very soon begin to understand how conversations work. Even making ‘baby noises’ will teach your baby useful lessons about listening, the importance of words and taking turns in a conversation. And while you’re introducing them to conversations, you’ll also be building your relationship with your child.

As your baby starts to take more of an interest in what’s going on around them, start naming and pointing at things that you can both see (‘Look, a cat!’). This will help your baby learn words and, in time, they’ll start to copy you. Once your baby can say around 100 individual words, they’ll start to put short sentences together. This normally happens by around the age of two.

Useful baby talk tips

The following tips will encourage your baby to start talking:

Talk to your child

• From the day your baby’s born, make faces and noises and talk about what’s going on. Ask questions like, ‘Are you hungry now?’ or ‘Do you want some milk?’
• Start looking at books with your baby from an early age. You don’t have to read the words on the page, just talk about what you can see.
• Point out things you see when you’re out and about (‘There’s a bus’). As your baby gets older, add more detail (‘There’s a red bus’).
• As your baby grows, have fun singing nursery rhymes and songs, especially those with actions like ‘Pat-a-cake’, ‘Row, row, row your boat’ and ‘Wind the bobbin up’.

Help your child learn sounds and words

• If you repeat the sounds your baby makes back to them, your baby will learn to copy you.
• If your child is trying to make a word but gets it wrong, say the word properly. For example, if they point to a cat and say ‘Ca!’ say, ‘Yes, it’s a cat.’ Don’t criticise or tell them off for getting the word wrong.

To read the original NHS article please click here.