What is the practice?
This practice guide includes ways to get your infant to make more sounds to you and other people. Infants who learn to use cooing sounds to communicate are able to start and continue interactions and play with other people. Cooing includes vowel sounds such as ah, ooh, eee, uh, ah-ee, and the like.
What does the practice look like?
Increasing infant vocalizations is best done during face-to-face interactions between your baby and yourself. Any kind of play activity is likely to encourage infant vocalizations. The practice simply involves repeating or imitating the sounds your infant makes. It won’t take long for your child to learn that anytime he says sounds to you, you respond by repeating the sounds he says.
How do you do the practice?
Following these simple steps are most likely to get your infant to vocalize more and more.
How do you know the practice worked?
- Is your infant using different kinds of cooing sounds?
- Does your infant get more and more excited while playing sound games?
- Start by placing your child in a comfortable position. Very young infants often like lying on their back or being held in your lap, looking up at you.
- Talk to your infant while gently tickling his tummy or neck. Sometimes, touching your infant’s mouth with lights pats will get him to make sounds.
- Anytime your infant makes a sound, imitate what he says. At first the sound you repeat should match or be about the same as the sound he makes. It is best to wait until your child is finished "talking" before imitating his sounds.
- Every once in a while, change the sounds you use to imitate or repeat what your infant has said. If he says "ah," you might say "ah goo". Changing your infant's sounds is likely to pique his interest.
- Be sure to show your infant that the sound play is fun. Smile, laugh, and show that you’re excited. If you are enjoying the game, he will likely show the same enjoy- ment.
Take a look at more baby “conversations”
Imitation
Alexis, age 7 months, knows that it is “time to play” whenever her father places her on her back on a favorite blanket. This play episode has Dad talking to Alexis and getting her to talk to him. Alexis’s father starts a game of vocal play by asking, “Is my little girl going to talk to her daddy?” This gets Alexis to start making different cooing sounds. Each time she makes a cooing sound, her dad waits for her to finish and then repeats the sounds to Alexis’s delight. Dad has learned that imitating his daughter’s sounds gets her to “talk” more and more to him.
Repetition
Seven-month-old Tyler lies in his crib after waking up and likes to make different sounds. He also tries to make new sounds. His routine now includes ah, ah-ha, eee, ooh, and ohh-goo. Tyler is also trying to make sounds like blowing raspberries. Mom waits until he is “talking away” before going in to pick him up. Before Tyler can see her, she repeats whatever sounds he happens to be making. This is a game that Tyler and his mother have been playing for some time, and he smiles and laughs whenever he hears her voice. Mom moves into Tyler’s line of vision and says “You hear Mommy, don’t you?” This gets him to make even more sounds, which his mother first repeats and then says something just a little different to get him to say the new sound. He does not always get it just right, but he clearly loves this tit-for-tat between himself and his mom.
Amp It Up!
It is sometimes hard for 6-month-old Cindy to make sounds loud enough for her mother to hear. Mom has found a simple way for her daughter “to be heard.” Mom uses a child’s microphone and amplifier to “turn up the volume.” The first time Cindy heard her cooing sounds “loud and clear” she was startled. But now she starts “talking” when- ever mom brings out the microphone. Mom imitates Cindy and sometimes makes other sounds for Cindy to hear as they go back-and-forth “talking to each other.” Cindy is now able to make louder sounds since she has started her own version of karaoke!
