9 Months
- Babies use sounds or gestures to let you know what they want (eg. Reaches out to be picked up).
- Babies make babbling sounds like “mamama” or “dadada”. These won’t yet mean Mom or Dad but eventually become real words.
- Babies enjoy making sounds back and forth with you.
- Babies stop when they hear the word “no”.
- Babies begin to respond to their name, if they hear you using it frequently.
How to make daily routines into language learning opportunities:
- All children need to have a variety of experiences, even when they are babies and haven’t yet begun to talk.
- Language learning happens all day long. If you talk to babies while you are doing what you do every day, you are helping them to learn new words.
- During feeding time, dressing time and bath time, talk to babies about things they show interest in. Give them the words that they will need later when they start talking. Use fun words during meal time, like “yummy” or “squishy”. This keeps babies attention.
- You can repeat words such as “on” and “off” during dressing time and words like “wet” and “splash” at bath time. Remember to use lots of gestures. Pat the water when you say “splash” and emphasize the on and off movements when putting clothing on or taking it off.
- Using gestures helps children to see, as well as, hear the words. Children will learn words more easily, if they are combined with gestures. Add gestures to every word you use, if possible.