How do babies learn to talk? How can I help my grandchild? He is 6 months old.?

Question

I know I need to talk to him in adult tones, not baby talk, but exactly what do they need to hear and how?

Answer 1

Actually, that's a myth. Baby talk is nature's way of ensuring the baby is listening to you. Yes, speak in complete sentences with correct pronunciation, but speaking in a higher tone with more exaggerated pitches actually helps the baby to pick things up faster and will keep him interested. Psychologists call it "mother speak" - it's a natural tone mothers take with their children, and is very helpful to language acquisition. (I could make an intelligent design comment here, but I won't. ;)

What they need to hear - EVERYTHING. Talk to the baby about everything. "Okay, now we're going to set you on the changing table. Oh, look, that diaper is white! See the white diaper? Okay, now I'm gonna unsnap your onesie, here we go, are you ready? One snap! Two snaps! Three snaps!" "We're going to have lunch now! Do you want some lunch? How about a pureed banana? Do you want some banana? It's yummy! Here we go, we're gonna set you down in your high chair...there we go!" Etc. Narrate the child's entire life to him. He'll pick it up fast. :)

Answer 2

They need to hear all kinds of tones and words.... baby talk is great, because it catches their ear, but adult tones help them figure out how an adult sounds like.

Read to them. Read Dr. Seuss, the newspaper, the television listings, the junk mail.... it doesn't matter. Just hearing words over and over again are great ways to help them establish the connections between sounds and communications.

someone else mentioned singing, and that's another good way. Sing "Frere Jacques" or other round songs that keep repeating the same words over and over again.

At this point, however, it's a tad early to be worrying about getting your grandchild to talk. Just enjoy such a wonderful age!

Answer 3

Talk to him as if he were an adult. Honestly, children that are talked to in baby talk and don't hold " conversations" with people, dont talk until they are older. My step daughter is three, and at age one didnt talk at all, she knew so few words that i was scared there was somthing wrong, Well i talked to her every chance i got, as did her father and her aunt, her mother still doesnt spend much time with them, she has three kids, only two belong to my hubby, You can also try sign language, She does know the words for more, and a few others, her mothers ex bf taughter the littles one some, well the 3 year old got in on it a learned some stuff.. we talked to her as if she were jst like the older kids. she is now three and still has trouble pronouncing her words, she talks alot more not, but its hard to understand, i refuse to guess what she was talking about, i would make her say it out, and then if we couldnt get it that way, she walks up to what she wants ands what ever it is. This is working wonders, this way, no one is streesed by not being able to communicate..Also, read to him as much as possible, i just read what i wrote, and i left it out, some one above mentioned that, that is awonderfull way.. they learn so much from reading...

Answer 4

Read To Him !! I know at six months you won't believe he'll understand any of it but please believe me when I say it will make a great difference in his future. Study after study has shown that the earlier a child is read to the earlier their speech develops and the faster they learn to read on their own.
Dr. Seuss and simple rhyming books are great to start with. The sing song cadence will hold a young child's attention and the pictures are usually big and bright so you can add your own comments along the way or use the pictures to make up your own stories.
Your local library is a great place to find books and not only are they free but I'll eat my boots if the librarians aren't thrilled to help you find just the right books and stories.
There are two books that really stand out in my memory as beloved by both my son who starts college next year and my forth grader, one was Goodnight Moon and the other was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson ( at eighteen my son still keeps these on his dresser.) Little Golden books are great too!

Answer 5

They need objects most near them identified to them before handing them to the child. Just talk to them about anything reading is never to early of a thing to do. I put letters and numbers up in my kids' rooms when they were infants and every time I went in there I would point to a letter and say it after they were talking I would say the letter and then sounds of the letters just so they know them. I also had numbers up with the word spelled out for them once they got older. There are so many things you can do and grandma and grandpa's help is so need to help mom and dad develop the baby's mind in more ways then just learning how to talk. My kids were talked to in baby talk with my parents but with me telling my parents no I don't want to have the baby talk carry on later to where I have to correct them how to talk it sank in after my first child was then being corrected by grandma (it was funny for a bit) so my mom learned something new and baby learned how to talk like a big kid. So first grab toys an when handing them over to baby say what it is. Little things first then big things.

Answer 6

Just talk to him a lot - about anything and everything. When you change his diaper give him a play-by-play. If you are making him something to eat tell him what you are doing. Hold up different stuffed animals and say "this is a pig. Its pink! Pigs say oink oink oink". Things like that. You can read to him, but my kids wouldn't hold still at that age. I bought board books with pictures of single items on each page and I would just point to the different items (apple, cow, book, sock, baby, square, etc) and just say what it was. Both my toddlers liked that. When you go somewhere - like a store - show him different things and tell him what it is, describe what you see. This will also help him develop his curiosity, which will help him learn.

Answer 7

Babies learn to talk by hearing others speak. Just talk to him as much as possible. Talk to him about what you are doing through the day, and read to him. At this age, he won't be much for sitting through a story, but there are lots of good picture books. My kids had some great Richard Scarry alphabet books where each page had tons of pictures of words that started with each letter of the alphabet.

Answer 8

It's basically like talking to yourself but look your baby in the eyes and your face should be near your babies. Ask questions, talk like an adult in clear tone. Tell your baby what you like and what you two are going to do today. Talk to your baby while you are changing their diaper, telling your baby what you are doing and what you will do next. If you want your baby to talk make sure they don't have a pacifier or finger in their mouth.

Answer 9

You actually shouldn't talk to the baby in an adult tone, just in adult language. Babies are naturally captivated by slightly higher vocal tones.

Babies learn to talk by trying to imitate what they hear around them. Basically you just talk. You label everything you give the child and repetitively. "Do you want your teddy? Where's teddy? Oh, here's teddy! There you go, now you have teddy!"

Play little song games, too.

Answer 10

Right now they're learning phonemes. The sounds like ba and la just speak to him as you normally would baby stuff is fine too (comprised of phonemes). Imitating his sounds and trying to get him to imitate you. If you speak a second language (must be fluent) speak to him in this language as well. The more languages he's exposed to the more phonemes. Exposure is very important and it must be done early (from birth to age 2 i think is most important period), this is why peoples who's primary language is Asian who learned English later in life have a hard time with R and L sounds because those phonemes don't exist in their language so they weren't exposed at an early age. Speaking to him in this way or teaching him a secondary language will help him intellectually as he develops (through out his life).