Should Parents Communicate With Their Babies?

Yes, parents should communicate with their babies to help them learn new words and sentences and to delight in learning the language. This is the opinion of many experienced mothers as well as pediatricians from all over the world; communicating with the child helps him/her learn how to build good relationships as well as develop into a happy and confident child. 

Tips to develop best communication with babies:

• All children are social from birth and communicate with the parents in various ways; the first sign of communication in a baby is a cry to attract the attention of parents and other caregivers. It is significant to note that as we look into an infant’s eyes and talk to him/her they are able to understand our thoughts.

• We could help our babies to pick up talking skills when we respond positively to his/her smile, facial gestures and movements by using words to talk to them. It has also been found that singing songs, reciting nursery rhymes and reading books to him/her helps stimulate talk and build language skills.

• Parents especially mothers need to realize that they should start talking to their baby even before birth; they can sing and talk to their unborn baby when he/she kicks and moves. The baby is able to hear and recognize their parent’s voice even before birth; mothers can also encourage the father to talk to the baby. Talking, listening and responding to the child’s sounds and expressions is the first step to building a life time connection that is beneficial to both the child and the parents.

• Communicating with our baby need not be always verbal; you could also use non-verbal cues like smiling at the baby when he/she smiles at you. You could also use other non-verbal cues like kissing, hugging or cuddling the child, sticking out our tongue or just opening our mouth wide with a smile. Most infants are like sponges and they easily absorb whatever we teach them especially till the age of 3 to 4 years. The parent’s positive communication could help build communication skills and a sense of trust and confidence in parents.

• Parents can definitely do a good job trying to build both verbal communication skills in their infants; but some children especially boys may be slower in verbal communication than girls. However parents can definitely help their children to cultivate these skills by encouraging them to look at pictures in books and asking him/her what one sees. We could also encourage the baby to repeat what he/she wishes to communicate to us; children start understanding and using the language we speak when we encourage babies to use small sentences and to repeat them. 

Have you as a parent started communicating with your baby?