My baby has become a full-fledged talker. I’m not sure when he started figuring out that he could communicate, but we love it. And, are constantly surprised by his ability to talk to us now.
It is hard to get his undivided attention these days because he is so busy. But, usually, when I am changing his diaper, I can take his being confined to the changing table as a moment to talk to him and have him talk back. I have noticed that in these moments, he is really watching my mouth move and how I form the words. He is imitating sounds that I make after hearing them just a couple of times.
Yesterday, I was trying to teach him what a kiss is. I was making a smacking sound with my lips and said, “kiss” to him over and over. He loved watching me, and after just a few times, was making the kissing noise himself.
He has shown me that he can do this over and over again. He said “nana” for banana after watching me say it and point to the banana only a couple of times. He is also enjoying learning how to make the animal sounds for different animals. Above his changing table, we have a quilt hanging on the wall that has different animals on them. I point to them, and say the name of the animal and then make the animal noise. He loves watching me do this, and laughs, and tries to make the noises himself.
Teaching a baby to talk is a fun experience, and it really is not that hard! With my daughter, I remember being able to help her learn quickly by simply saying, “watch my mouth” and then repeating the words. She could watch the way my mouth moved and within a couple of tries she would be saying the word correctly.
I don’t remember my other kids ever babbling as much at this age as my baby is babbling now. He seems to want to talk to us, and have something very important to say all the time. I can’t wait to watch him grow and hear more words coming out of his mouth every single day.
*Photo courtesy of Morguefile.com