Got Tummy Time and reading to baby covered....what else? Let's talk baby communication skills.

Did you know that long before your baby can say their first words, they can communicate with you...right from day 1?

We want to share with you more information about your baby’s journey towards these big recognisable milestones. There are actually lots of tiny steps on the journey you can enjoy as they emerge and encourage them through play!

Here are 5 things you might not know about your baby’s communication skills

1. Your baby will communicate with you from the day they're born

A baby has the capability to talk to you from Day 1. In fact, they were listening to you in utero and already have a preference for their own family’s voices and language.  

Their ability to communicate starts with cries, but soon develops into smiles, facial expressions and beautiful sounds. Your baby starts taking in an enormous amount of information about sounds, words and communication from birth. They learn all of this from the people around them! 

2. Your baby loves listening to your voice....so talk to them about anything!

Although they won’t give much back to begin with, it is so important to talk to your baby from day 1 so that they learn the sound of your voice, and start to process and learn all the information about the language you are using.

Parents naturally adjust their voices when talking to babies – this is called ‘motherese’. Babies engage more with voices that have more exaggerated intonation and are higher pitched. At this young stage, when a baby is unable to calm themselves, your soothing voice is so important to help regulate them and keep them calm.

3. Your baby can take 'turns' in a conversation with you

A good conversation is all about taking turns. If we didn’t do this, the conversation would be very one-sided!

Although you might feel like you’re doing most of the talking with your little baby, they can definitely join in too, and we need to provide them the opportunity to do so! 

When babies are given opportunities to take turns in a ‘conversation’, they're learning all about the basic rhythm of communication — that it’s all about a back and forth exchange between people.

When you're talking to your baby, PAUSE every now and then to wait for your baby to take their turn with their eye contact, smiles or sounds. For more on HOW to do this, we have a whole page on 'taking turns with talking' in our Walky Talky Baby membership. 

 4. Those gorgeous baby sounds are called 'cooing' 

Those gorgeous 'oooo' and 'ahhh' sounds your baby makes - that's called cooing! This typically starts around 6-8 weeks and is such a beautiful stage. It's when your baby first starts to realise the power of their voice and that by making sounds they can communicate with you. 

To encourage these sounds, keep your language simple and use simple sounds too! Try copying their sounds and see what you notice. You're likely to see a big smile on their face :)

5. You can support your baby to develop their communication skills in the way you interact with them

 It's all about keeping it SIMPLE. You've probably heard us use this term before....and that's because we want parents to realise it can be simple to support your baby's development. As parents we are often stressing too much and working too hard. If we sit back, keep it simple and watch and notice our babes, they are doing most of the work and just need a guiding hand (or voice!) from us. 

Here's some of the ways you can interact with them to support their communication more and more:

• keep your words and sounds simple
• use big facial expressions as you're talking - they love watching your face as they listen to your voice
• Talk about anything. Comment on what you see and what they're looking at. This helps add language to their world and helps them to start making the connections between sounds, words and everything around them. 

Want more??

If this information has been helpful and you want to know more about supporting your baby's play we have loads for you! 

Walky Talky Baby Membership

Our membership contains all the 'Talky Tips' you need to support your baby's communication skills from day 1. If you want to know more about what we've talked about in this blog, know HOW to put the tips into action and see videos the tips too, come join us! Walky Talky Baby: The Membership

NEW FREE e-book Born to Play

• Our top 5 tips for newborn play
• 5 tips for creating a perfect play space (as seen in this blog!)
• 5 tips for supporting development through play in the early years
• 5 tips for making play baby led from day 1.
• Milestones - what to expect as they grow
• Your questions answered - baby equipment to babbling and beyond!

 NEW FREE mini course Play the Week Away

When you sign up to receive the e-book, you'll also receive our mini course which includes 7 daily emails with a new tip each day to support your baby's movement and language through play! There's a competition inside to win a free 3 month Walky Talky Baby Membership so make sure you sign up. 

AND don't forget what else we have to offer you....

❤️ Buy our Tummy Time e-book No Tears Tummy Time

❤️  Join our FREE facebook group Walky Talky Baby Group 

❤️ Join our mailing list to receive more blogs like this!

❤️ Follow our instagram page walkytalky_baby