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Home › Articles › Guiding Baby's Development › From the Mouths of Moms

From the Mouths of Moms

Priming Your Babe's Voice with Your Own

By Julia Rosien

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"Rhyming stimulates the brain, is great for inflection, and is a prerequisite for reading," Hudon says. The repetitive patterns of words strengthen speech and, combined with hand movement, make learning fun. Ham it up with your child, and exaggerate body language and speech inflections. Go to the library and borrow some nursery rhyme books. Re-learn them with your child, laughing at your singing voice and silly mistakes.

"We often sang little songs to tell my fourth child things – made up songs that went with well known tunes," McGregor says. "When he was 18 months old he asked for things in the tune of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.'" She used the lilting quality of nursery rhymes and chants to exaggerate inflections in her speech.

Word Approximations
Remember that pleasure and excitement stimulate speech. "When your child makes up a word for something she wants, accept that word and model the correct word back to her," Hudon says. If she uses "ma" for "more," don't frustrate her by pretending to not understand. Exaggerate "more" when you say, "Oh, you want more." Refusing to acknowledge "own words" spoils the flow of language development and disappoints her.

You are the most important person in your child's life. You, better than anyone else, know what he means when he points and grunts. Don't be surprised if others have no clue what he means. It's your job to interpret both ways. If he asks Grandma for a cookie but Grandma can't understand, rephrase it for him. If Grandma asks your baby a question, rephrase that, too. Eventually you'll be a bystander rather than an interpreter in his conversations.


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