Your baby’s number 1 favourite activity for their entire first year

Your baby is just beginning to understand that some words represent actual objects and events. To a baby, adult conversation sounds something like this: “Areyouhungrywanttoeat?” The adult brain can insert boundaries between these words, but baby brains can’t do that yet.

When you speak at a slightly slower pace about what’s happening at the moment, they can hear the separation between words and sounds. Enjoy your “conversations” by responding when they make sounds back at you.

Here is an example of a “conversation” with your baby:

• In the nursery: “I’m going to pick you up now. Here you go, up in the air… up, up, now down, down.”
• Going outside: “Now we’re going over to the door…” (at the door) “I will touch the handle and open it. I’m opening the door with my hand. Oh, do you feel that? There’s a little breeze outside, do you feel that on your face? I can feel it on my face. The sun is shining, too.”
• At the sink: “I’m going to turn the handle… look, here comes water out of the tap. Now let’s put our fingers under the water. The water is cold, isn’t it?”

As parents, we’re trained to think that when a baby gets fussy it’s because they must need to eat, sleep, or have their diaper changed. Yet sporadically, they just want their world to get a little bigger. This is why talking slowly while you show your baby the world will be their absolute favourite activity in the first year.