Baby connecting and communicating: in a nutshell

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Getting to know each other has moved to an exciting new level. Your baby can now see better and understand more about ‘her’ people. She has emotions and is not afraid to show them.

Whether you're singing a song or talking about what you are doing as you empty the rubbish, your communication is helping baby learn and develop. Talking to her teaches her about language and the more talk, the better.

By nine months, your baby's memory improves and she is getting attached to people and objects. To help her understand how things disappear and reappear, you can give her lots of physical attention and verbal reminders of where you are as you move around a room. A fun game of ‘peekaboo’ can also do the trick.

How to ‘talk’ to your baby

Babyhood is a time for plenty of face-pulling (you and baby), conversations that nobody understands (but everyone loves), loving gazes and the power of the smile. Babies spend their days looking at people’s faces and listening to them talk.

‘Hellooo sweeetie baaabeee’Researchers call the special way we talk to babies ‘parentese’. And babies love it. Researchers have found that infants prefer the sing-song tone of parentese to plain adult tones. This animated, lilting speech, with exaggerated facial expressions, may help infants learn the sounds of language.

Making eye contact
Your baby loves watching how your face reacts to something she has done. Researchers say it helps her understand the world and form relationships. When your baby deliberately catches your eye, you can look right look back into her eyes. And keep maintaining that eye contact until she looks away. When she makes noises, you can encourage her. Smiling, nodding and encouraging her abilities (‘What did you say?’, ‘Aren’t you talking well!’) all help your baby to keep communicating.

Talk, baby, talk
As your baby moves closer to 12 months, she may start to babble. When she begins to make lovely little sounds (‘ba ba ba’, ‘da da da’), you may want to try repeating them back to her. Try not to interrupt until she’s finished with her ‘sentence’. Also, repeating what you say to her ( ‘Are you hungry?’ ‘You’re hungry, aren’t you?’ ‘Ohhh, I’m hungry!’) can teach your baby what words mean.

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  By Raising Children Network

  Use your voice, your eyes and plenty of cuddles to communicate with your baby. It will help her develop and learn about language, relationships and the world around her.
  
  You can ‘talk’ to your baby by:

  • using sweetly pitched, sing-song cooing (‘parentese’) to help your baby learn language sounds
  • with exaggerated facial expressions
  • using plenty of eye contact
  • smiling, nodding and using encouraging words
  • repeating any baby sounds your baby might make
  • repeating questions or statements to help her learn what words mean.

  This article is an extract only. For more information visit raisingchildren.net.au/connecting__communicating/babies_connecting.html

  Sourced from the Raising Children Network's comprehensive and quality-assured Australian parenting website www.raisingchildren.net.au.