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Developmental guide to hearing, understanding and talking

What is your baby up to? Here’s a general developmental guide to hearing, understanding and talking:

Birth to 3 months

Smiles or coos when you speak to her, seems to recognise your voice and calms down if crying Increases or decreases sucking behaviour in response to sound and startles at loud sounds Has a range of cries

4 to 6 months

Moves eyes towards sounds Responds to changes in your tone of voice Startles at loud sounds Notices music and toys that make sounds Gurgles and babbles in a more speech-like way, including sounds p, b and m Vocalises excitement and displeasure

7 months to 1 year

Enjoys peek-a-boo games Turns and looks in direction of sounds, and listens when you speak to her Recognises words for common items such as cup, teddy and drink Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds Imitates different language sounds, says one or two words, like ‘Bye,bye’, ‘dada’, ‘mama’), although they may not be clear

1 to 2 years

When asked will point to a few body parts, and recognisable pictures in a book Follows easy commands and understands simple questions like “Where’s your shoe?” Points Uses new words every month, including putting words together, like ‘More dink’, ‘No mummy’ Uses different consonants at the beginning of words

Speaking ‘Motherese’

Ever noticed how perfectly sensible adults start using silly words and high voices when talking to a baby? They are speaking the universal language of ‘Motherese’. Some child-development experts disapprove of this kind of behaviour. "It's important to avoid the kind of muddled baby-talk that turns a sentence like “Is she the cutest little baby in the world?' into 'Uz see da cooest wiwo baby inna wowud?”’ says Lise Eliot, lecturer at the University of Chicago, and author of What's Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life. Instead, says Eliot, caregivers “should try to enunciate clearly when speaking to babies and young children, giving them the cleanest, simplest model of speech possible."

Researchers Gopnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl authors of "The Scientist in the Crib" see things a little differently. First, they point out, by six or seven months babies are already highly adept at decoding the sounds they hear around them, using the same skills we do when we talk to someone with a thick foreign accent or a bad cold. If you say "Uz see da cooest wiwo baby inna wowud?" most babies do in fact hear something like "Is she the cutest little baby in the world?"

With its elongated vowels and repetitions and over-pronounced syllables - Motherese is just the thing for babies to develop their language skills. And Motherese is innate; it's found in every culture in the world, and most people who speak to a baby use it automatically, even without realising. It seems one thing science tells us is that us adults are designed to teach babies, as much as babies are designed to learn.

- adapted from an article by Malcolm Gladwell, entitled ‘Do our first three years of life determine how we'll turn out?’

Babies expect you to act on your beliefs

When can young children detect inconsistency? As early as 15 months, according to latest research from the University of Illinois and McGill University in Canada. In one experiment infants watched a story in which an actor placed a toy in one of two coloured boxes. The toy was then moved from one box to the other, without the actor appearing to know. When the actor then searched for the toy in the box where it was, rather than where it was supposed to be, the babies expressed surprise. The infants understood the actor could have a true or a false belief about the toy's location, says researcher Dr Baillargeon, and the infants always expected the adult to act in a manner consistent with her belief. The results suggest certain knowledge is innate.

Make the best use of your highchair

Sometimes highchairs can be seen primarily as a way of to keep a messy, sticky toddler restricted at a convenient height for you to shovel spoonfuls of nutritious mush – and that is absolutely correct. However, from six months onwards, a highchair also serves as a hugely important tool for introducing a toddler to the social occasion of eating within the family. That’s where the highchair is invaluable!

As soon as all our children were able to sit up they sat next to the dining table and joined up for the family dinner – including our family rituals of no toys at the dinner table; ignoring the phone; everyone sharing their day’s high-points and low-points (if any); first child finished chooses the fruit; and no one leaves the table until everyone’s finished.

- an excerpt from Oh Baby…birth, babies & motherhood uncensored

Hot Tip

Feed your toddler a bowl of something nutritious before the main meal then you can let them snack on titbits from the family’s dinner or pieces of fruit while sitting up with the family