I’ve become an ABC (Aunt by Choice) again! My dear friends, Kim and Tom, have a beautiful girl named Talia. I spent a lot of time with her this weekend. She is 4 months old, enchanting, and is becoming more interactive each day.

In honor of Talia, I am writing an article to explain a little bit about language milestones in children birth to age one year, and offer suggestions for ways you can stimulate language skills in your infant nieces and nephews.  

The American Speech Language and Hearing Association posts a chart on their website that provides a general guideline of communication milestones in babies, which you can find here. It's the best and more well-organized chart I've found.

Language foundations

Even though babies are not using true words, they communicate through vocalizations, facial expressions, sounds and gestures. It is our job as the adult to recognize when an infant is communicating and to respond meaningfully.

The infant is learning joint attention and turn-taking skills, which are essential language foundations. When your niece or nephew vocalizes in a playful way, you can imitate their sounds, respond to them with words or short phrases, or even assign meaning to what they are saying, “Oh, you like playing this game with Auntie.” An important thing to remember is to slow down and allow time for your niece or nephew to respond. Carefully watch for a smile, a sound, and/or a movement from them before you take your next turn in the conversation.  

Once your niece or nephew is babbling and stringing together sounds that mimic true words, you can respond by repeating the label you think they are indicating. If they say,

"Da” as you are sitting next to the family pet, you can respond, “Dog. Let’s pet the dog." Also, don’t forget about practicing animal noises, vehicle sounds and those everyday expressions, like “uh, oh." These might not be true words, but they have meaning and are building blocks of expressive language.

Keep talking

Another excellent way to facilitate language development is to talk, talk and talk to your niece or nephew.  You can describe what you are doing, where you are and what you are seeing. For younger babies, you are helping reinforce the sounds that they will use in the language they speak. As they get a little older, they will begin to understand the labels for familiar objects, actions and people or simple instructions.  Use pictures, books and objects to help them create associations.  

Finally, babies are not using true words but they do communicate through sounds and gestures. Many types of gestures appear before 12 months of age.  Children will point to something as a way of asking for it, reach with their hands to ask to be picked up and blow kisses or wave as greetings. Also, when you are speaking you can use natural gestures to give extra information that will help your niece or nephew better understand what you are talking about; use hand movements as you are singing a song with them or shrug your shoulders when you are saying “Where’s your blanket?” are examples of everyday types of gestures.