How Babies Learn Language
May 19th, 2009
Babies learn to talk by listening. The more words babies are exposed to , the quicker they learn to talk. Daily exposure to words help the brain to develop . Now I don’t mean mean watching television or listening to radio or other mediums. By exposure I mean, listening to an real person, one who is engaged with the baby.
The actual size of a child’s vocabulary is directly linked to how much her carers talk to her. At the age of 20 months, children of chatty mothers average 131 more words than those of less chatty ones and by 2 years old the gap doubles to around 295 words.
Research also shows that not only does talking to your child affect their language ability, but also their overall intelligence. Parents who are chatters,generally use more descriptive language too resulting in greater language skills in their child. Even though you may surround your baby with conversation from birth, it is vital that you talk directly to her and by so doing build her understanding of language. Language relies on contextual meaning as well as understanding the actual words. Help your child to better understand what you are saying through making use of body language, pictures and actions. Teaching a child new words is made far more effective if they can see it’s relevance and hear it used in context.
Before your baby utters her first word, she must understand it. So repetition in context is key to building those links for her. Try repeating yourself and repeating what she says. This is called mirroring. Don’t correct your little one if she uses the word incorrectly, rather repeat what she has said in the correct way. For example she might say: “nine, ten, beleven, twelve etc ” you may feel tempted to correct her. BUT it is far more effective to say. “well done. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve!”
Remember that books are invaluable in helping your child to hear spoken language and the pictures help her to understand the meaning. My toddler often uses words she has heard in stories and because we read the same books over and over again, she is able to assimilate them more accurately into her own speech.
Tags: babies learning language, how babies learn, learning to talk
Posted in Child Development | 1 Comment »
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June 15th, 2009 at 12:32
yes our kids learn quicker from us when we talk to than and explain things to them. i believe. my little one is a prove.
thanks