There’s an interesting post here about the challenges of raising a bilingual baby. While the whole topic wasn’t perhaps relevant to me, the author did raise some interesting points about reading, and speaking, to your baby.
The idea behind it as that, as sad as it is, there many people who ignore their baby’s speech development while they chatter away on their cell phones. The original article is on the New York Times website and is a good read.
I have always been a firm believer in speaking to my baby in a normal tone of voice and respecting their ability to learn and understand me. (Of course their’s always time for goo-goo ga-ga talk on the changing table or what-not.) But to never talk to them seems to me to disrespect their understanding and to want to relegate them to some unimportant observer as opposed to a participant in our family life.
Our baby at 11 months doesn’t have a lot of words, but the few syllables she does have we try to respond to.
It will be interesting to see how it pays off in the future, but encouraging speech is a proven way to avoid crying frustration for toddler’s who have trouble making their needs known and resorting to what “worked” as babies, namely pointing, grunting, screaming and crying. All things that have their place as baby’s, but not as children.
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#1 by Karen Nemeth on November 13th, 2009
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This is great! But, it’s not quite right to say your baby doesn’t ‘have a lot of words’ at 11 months. Truth is she has a lot of words – she just can’t say them yet! By that age, she might understand 50 words or more – that’s why it’s so wonderful that you talk to her as much as you do. It breaks my heart when I see parents wheeling their babies around in shopping carts without ever making eye contact or talking to their little learner about the interesting sights, smells and sounds at the store. So many missed opportunities! I hope lots of parents read your blog and are inspired to do more to communicate with their babies!
#2 by Front Range Dad on November 14th, 2009
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Good point! Every day she adds to the conversation. She says a word/syllable and I can imagine her frustration and us not “getting it”. Each word gets more exciting.