Early interaction with babies and infants from the age of 4 weeks by family, lays their communication foundations, according to a new book, “Small Talk” by UK-based speech teacher Nicola Lathey and journalist Tracey Blake.
Read: Early Teaching Helps Babies To Talk
Parents of children with newly-found hearing issues can now read the basics about early language-learning processes, particularly when an infant wears hearing-aids weeks after their birth. One vital tip is to keep eye contact with your baby, while audio-describing what you are both doing at that time.
Other research from Newcastle University also shows toddlers use grammar earlier than thought, in the form of tiny verbal sounds, pauses and puffs of air where ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘can’, ‘is’ were during an interaction with a caregiver.
Read: Toddlers’ speech more advanced than thought
In short, parents are their infants’ first language-teachers, and shape their child’s outcomes more than they might think. What children see as their parents or caregivers talk, is a big contributor to their language outcomes.
Read: Child vocabularies need non-verbal clues to words
Parallel talking is one example: if you are chopping onions, you can say “chop, chop, chop” to show your child the knife, action and the words. Then say “I’m making soup” and name each ingredient as it’s chopped for the pot.
More Reading
- Talk To Your Baby For A Solid Early-Learning Basis
- Parents’ Essential Role In Language Development
- Infant Literacy Skills – Newborn To Three Years
- Home-Work With Children Who Have Hearing Loss
- Everyday Language Practice With Deaf Children
- Deaf Preschoolers’ Literacy Benefits From eBooks
- A Surgeon’s Thirty Million Words Project Research
