Acknowledgements - gapitc

Talk to your infant throughout the day about what you are doing and he is seeing.
This helps him connect meaning to the words he hears frequently.For example,“Let’s
take off your sleeper so you can have a nice bath. The water feels warm. Look at the
bubbles on your sponge!”
Your baby is learning language as she listens to you. She will imitate the sounds she
hears in her home and school setting.Younger babies practice imitating those sounds
by cooing and making vowel sounds (ooh, ah). Older infants distinguish sounds as
words and make consonant sounds (bah, bah) that soon will become first words!
Give your infant simple one-step directions or requests.Use gestures to add meaning.
For example, point to a pop up toy and say,“Pop up! Can you make it pop up?”
If your baby has frequent ear infections,this can interfere with his ability to hear clearly
and discriminate sounds. Be sure to communicate with your health care professional
and your baby’s teacher if you have any concerns about your infant’s hearing and
response to sounds and spoken words.
New research on the brain tells us that there are critical periods, or “windows
of opportunity,” when developing certain skills are easiest. For example, the years
from infancy through age 10 are when the brain is most receptive to learning a
second language. If your child hears one language at home and another at school,
he will be able to learn simple words or directions in his home language and in the
second language.
To make books more interesting for infants, safely secure materials such as cotton
balls, sandpaper, crinkly paper, etc. to pictures so babies can experience different
textures.
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