How to Help Your Baby Learn to Talk - Listening Skills

2010-12-01T00:39:00.000-08:00

Your baby learns to talk by listening to you speak. He needs to hear you clearly and concentrate on what you say. He may have perfect hearing, but if your words are drowned out by noise from the TV, he won't be able to pick out what you say. Help him by turning all external noises off for at least an hour every day.

Children raised in noisy places find it hard to concentrate. They may find it hard to sleep properly, and they never learn to listen carefully and concentrate on one thing at a time.

Help your child learn to listen, and he'll know how to pay attention and concentrate. Knowing how to concentrate will stand him in good stead when he goes to school.

Soothing noise

Listening is a skill that your child begins to learn at birth, when he turns his head to your voice. Notice how your quiet voice soothes him, while loud noises startle him and may make him cry. He may like to listen to the washing machine or vacuum cleaner, as their quiet rumbling sounds a little like the noises he heard before he was born, and he'll love to listen to you talking or singing quietly.

Over-stimulation

While your baby is tiny, too many new sights, sounds and people can over-stimulate him. Be prepared to take him to a quiet place and soothe him if he becomes fractious. Everything seems new to a baby, and he needs plenty of peaceful sleep. While he sleeps, his brain busily builds connections and helps him to make sense of the world.

As your baby grows, he'll spend longer periods awake and alert. Make sure he hears your voice, not voices from the television. He learns best from you, because you can adjust your voice and your words to his needs. Spend time with him and let the housework wait.

First year

Notice how your baby listens attentively to the noises around him during his first year. He may stop what he's doing to listen to a new sound, and he often turns to search for something interesting, such as the sound of another baby or a quiet rustling noise behind his back. From around six months, he recognizes familiar words. When you say the name of a family member, he turns to look at her. He enjoys the sound of his own voice and makes repetitive babbling nonsense sounds, such as 'ba-ba-ba'. He loves to spend time with you, copying your babbling noises and laughing with delight.

Frances Evesham is an experienced writer on communication and well-being topics. For many years she's been a speech and language therapist and she's now an NLP practitioner and a registered intermediary in the criminal courts.

She's published many articles and books, and invites you to come and see more of her work on the SpeechContacts website, at http://www.getmeoffthehook.com/speechcontacts/bab.php

A visit to the SpeechContacts website can get you started on improvements to your own communication skills and help you teach your child to communicate successfully. How confident and happy will you feel, knowing your child's communication skills are improving daily? By the way, make sure you don't miss the iHappiness app for your iphone, free for you to download from the site at http://www.getmeoffthehook.com/speechcontacts/happy.php

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frances_Evesham

Helping Babies Learn

How to Help Your Baby Learn to Talk - Listening Skills