As a parent, you will be faced with all types of decisions that have to do with the development of your child. Your role will be multifaceted, as you work with your child on walking, sleep, and talking. Interestingly, a number of in-depth studies have been conducted to learn just how effective it is for parents to communicate with their babies. The majority of studies show that children whose parents talked to them a lot as babies actually end up with a higher IQ than those who did not have parents so heavily involved with communication.
If you want your child to speak well and have a broad vocabulary, you can begin communicating with him or her while still pregnant. Seriously, choose a book that you like and read aloud. Once your baby is born, talk or sing to him/her during feeding, diaper changing, rocking, or play time. In fact, by communicating with your child from the very beginning, you will likely notice him/her trying to mimic your words or form words with the mouth.
Most parents believe that a baby needs to be spoken to with baby talk but in truth, it is recommended that you use normal and even complicated words. There is certainly nothing wrong with exposing your baby to hard words. While he or she may not understand them for quite some time, you are still having an impact. Over time, your baby will begin to understand and by the time your child starts school, the teachers will notice the difference in development from other children.
On occasion, a child will not respond, which could be the result of a hearing problem. Therefore, if your child is not laughing, cooing, or showing you a reaction to your voice by the age of four to six months of age, his or her hearing should be checked. Another time to be concerned is if you have not heard your child say anything by the age of 12 to 15 months. Although most children will begin forming words sometime around six to nine months, not all do. In fact, if your baby is the youngest of several children, it could be that the older children are doing all the talking and he/she does not have to.
In addition, if your child starts to drop consonants, or perhaps switch out a sound or syllable for another, you should also have him or her checked for hearing or perhaps speech problems. Finally, it is quite common for a child to stutter. Many times, the brain is working faster than the mouth. Children will usually outgrown stuttering quickly but if you find this is not the case, again have him/her checked by a speech therapist. I remember when my son stuttered. Watching him struggle broke my heart. However, the therapist told us not to finish his sentences, to be patient, and know that he would grow out of it. With a little bit of speech therapy and a lot of patience, he did.