Talking to your baby and getting them familiar with language and your voice will help their learning ability in a number of ways. Here we highlight some of the main benefits.
From the time a baby is born, their hearing is fine tuned to be able to pick up the sound frequencies of human voices. In fact, even before they’re born, it’s thought that babies can hear their parent’s voices from inside the womb, which is why some mums talk to their bumps during pregnancy.
Talking Helps Learning
Although babies don’t have the power of speech yet and can’t answer back in conversations, it’s no excuse to not talk to them. Babies learn the ability to talk by listening to other people’s voices and hearing the different sounds that are made when words are spoken. This is one very good reason why it’s important for you to talk to your baby as often as possible, as studies have shown that the more you talk to your baby, the greater the chance they have of learning to speak and understanding words.
Although babies won’t be able to formulate proper words to talk back to you, they are likely to babble and make murmuring noises. This is really good and is a sign of a desire to communicate and talk back to you. Try and take time to listen to your baby as he babbles and talk back to their babbles positively, as this will encourage them to continue.
Talking Helps Brain Development
A babies brain is constantly developing and as they hear new sounds, the connections in the brain increase and become stronger. It’s these connections that are responsible for learning and, if they’re not made or not used properly, they will affect learning. Actively talking to your baby as much as possible will help these connections to develop and strengthen and will be very stimulating for their brain development.
Talking Helps Bonding
Talking to your baby regularly is also beneficial for helping your bonding process too. A baby will enjoy hearing your familiar voice, which will help them to feel secure and contented, and will help your baby to bond with you.
When to Talk To Your Baby
Talking to your baby should be something that comes naturally and something you do as much as possible. For example, when you’re out and about and pushing the pram or pushchair, it’s good to talk to your child (and easier if they’re facing you). When you’re at home and preparing meals or cooking in the kitchen – perhaps they’re sitting in a high chair – chat away to them about what you’re doing. When you’re bathing your baby, changing their nappy or dressing them, there are great opportunities to talk to them.
As babies grow and develop and progress to learning their first words and being able to talk, their desire to talk will increase. At this stage, when you’re talking to them you can help their language learning by naming things, describing things, comparing things and explaining things. Not only will this help them with learning more words and developing their vocabulary, but it will also help their general knowledge and learning too.
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