How Babies Learn to Communicate: Speech and Language Development in the First Year

A child’s first words are a milestone many parents eagerly await. What a special time it is when a child can start sharing things with us verbally! Before a child ever says their first word, they are developing skills that lay the foundation for their first words- and there are a lot of things that develop in that first year! Some of these skills include:

Joint Attention:

• When two people are focused on the same object or activity and let each other know they are sharing that experience through actions like looking, pointing, or showing.

  
  

Comprehension:

• Babies typically understand much more than they can say and can show their understanding through gaze, facial expressions, and gestures.

  
  

Imitation:

• Copying another person's facial expressions, sounds, vocal play, gestures, or words.

  
  

Gestures:

• Purposeful movements used to communicate, such as waving, pointing, reaching up to be picked up, or shaking the head.

  
  

Cooing, Babbling, and Vocalizations:

• Automatic sounds, like crying and cooing, that gradually become more purposeful as babies explore how their mouths move and the sounds they can make.

  
  

To provide families interested in learning more about pre-language skills with resources and ideas for play activities, songs, and routines to try at home, we created a group class called Mini Mae Mae. Reach out to us to learn more about the class and enroll in a cohort!