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Language Development & Communication
Listening & Understanding
WiseTip: LD-UND-M0009-P01A

Have face-to-face play and interaction with your baby. Talk, smile or sing to your baby while looking at your baby's face. Allow time for your baby to respond to you, perhaps by turning their head to look at you. Imitate their actions in response.

1, 2, 3

  1. New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. (2013). New Jersey Council for Young Children.

  2. Brooks, R., & Meltzoff, A.M. (2005). The development of gaze following and its relationship to language. Developmental Science. 8:535–543.

  3. Parise, E., Friederici, A. D., & Striano, T. (2010). "Did you call me?" 5-month-old infants own name guides their attention. PloS one, 5(12), e14208. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014208 (Level IV)

0-9 months
Play
WHY IT MATTERS

Parents who interact with infants and toddlers on a face-to-face basis through eye contact and talking about what they are seeing and experiencing, help them build attention, language and learning skills.

1, 2

  1. Brooks, R., & Meltzoff, A.M. (2005). The development of gaze following and its relationship to language. Developmental Science. 8:535–543.

  2. Rudd, L. C., Cain, D. W., & Saxon, T. F. (2008). Does Improving Joint Attention in Low-Quality Child-Care Enhance Language Development? Early Child Development and Care, 178(3), 315–338.

Neural studies in young infants have found that parents who maintain eye contact with infants and share about things together play a crucial role in their speech processing. Such interactions specifically enhance their attention to relevant social information about the speaker and the objects the speaker is referring to.

3
  1. Parise, E., Friederici, A. D., & Striano, T. (2010). "Did you call me?" 5-month-old infants own name guides their attention. PloS one, 5(12), e14208. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014208 (Level IV)

While the quantity of infants’ talk experience makes up a facilitative aspect of their language environment, interaction quality is also significant.

4
  1. Zauche, L. H., Thul, T., Mahoney, A.D., & Stapel-Wax. J., (2016). Influence of Language Nutrition on Children’s Language and Cognitive Development: An Integrated Review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 36: 318-333. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.01.015
A review of 103 studies by researchers found that language delivered in the context of an adult-child interaction characterised by responsiveness and positive regard helps to scaffold children’s learning and encourages verbal behaviours. Exposing children to speech sounds at an early age by talking to them also helps build vocabulary in later months.
5
  1. Tsao FM, Liu HM, Kuhl PK. (2004). Speech perception in infancy predicts language development in the second year of life: a longitudinal study. Child Dev. Jul-Aug;75(4):1067-84. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00726.x. PMID: 15260865.

A systematic review of 60 studies also found that when talking to children,

parents’ contingency

Parents' Contingency - Talking to children when they are paying attention and oriented to hearing and processing what is said.

and their efforts in pre-literacy activities, such as introducing and reading books with children, are critical in supporting language development in the first three years of life.
6
  1. Topping, K., Dekhinet, R. & Zeedyk, S. (2013) Parent–infant interaction and children’s language development, Educational Psychology, 33:4, 391-426.