To encourage the baby to speak, interactive family games, interaction with other children are necessary, in addition to stimulating the baby with music and drawings for short periods of time. These actions are essential for vocabulary growth, as they facilitate the differentiation of words and sounds, which naturally leads to the formation of the first sentences.
Although babies under 1 and a half years of age cannot say complete words and communication seems to have no return, they are already able to understand them, so pronouncing them correctly and pausing between words helps the child to concentrate on the sounds of each of them, thus contributing to learning. Understand baby’s speech development by age.
To encourage the baby to talk, games and activities can be done, such as:
1. Talking while playing with the baby
Talking and narrating day-to-day tasks while playing with the baby trains the baby’s focus, as well as stimulating the desire to repeat the words, as the child will want to respond to what is said.
Another advantage of talking to babies is that from birth they are already able to recognize the voices of their parents and family, and hearing them during the day can make the baby calmer and have a better night’s sleep.
2. Encourage the child to say the name of what they want
Whenever the child wants a toy or object and points to have it, correctly repeating the name of what is requested helps the baby understand how to pronounce the words.
3. Choose toys that make sounds
Toys that make sounds, such as those of animals or nature, can help the baby to differentiate the sound of a person, an environment or a word, for example, in addition to stimulating the vocal cords, as the baby will try to imitate the sounds you hear.
4. Read to the baby
Reading to babies, when done with words pronounced correctly and in an interactive way, giving voices and facial expressions to the characters, is capable of enriching children’s vocabulary, awakening attention and curiosity, in addition to working on the recognition of emotions.
5. Encourage the child to be with others
Playing and spending time with other children of the same age and also older ones helps to stimulate speech due to the need to communicate, in addition to working on the development of empathy, as in these moments the toys and attention of the older children will be divided.
6. Allow them to watch cartoons
Screen exposure time, when controlled by parents, provides the child with accents and ways of speaking that are different from what the baby is used to at home.
All of this will serve to increase vocabulary, making it easier for the child to form their first sentences, in addition to providing examples of shapes and colors, essential for developing environmental compression.
7. Sing to the baby
The voice of parents and close family members is the first sound that the baby is able to recognize, and making it possible for the child to hear new words in different tones, in the voices they already know, helps the child to assimilate more easily what is said, in addition to providing a feeling of comfort and security.
