Between 6 and 12 months your baby’s communication skills develop rapidly as they begin to respond to their name, recognise familiar words and experiment with different sounds. Praise their attempts to communicate as this builds their confidence and lays the foundation for their future communication and language skills.
- Talk to me in our home language.
- Tell me what you are doing as you are changing my nappy and getting me dressed.
- Sing songs and rhymes as you play with me, rock and hug me.
- Use actions that go with what you’re saying like waving when you say “hello” or rubbing your belly when you say “yummy”.
- Play peekaboo games; use your hands to hide your face, saying things like “Where are you? There you are!” or “Peek-a-boo I see you”.
- Talk about what I am doing or what I can see like “oh look a dog”, “you are playing in the sand”.
Remember, we all learn at different speeds, but here are some things I might be doing:
- I can make more meaningful sounds or single words like “mama”, “dada”, “dog”, “car”.
- When you say my name, I stop what I am doing and look at you.
- I can point to an object or look at it when you ask where it is.
- I like sharing and looking at books with you, you can point the pictures and tell me about what we can see.
Useful Links:
Listening and learning: 6 to 12 months – NHS
Helping your baby to talk | NCT
6-12 months – Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives
Should I be worried my child isn’t talking? – BBC Tiny Happy People
