Talk, smile or sing to your baby while looking at their face. Allow time for the baby to respond to you, perhaps by turning their head to look at you. Imitate their actions in response.
Studies have shown that children can focus on adults' conversations and hear the language used around them from infancy.
Parents who interact with infants and toddlers on a face-to-face basis through eye contact and talking about what they are seeing and experiencing help them build attention, language and learning skills. Brooks, R., & Meltzoff, A.M. (2005). The development of gaze following and its relationship to language. Developmental Science. 8:535–543. Rudd, L. C., Cain, D. W., & Saxon, T. F. (2008). Does Improving Joint Attention in Low-Quality Child-Care Enhance Language Development? Early Child Development and Care, 178(3), 315–338.
Neural studies in young infants have found that parents maintaining eye contact with their infants and sharing about things together play a crucial role in their speech processing. Such interactions specifically enhance their attention to relevant social information about the speaker and the objects the speaker is referring to.
A systematic review of 60 studies also found that when talking to children,
- Topping, K., Dekhinet, R. & Zeedyk, S. (2013) Parent–infant interaction and children’s language development, Educational Psychology, 33:4, 391-426.