October 2, 2014

The first year of life is a real whirlwind and not just for the mother, for the baby, too! There is so much learning and development that happens during that first 12 months to take the baby from a newborn that ooh’s, gurgles and coos, to a 1 year old that says first words.

When babies are born, they already have built-in skills and strengths to prepare them for the amazing phenomenon of communication!  First of all, babies can hear quite well, although their hearing is not completely developed.  They startle at loud noises and are calmed by soothing, gentle voices, especially their mom’s! This shouldn’t be surprising since the baby has heard the mother’s voice every day for nine months! However, I will never forget how my first baby stopped crying whenever she heard my voice, starting a few hours after birth.  I was truly amazed and in awe of this little person who already seemed to know who I was!

Babies 4 to 6 months old like to watch your face when you talk and try to “talk” back to you. They develop some social skills such as smiling and laughing, and coo and squeal for attention. They respond to changes in the tone of your voice, and babble when they are excited or happy.

Babies 6 months to 1 year of age make huge leaps toward communication. They begin to understand some words and requests, and start to use gestures to communicate, such as pointing or waving “bye-bye”.  They enjoy playing simple games such as peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake.  They imitate different speech sounds and babble using different combinations of syllables.  All of these skills lead up to that most exciting event: THE FIRST WORD!

If you notice that your baby does not seem to be following this typical progression of speech and language development, or if you think your baby cannot hear, please call a speech-language pathologist.  Early intervention is critical for helping your child improve their speech and language skills, or even catch up to their peers!

For more information, you may like to check out Talk box : a parent's guide to creating language rich environments [preschool] and Toolkit for Parents of Young Children.

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Thanks for reading!

Cindy McCallum, M.S., CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist

Founder, WiseOwlSpeech