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While this serves as a general guideline for your baby’s speech development, each child is different and picks up at their own pace. So don’t worry too much if your baby isn’t meeting the guideline. Speak to them more to encourage them!
First 3 months
This is the time baby is building social interaction – which is the foundation of language development. By the end of 3 months, baby might:
3 – 6 months
Baby will show an increase in babbling, she will start making some vowel sounds. By the end of 6 months, baby might:
6 – 12 months
This is the time when baby will start picking up sounds and words at lightning speed. Baby will respond to different sounds you make and might even start trying to imitate them. That is why it’s important for you to talk to baby as much as possible!
You can also help to increase her vocab by reading books to them or narrate to baby about what you do daily. When out for a walk, simply point out the flowers or things you see.
By the end of 12 months, baby might:
12 – 18 months
Between this period, baby should be able to respond to her own name and understand simple requests like ‘can you throw this away?’ or ‘can you put this on the table?’. By the end of 18 months, baby might:
18 – 24 months
Once baby hits 18 months, you will notice an explosion of her vocab. She should be saying about 50 words by the time she is 2 years old. During this period, she will start putting two words together and try to form sentences.
You can help her along by being descriptive. Instead of saying ‘where’s the ball?’ ask ‘where’s the big yellow ball?’
By the end of 24 months, baby might:
When should you be concern?
During your regular milestone visits, the doctor or nurses will perform the usual developmental checks to see if baby is hitting the requirements. Speech delays occur for many reasons, including hearing loss and developmental disorders. Depending on the circumstances, your doctor might refer your child to specialists if needed.
In the meantime, continue talking to her about what you’re doing and where you’re going. Sing songs and read together. Teach her how to imitate actions such as clapping, listen to nursery songs with actions involved will help a lot too!
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Cognitive development is essential for baby to promote active learning. It enables them understand perception, thoughts, memory, language and physical coordination.
Most of baby’s cognitive development happens naturally as baby gets older, but you can play a big part in helping it along the way. Babies learn by doing things over and over, so play simple games with them and keep practising it!
Here are 10 simple games you can do with baby:
Sing to them
Singing with baby encourages him to mimic and sing along with you. Let them listen to nursery rhymes and music in the house and car regularly. Throw in some actions too! Eventually, they will be able to start singing along by himself. This promotes memory and word identification.
Identify daily noises
Let your child identify noises he hears in his daily life. Birds chirping, the door opening, a car horn, the aeroplane. He will start to understand how sounds relate to objects in his everyday environment.
Practice the ABCs
Help your child identify letters by singing the ABCs, reading books about the alphabet and playing with puzzles.
Practice counting
Find opportunities to practice counting! Count the number of blocks he is playing with, the number of snacks in his bowl, count the levels when going up the lift. He may not respond immediately, but he’s absorbing it and one day he might just surprise you!
Practice shapes and colours
Describe what you see to him. If it’s a ball, say ‘do you see that round red ball?’ or ‘that’s a yellow rectangle signage.
Give him choices
By giving him options, it will help him feel more independent and learn how to make confident decisions that will affect his day. Try things like ‘do you want to wear pants or shorts today?’, ‘would you rather have the yoghurt or juice?’.
Get out of the house!
Make trips to the museums, carnivals, library or market to stimulate his curiosity and give him hands-on experience. Narrate your actions and activities with him and listen to his responses and actions. This is a great learning experience for him!
Play with things around the house
Encourage your child to match the lids to containers, help to put away the laundry, play with shadows, identify his face when looking at the mirror. Everything is new to them! So don’t worry about them being bored, playing with everyday household objects is equally educational, fun and of course, free!
Introduce a variety of games
Games like peek-a-boo, puzzle games and hide-and-seek encourages him to problem solve and increase creativity.
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At this stage, you may find your baby doing almost nothing apart from crying, sleeping and feeding on your breast milk. However, with time you will find her getting more responsive and alert.
When it comes to measuring developments in your baby, you need to keep in mind the fact that development is not a race. Irrespective of the pace at which your baby develops, she will be reaching all the milestones by the time she is a year old.
Your darling is now 3 months old! She is now a lot more responsive than before, isn’t she? She has lost many of her newborn reflexes by this time and is gaining voluntary control over her movements. We are sure you will love to look at her movements for hours together.
It’s been four months since your tiny bundle of joy made your world beautiful. The little junior now looks straight into your eyes, babbles, recognizes you and above all melts your heart with that charming smile. Motherhood is blissful, and you get a greater realization of it when your baby completes the fourth month of his life.
The tiny bundle of joy now makes attempts to sit on her own, has a firm grip, and babbles to herself while playing with her hands and feet. You would be amazed at how many things babies can do by the time they are five-months-old.
Your baby by now has prepared the groundwork for speech. You will find her developing close bonds between you and her caregivers. You may find her growing afraid when among strangers. In this article, we shall take a look at what else you can expect from her at this stage.
Your baby is now more than halfway to his first year. The 4th to the 7th month is a crucial period when several changes take place.
Copyrighted Pregnancy & Baby by Mummys Market 2019