Face to face talking
- Either hold baby in your arms or in a bouncy chair or on their backs on the floor (on a bunny rug). Here's my sisters week old baby Freya and myself demonstrating this nicely! I was so lucky to capture this moment of pure gold.
- Looking at your baby, directly following their gaze when they are in play and talk mode increases cognitive development.
- Every time you look directly into your baby’s eyes, it creates a new neural pathway in the brain and connects those synapses.
- You can either do mother ease (baby talk, mirroring your baby’s coos), or just talk about your day and what is going on around you and baby.
- At 4 months, this then leads to turn taking and progresses to communication and talking.
Reading to your baby
- Most babies love a nice simple story/picture book. Just a few words on each page and brightly coloured, but not overly 'busy'. Most babies prefer the same book each day plus a new one each week.
- Make use of your local library. Libraries in New South Wales, Australia run Babies for Books sessions. These are free, so just ask your local librarian.
Babies learn by repetition
- Choose a time of the day when they want to be played with and read to. Sit your baby on your lap and follow words as you say them. Try and sound animated, it makes the story and reading more interesting for everyone.
- Nursery rhymes and tactile songs are also good, such as incey wincey spider, round and round the garden, little green frog.
- Talking and reading to your baby enriches your relationship and by the way babies love the sound of dads voices a lot and often prefer a story from dad because of the range of tones in a mans voice is greater than us girls!
Below is one of videos on my Youtube channel where I sing one of my favourite songs you can try with baby. It features some Aussie animals just for fun.
https://www.facebook.com/NurtureParenting.BabySleep/videos/418705328996527/https://nurtureparenting.com.au/tummy-time-and-play-and-why-its-important/
https://nurtureparenting.com.au/why-we-need-to-teach-our-babies-to-roll-over/
https://nurtureparenting.com.au/helping-your-child-get-awesome-fine-motor-skills/
https://nurtureparenting.com.au/what-ipads-are-doing-to-fine-motor-skills/