Face-to-Face Time Promotes Speech Growth Before the First Birthday

Groundbreaking research published in January 2012 provides new insight into how babies and toddlers figure out how to produce speech sounds so they can learn to talk. They don't do it just by hearing speech. They are "programmed" to watch the mouths of people talking to them during a specific critical developmental period.

Most of us who work with children have been saying for years that young children should not spend hours in front of televisions, mindlessly watching DVDs and TV programs, "educational" or not, or otherwise be left alone. This new information supports these recommendations.

The research results reveal to us how marvelously "wired" babies are to "crack the code" of how sounds are produced in the language or languages they hear regularly. Most people think that babies start learning to talk around one year of age when the first word is usually spoken, but, actually, typically-developing babies have been busy learning since before birth, and are particularly focused on speech production from 6 months to 12 months.

The researchers revealed that during the first 6 months of life, a baby watches the eyes of the person talking to him or her. Then around the time that cooing changes to true babbling of sounds and syllables of the parent language at 6 months, the child's eye gaze shifts to the speaker's mouth. During that phase from 6 to 12 months of age, a baby lip-reads to try to figure out how to produce the sounds he or she hears. This drive to learn can only be satisfied by receiving an adequate amount of direct face-to-face speech input.

How much speech directed to the child by a caring adult is enough? Other research has suggested that a child's speech-language abilities as a preschooler, and even his or her cognitive ability, correlate highly to the number of words he or she has heard spoken directly to him or her daily. That research suggested that babies and young children need to hear 20,000-30,000 words per day.

How can a parent direct that much language directly to his or her child daily? From my perspective as a speech-language pathologist, I recommend that parents learn specific techniques that enable them to provide a high number of words tailored to the interests of their children that they can blend right into the activities of everyday life. My methods promote both quantity and quality of language presented naturally. And, my techniques help highlight speech production-just what the inquisitive young child needs.

Give one technique a try with a young child to see what happens. Stretch the vowels in key words to make them "last" a little longer, and slow your speech rate slightly, as compared to talking with an adult. You should notice a young child turn to look at you with great interest in what you are saying.

If you are a very important person (VIP!) to a baby or young child, realize the huge impact your speaking efforts and methods have on this very important child. Then decide that you want to provide the best input possible during the critical early-learning years.

Mary Lou B. Johnson, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist with over 36 years experience working with children and their families at Children's Hospital Colorado. In her eBook, How To Help Your Child Learn to Talk Better in Everyday Activities, Mary Lou provides the information, insights, and ideas that she has shared with parents in her practice to enable parents to gain new ideas and more confidence in their abilities to help their children acquire strong speech-language skills. View the Table of Contents at http://helpyourchildspeak.com.