Baby Talk

BABIES BEGIN learning language long before they speak it, and the first year of a child's life is now considered to be vital in the development of language skills.

"Communication starts from day one," says Eilis Murphy, principal speech therapist at Temple Street Children Hospital, Dublin. "How you respond to even very small babies is the beginning of the two way process of communication."

Babies who are talked to are usually more talkative - and chatty babies are often more contented when they are alone. Parents who take the time to talk directly to their newborn babies are, in essence, laying down the foundation stones of language.

"The most important thing for children is to have plenty of language around them from which they can extract meaning," says Dr Sheila Greene, lecturer in child psychology at Trinity College Dublin. "The term `Motherese' may be now dated, but it captures the concept of parents adjusting their language to be more understandable to babies."

Child psychologist Moya O'Brien says that the social nuances of language development are just as essential as hearing the sounds themselves. "Games such as peekaboo are important for babies, in that they teach them turn taking. At first, the parent hides and then later, the baby gets the idea and starts to hide herself." Eye contact between baby and parent is also important, not only for language development but for self esteem.

Many parents chat away instinctively to their little ones during feeding, nappy changing or bath time. However, some people are naturally quiet and find such endless, apparently one way conversations difficult.

Childcare expert Penelope Leach suggests the following tactics for non chatty parents: tell the baby what you are doing when you are handling her, make a point of having some play talk time alone with your baby, ask questions and show your baby a picture book.

"When communicating with a baby, it is very important not to do all the talking but to leave her time to respond," Eileen Murphy says. "Sometimes there will be a delayed response, which is normal. If you listen to babies talking to themselves, they will also use the conversational pause."

Greene says that language development may be hindered if a parent does not pay attention to the child's way of articulate things - and also fails to tune into what the baby can say and understand.

Contrary to popular belief, babies do not learn how to speak by direct imitation. Instead they build up a repetoire of sounds which they practise through babbling. Only later do they identify certain sounds as being connected to specific objects.

Psychologists who have studied babbling have found that the phenomenon is universal and quite independent of what language a baby will eventually speak. Even deaf babies will babble normally until around the middle of the first year, so other indications of hearing problems - such as not showing a startle response to sudden noise or, later on, not turning towards the sound source - need to be identified.

Children who are constantly exposed to two languages from an early age will learn to speak both languages fluently.

Research has also found that most babies say "ma ma" before "da da". However, this is not because they are more attached to their mothers, but because M generally emerges before D in speech development, researchers explain.

Pronouns also come later in language development, so calling your baby by name and calling yourself Mammy or Daddy - or by your name - makes more sense to young babies.

"Babies of 12 months begin to use single words, and about 50 per cent of utterances by babies between one year and 18 months are nouns, says Murphy. "At this age you should encourage any kind of talk and not expect or look for correct pronunciation. It is also very important to give children positive reinforcement, just by repeating the correct word yourself in stead of telling them they have said it wrongly.

Games of asking ("where is the ball?") and fetching ("go get your shoes") are a useful way of reinforcing the vocabulary babies have already learned.

While babbling back to a babbling baby is appropriate for babies under a year, so called babytalk is now deemed to be unhelpful. "When babies are learning about pitch and sound and interaction, it is important to imitate their sounds, but by the first word stage, parents can expand their language by saying things like `yes, that's a choo choo. That's a train'. It is not appropriate to talk babytalk to a child over two and a half," O'Brien says.

Two to three year olds also go through a stage of language development known as "normal nonfluency", which can cause anxiety to some parents. "It almost sounds as if the child is stammering. They hesitate over and repeat their words. This is a normal part of language development."

You should always give the child time to talk without interrupting what he is saying. Listen to what he is saying rather than how he says it," Murphy advises. "Early language development continues until the age of seven, and parents shouldn't expect their four year olds to be speaking perfectly when they start school."