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From the Mouths of Moms

Priming Your Babe's Voice with Your Own

By Julia Rosien

"Parents should talk, and talk a lot," Hudon says. "They need to talk about everything their child sees, hears, touches or tastes." She recommends using phrases such as, "It's time to take a bath. Isn't the water warm? Let's wash your arm. Where is the soap?" Don't limit your talking time to when you are tending to your baby's needs. Talk to him when you wash the dishes, fold the laundry and run errands. Take time to sit and show him picture books, pointing to objects and labeling them.

"By providing an environment rich with language and speech, parents help their children use words to communicate needs and wants," Hudon says. Your baby loves to listen to human voices, and he associates your voice with pleasure and having his needs met.

"I chatted with babies before they were born," says Sheri McGregor, mother of five. "Then I chatted and chatted all the time with them. It didn't matter what we did – I talked." By constantly giving her children opportunities to hear and practice speech, they understood language long before they tried their first "real" words.

McGregor feels that her children talked at an earlier age because of the amount of language she and her husband exposed them to. At 13 months, her oldest child began stringing words together. "He marched over to the fridge and tried to open it," McGregor says. "He pointed in and said, 'Mama, cook taco.'"

Pleasure and excitement motivate a child's interest in speech. Holly Byrne, mother of three, used nursery rhymes to capture her children's attention. "We sang and chanted rhymes like 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' because it gave me a soothing way to interact with my children," Byrne says. She spoke and sang to them in a calm, cheery tone when she bathed, dressed or fed them.

Want to see more?

• The Mind of the Baby: Unleashing Your Child's Potential
• Songs to Sing and Play With Younger Babies
• Get Out of the House and Make Each Day an Adventure!
• Talk about it!

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