Infant Language Development
Do you want your baby to become an intelligent talker? Then you must take the initiative. Before you know what to do, get informed about certain things. These are:
Children normally have more understanding of language and they are generally more expressive than the adults
Girls normally develop communication skills faster than the boys
When it reaches the age of 7 days, then an infant can distinguish her mother's voice from the others
When it becomes 2 weeks old then it starts recognizing its father's voice
You can get to hear few consonant sounds and vowel sounds from the infant at the age of 6 to 8 months
The infant begins responding to commands at 6 to 8 months when it attaches names to individuals
From this growth rate chart this becomes clear that parents should start talking to their babies as soon as he or she is born. If you are a quiet mother or if you feel that you should not talk to the babies since they could not understand what you are saying then this is a very wrong notion. You must always chat with your baby so that he or she starts talking early. This is because babies learn talking by hearing what parents say to him or her. The more you parents use the same words, phrases to communicate with the baby the more quickly it will gather the knowledge of language. Often it is seen that parents become concerned over the child's slow development of speech, as children grow slowly from infancy to early childhood. But it is not right to compare your child's language development to other children's language development. If you really feel that your child is having a problem in either receptive or expressive language, then immediately discuss it with the pediatrician and get professional help.
In this respect some points are worth mentioning. These are when a baby is about nine months old he should be able to understand simple words and commands and perhaps be able to speak some words. Moreover you will understand that a baby is able to say much less than the amount what he understands. In fact this is the case that continues throughout our life. In the case of an infant his or her skill on listening or reading a language begins through constant and continual repetition of words or phrases and structures, and this effects in time his or her speaking or writing. The improvement of the speaking and the writing skill depends directly on the listening and reading skills of the infant. This proves the necessity of the parents creating ample opportunities so that the children can listen to their talking.
Another way to help in letting your child improve his or her language skill is that you should read to the children as and when possible. This leads to significant growth of the child's language skill. If the parents spend quality time reading out to children or teaching children rhymes and songs then it will reflect in their language development. Research has shown a child who is exposed to hearing parents reading books or singing songs for quality time learns to talk faster than the children who are deprived of this opportunity.
When a child is a bit grown up then mothers should take the responsibility of teaching him or her nursery rhymes. According to experts, the knowledge of nursery rhymes among the toddlers is a significant predictor of the child's reading skill later on.
So, now all the young parents start talking to your kids immediately. Remember, this will make your child cleverer than the others.
Article Written By J. Foley
http://travelguy.typepad.com/your_babyThis article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_54610_40.html
Keywords: adults, babies, communication skills, consonant sounds, early childhood, expressive language, girls, infancy, initiative, knowledge of language, language development, nine months, notion, parents, pediatrician, phrases, vowel sounds.
