how does a mom make an infant learn a language?

Question

i am student of childhood deveolpment and the above question is my topic of assignment.please help me out and i am not a mom yet.

Answer 1

The infant hears the sounds specific to the language whenever, another person makes these sounds to the child, sometimes referred to as "baby talk". What seems like "gibberish" is, in fact, repeating all language-specific sounds. The vowel sounds, etc. the infant hears, he mimics back and receives positive reinforcement. Gradually, through successive approximation, the infant's sounds become word forms and ultimately, develop into words. For example, the sound for "b", when repeated, becomes "baba" which is paired with receiving a bottle and evolves into the word "bottle". Read Noam Chomsky on linguistics.

Answer 2

No one can make anyone else learn something or do something. However, an infant with no medical or developmental problems learns language(s) simply by hearing language(s) spoken around them, day in and day out. I do mean that in both the singular and the plural.

When infants begin to verbalize, they use every sound that is a part of every known language. The soon drop the sounds that they don't hear, such as the double l of Welsh, which is the same sound as the hard h of Hebrew and Yiddish, or the click that part of the language in the Kalahari Desert.

BTW, children who are exposed to sign language from birth actually begin to communicate in sign language earlier than do children learning aurally.

Answer 3

You don't "make " an infant learn a language. you expose them to it as often as possible in the day to day routine and they are "hard-wired" to learn it.

Children who do not have many verbal interactions do not learn to speak as soon as those who do. I have heard that deaf parents of hearing children sometimes have them live with a hearing relative for a time so that they can hear a spoken language and learn to talk.

Just a personal story -- when one of my daughters was a baby, my husband watched her while I worked. She was not talking much at about 18 months. I went on maternity leave about that time and began to talk to her all day long and read stories,etc. Within a month, she was talking all the time. It seems that her dad did not talk "small talk" with her as most moms do.

Answer 4

I am also studying childhood development. I took a class two semesters ago Titled Language Development. Our instructor and the book told us that the only way a child is going to learn a language is by hearing it over and over.
Yes even infants can learn a language by hearing it over and over. Just speak, read and sing to the infant as often as possible.

Answer 5

I would say the first step is the parent(s) should speak the language. If the infant is going to be in daycare or in-home care, then the care-giver should also speak the language. The only way to get an infant to speak a foreign language, is to have the baby hear it day in, day out.

Answer 6

Infants can learn by hearing and visual stimulation before they can speak, one of the best things a mother can do is to talk in plain English or whatever their native language may be. Also infants will imitate facial expressions and some sounds as they learn them. Talk to them often, tell them what you are doing. It is also never too soon to start reading stories to them either.

Answer 7

A child learns the language that is spoken to him. If a mother speaks gibberish to the child, the child will speak gibberish. He will have trouble communicating with other people because the gibber words will not always be used the same way every time. In real spoken languages the same word means the same thing every time. blue book will always br used to describe a blue book.

Answer 8

I would start by teaching an infant sign language. They can learn "more", "eat", "sleep" and any simple sign. Teaching sign language to children will help the child be able to communicate early on.
On my sources below there is an online sign language site to help you.

Answer 9

a mom don't and can't make a infant lean a language. she can only introduce and expose the child to the language by speaking to her in example, English and when she says bottle, show the child the object that she is holding. and gradually as the child cognitive development develops, she learns to link and reference the object to the language that the parent is speaking. Young children and babies pick up language the fastest. Hence expose them to lots of language exposure by talking to them, reading to them, singing to them. It will help them alot in their language and literacy development.

Answer 10

I work in a preschool where many children speak other languages. They learn more than one language simply by speaking it. One set of parents taught their child english and spanish simply by having one parent speak one language and the other parent speak the other. The child may not talk until a few years old, but that's what the parents in my center do.