In part because of a landmark study by Hart and Risley from the 1980s, most parents know how important it is to talk to babies. What is less known is how to talk to babies to help them learn language skills. In this post, I will give tips to help your baby learn receptive language or understanding language.

When talking with a baby, use a higher-pitched, very friendly tone of voice called parentese; it’s used in many cultures and languages around the world. Parentese involves an exaggerated pronunciation of words in a “sing-song” voice, in which more emphasis is given to each syllable, making it longer and clearer than normal adult speech. Research shows that babies are better able to differentiate sounds in early months when spoken to in parentese rather than when spoken to in a typical adult voice. Many parents unconsciously use this higher-pitched, elongated form of speech, but many other parents do not.

Start off speaking to your baby in simple, descriptive language; I suggest describing all of the baby’s senses. Talk about what the baby is looking at, listening to, tasting, touching, or smelling. Think of movement as a sense and describe how your baby is moving, an activity best done in front of a mirror.

For example, if your newborn baby is looking at her arm, gently touch her arm and say something like, “Arm. This is your arm!” in parentese. At first, you’ll need to repeat the same few words many times for your baby to start understanding his or her first words.

Receptive language refers to the capacity for understanding language. The first fifty words take many months to learn. During these first months of your baby’s life, it’s very important to talk to him or her as much as you can in very simple language, using many of the same words over and over. However, once your baby understands the meanings of around 50 words, he or she will begin learning words at a much faster pace. Around that time, your baby will begin to go through a “fast mapping” stage, where children can remember words after hearing them only once or twice. During this time, it’s very important to use many new words when speaking to your baby. You can tell if your child is learning words quickly by asking questions. Younger babies generally answer the questions by looking. For example, you could teach your baby the name of a novel object (e.g., key fob). The following day you could ask your baby, “Where is the key fob?” — with three objects in front of the baby. The baby could answer by looking, pointing, reaching, signing, or talking.

I’ll go into more detail in the next post about the long-term benefits of talking to your baby, and I will give many more tips on what to say to your babies and toddlers.

Thanks very much for reading my blog and I look forward to sharing many more tips with you in the future.

Dr. Bob Titzer