What should you say to your baby or toddler?
You probably know that is good to talk to your baby or toddler. But what types of things should you say?
What the research says
Research has shown that infants and toddlers under age two benefit from exposure to lots of words where older toddlers between 2 and 3 benefit from hearing a variety of different words that may be more complex or sophisticated.
Let’s break that down.
Babies need to hear lots of words
Babies need to hear you talking to them all the time.
WHILE DRESSING: Describe what you are doing when you dress your baby. [“I have your pants. Pants. Let’s put on your pants.”]
DURING BATHTIME: Describe what you are doing when you bathe your baby. [“Arm. Dirty arm. Wash your arm.”]
DURING MEALTIME: Describe what your baby is doing when picks up food on her highchair tray. [“Cheerios. Yummy Cheerios. You are eating Cheerios.”]
Toddlers need to hear many different words
Toddlers need to hear you use lots of different words when you speak to them including words that are synonyms for words they may already know.
DURING YOUR EVENING WALK: Talk about the dog you see on your neighborhood walk. [“I see a big dog. That dog is huge.”]
WHILE SWIMMING: Talk about the water when swimming in the pool. [“This water is cold. It is freezing!”]
DURING PLAY TIME: Talk about your child’s play dough creations. [“You made little pancakes. Those pancakes are so tiny.”]
Reference to the study
Rowe, M. (2012). A Longitudinal Investigation of the Role of Quantity and Quality of Child-Directed Speech in Vocabulary Development. Child Development: 83(5), 1762-1774.
More info about langauge development
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