Mothers Tips for How to Learn to Talk
Babies begin talking in a very natural way, by making their own sounds and
creating their own words. If they were not taught a language, they would
probably invent their own, naming objects in the way that Adam did. By
allowing your infants frequent use of "baby talk," you foster their creative
abilities. Babies left to their own speech fabrications will fashion sound
according to their original perception of the world.
You need not teach any definite words to babies until they are about three or
four months old. Then you can gradually introduce adult words, repeating
them very slowly. Adults normally speak more rapidly than infants because
adults' brain waves are shorter than children's. Therefore, when talking to
children, you need to speak more slowly so that children can understand
easily and learn words more quickly. If you speak too rapidly, they will have a
more difficult time understanding. When you read to your children, you should
use the same principle. If you read a story slowly, after one or two times they
not only will understand it but may even begin to memorize it.
The language of babies is a highly symbolic one. A baby condenses many
meanings into one word. Children have a full range of concepts but cannot
formulate them in precise detail. The scope of babies' concepts is actually as
broad as adults', but their concepts are not expressed in such analytical detail.
The adult mentality gives clarity and precision to each part of that generalized
understanding. An adult may use about ten thousand words to express
concepts for which a child uses only about twenty. During the early period of
mental development, if children are deluged with adult concepts, it will be
more difficult for them to develop innate, intuitive understanding. It is better to
let children talk-to themselves, to dogs, to flowers, to anything-in their own
language. Then gradually more detailed adult expressions will emerge.
Babies begin making sounds as soon as they are born and begin to enjoy this
new activity during their first three months. They become increasingly sociable
and responsive during the second three months, smiling and giggling when
someone talks to them. Children often begin imitating simple words after
babbling in their own language for several months, usually during the nine- to
twelve-month period. They often begin by saying "mama" or "dada," and
recognizing the sound of their name. After their first birthday, babies often
begin pointing at and naming things in their own intuitive language. As
children approach the middle of their second year, they usually have about ten
words in their vocabulary and begin stringing words together into simple
phrases. By the age of two, children usually have more than three hundred
words in their vocabularies and are able to make short sentences. They can
understand simple sentences and enjoy listening to stories, looking at pictures
in books, and making simple marks on a piece of paper with a crayon and
pencil.