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Thank You
Thursday, November 11, 2010 by Jeannie Fleming-Gifford
"Thank You." Yes, I *think* that was it. I think that was the first words my child ever said. Oh, she might have been making "da, da, da" sounds. I DO remember she wasn't saying "ma, ma, ma," no matter how much I tried to get her to say that!
It wasn't quite crystal clear, but it was in context and the tone was just right: "Thank you."
So, when do you expect your baby will be talking back to you?
Are you ready to hear that/those first words?
Of course, babies have been understanding what we've been telling them for quite some time, and there's plenty of ways you can work to help them develop their expressive language skills.
Here are a couple of other ways to support baby's language development:
*Create a language rich environment. For me, this meant not only lots of talking (to baby) and reading and singing, but also surrounding my little one with pictures that would create further conversation. Sometimes they were pictures of family, other times, pictures of objects from magazines which I thought she might enjoy.
*Write a book. You don't have to be a published author to create something your baby or young toddler will enjoy. One of my favorite books I created was for the holidays the first year my baby was born. Using a photo album type book and lot of misc. pictures, I created an A-B-C book, noting a word for each picture of my kiddo (i.e. A is for Adorable).
*Stop & Listen. Respond. Have you ever listened to the sounds all around? From trains to planes to the ring of a phone, there literally is sound all around. Take the time to take notice and share in the listening of sounds. Imitate sounds with baby. Although it may sound silly, making sounds will help baby create the words he/she is looking for to describe their world.
Happy talking!
