When feeling thirsty, hungry or sick, babies cannot express what they feel, they can only cry to attract your attention. However, there are times when the baby speaks in his own language to invite you to communicate, and you will usually immediately respond to this little babble in the same language as him. It sounds funny indeed, but can this baby talk or baby talk help your child learn to speak quickly or even hinder children's language learning?
The importance of parents talking with baby language
For one year since the baby was born, there must be lots of new things that he tried to learn, one of which was how to communicate. When the baby smiles, laughs, or just talks about calling you 'mama' or 'bubu', that's the way to invite you to chat.
Through baby talk or the baby's language, your little one hopes that you will answer the chaos again by smiling, singing, or reading a book. Communicating with the baby is an important phase in the early days of his birth.
You should focus on developing your child's speaking and speaking skills because it is related to many things. Starting from the development of the ability to read, write, and the inner bond with the little one later in the future.
When children smile and pay attention to you
Long before your child can speak fluently, the baby is actually able to understand the meaning of the words you say in general. Not only that, the baby also absorbs an understanding of the tone of voice, so he knows when you are happy or angry.
Well, therefore, it is important for parents to support the efforts of the little one to communicate early on by giving him full attention. Here are ways you can do it.
- Give your child the time and attention when he talks, no matter how busy you are. Listen to the chaos with affection, respond to the words, even though you don't understand what they mean. This method will provoke your child to continue talking.
- When a child is laughing, look at his face enthusiastically. Don't turn, cut, or talk to other people. You may also laugh so he feels heeded.
- Smile often in front of your little one, especially when he starts talking in a typical baby language.
- One thing that is not less important is patience. Yes, especially the patience to interpret every sign that your child gives in his non-verbal communication. Even meaningless facial expressions and chaos are signals that your child feels happy or even upset.
Imitate the words of the baby
Since the beginning the child learns to speak, baby's language must go in two directions. That is, when the baby makes a sound from his mouth, you are expected to be able to reply to the words in your own way. One of them is to imitate what the baby says, no matter how messy it is.
Although it sounds funny, baby talk will make your child feel important, loved and cared for by you. Try applying the following things to start communicating:
- Be like a mirror. Take a smile or pout like when a child does this.
- Give the best response possible, even if you don't understand what your little one is trying to say.
- Teach children how to communicate like adults, that is by feeding back every word so that communication becomes two-way and continuous with each other.
- Imitate funny jokes. For example, when the baby says ‘gu gu gu’ or ‘pa pa pa’, imitate the word and wait until it starts to emit other messes for you to reproduce again.
- In addition to chaos, gestures or body language is also a way for your child to communicate. You can mimic the way you move your hands or shake your head as a signal that you understand what they mean.
- Say the words clearly and correctly like an adult. If your child says "aju" to say "fall", you repeat the words with the correct words ("fall"), not the wrong words ("aju"). When you repeat the wrong words, the child will imitate the wrong words and not know what is right.
- Talk to children often
The baby is not only fussy, but he is also a good listener. He was very enthusiastic when he heard his mother talking, especially if you invited him to communicate in a soft and happy voice.
Babies learn to talk by imitating the words that they hear around them. That means, the more often you invite your child to talk, the sooner the child will master speaking and speaking skills.