Baby Talk: 0-3 Months
At 0-3 months baby is reacting to his world by crying, cooing, smiling, grunting, and gurgling. How you respond to baby’s sounds begins to teach baby the cause and effect relationship that becomes purposeful communication.
Closer to 3 months old baby may begin to make attempts at communicating. Eye contact becomes more purposeful, a social smile emerges, and sounds (other than crying) are produced.
The most beneficial ways to interact and play with your baby are things that parents tend to do instinctively. However, If you are searching for a little more guidance in these interactions, read on.
Talk: While holding your baby’s gaze, smile and talk. Talk to baby during diaper changes, when feeding him, and during bath time. Be sure to wait and give baby time to respond to your voice. The pattern of “you talk and I respond, then I talk and you respond,” is the foundation for back and fourth conversation. Slow down, listen, and really observe what baby is doing and you might be surprised by what baby has to say!
Sing: Simple songs are calming, attention grabbing, and interactive. Singing with baby provides a great interactive activity and supports future speech and language skills, such as auditory discrimination, phonological awareness, vocabulary development, and auditory memory. Some simple songs that baby might love are Hush Little Baby, Pat-a-Cake, The Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle.
Smell: Research shows that newborns have a keen sense of smell. Baby can recognize the scent of their own mother’s breast milk within the first week of life. Familiar smells can calm a baby (mother/breast milk), while strong, unpleasant smells (perfumes) can make the baby turn his or her head away. By exposing baby to a variety smells you will be supporting his sensory system and exposing him to language when you describe to him what he is smelling.
Read: Read, read, read! It is never too early to read to baby, even brand new newborns can benefit from listening to books. Start with books with simple pictures in high contrasting colors. Baby might also enjoy books that introduce him through a variety of textures that you can encourage him to touch. Reading well before baby is speaking, is an important bonding experience and exposes baby to language, rhythm, sentence structure, and new vocabulary.
Toys aren’t necessary at this time to support baby’s play and language development. However, some interactive items can be fun to mix it up during the day.
- Finger puppets are a wonderful way to promote joint attention skills, build social interactions, encourage creative play, and build vocabulary. Use them while singing or during story time.
- Babies tend to love crinkle paper. Closer to 3 months old babies will begin to reach and grab. By introducing baby to crinkle paper, he will be introduced to tactile and auditory feedback. My baby also loves kicking the diaper wipes package during diaper changes.
- Mirror Play. Babies love watching their reflection in a mirror. While holding baby, talk to him in the bathroom mirror. You can also introduce him to a mirror during tummy time to encourage him to lift his head.
- Rattles! There are are so many rattles to choose from and ultimately your baby will let you know what he likes best. There are rattle mittens, booties, balls, and graspers. Rattles will promote cause and effect learning and might even produce a little chuckle.
If you haven’t gotten to any of the above yet, don’t worry! The first three months of baby’s life are really hard, trust me, I know! But hopefully as baby begins to settle and he begins to stay awake for longer periods of time, you will find yourself singing, reading, and talking a little more each day.
Also remember, every baby develops at his own pace, so there is a large window for when baby will reach his developmental milestones for this reason. There’s nothing to worry about if your baby is hitting his important milestones within a period that your pediatrician is happy with and if you as the parent are having concerns, do not hesitate to bring it up to your doctor.