⤎Activity Box

Stage 1(0-3 months)

Expressive Icon Expressive Language

TALK

Cooing and Gurgling

Find
  • Yourself.
  • A quiet area free from distractions.
Make
  • Talk to your baby often.
  • They should be cooing (soft, throaty sounds including vowels) and gurgling (low, throaty, wet sounds) back to you by about two months.
  • Respond to your baby’s sounds and coo/gurgle along with them.
Play

Your baby loves to hear your voice, so talk, babble, sing, and coo away during these first few months. Respond enthusiastically to your baby's sounds and smiles. Tell your baby what he or she is looking at or doing and what you are doing. Name familiar objects as you touch them or bring them to your baby. Take special advantage of your baby's own "talking" to have a "conversation." If you hear your baby make a sound, repeat it and wait for him or her to make another. You teach your baby valuable lessons about tone, pacing, and taking turns when talking to someone else.
A

Playing with Sounds

Find
  • A quiet environment with no distractions.
  • Yourself.
Make
  • While your baby is watching you, make a bunch of different speech sounds for your baby to hear. 
  • Go through the alphabet and repeat each sound (such as “ah ah ah, buh buh buh, cuh cuh cuh, etc.”). 
  • See what other silly sounds you can make too.  Babies love blowing raspberries so you can throw that one in as well (blowing air through your lips). 
  • If your baby makes any sounds, repeat those sounds back to him/her.
Play

Playing with sounds ensures that your child hears these sounds and will be able to imitate these sounds when they are ready. Sitting in front of your child or lying them on your tummy while lying flat on the floor will encourage them to look at your mouth and therefore imitate sounds that you make as they get older.

You may feel silly repeating these sounds, but these are the beginnings of speech sounds and are important for your child to imitate as they get older.

SPEECH

Talking Time

Find
  • A quiet environment with no distractions.
  • Yourself.
Make
  •  Sit with your baby in front of you on your lap.
  •  When your baby coos and gurgles, put words to what they are saying.
  •  “Oh that is a nice story you are telling me”, “Are you telling me you are happy” “I think you are telling me you enjoyed that bottle”.
  •  It does not matter what words you put with the sound they make but keep your language very simple.
Play

This very simple back and forth interaction will help your baby understand turn-taking in conversations as they grow older. Continue to enjoy this interaction as your baby grows and makes more sounds. Your baby is listening to all the language you use, and although they may not understand what you are saying, it forms the beginning of language learning skills and conversational skills.