Today Tile Triggered Content

An important part of communication is listening to another person – and not being distracted by all the other noises around us. As adults we can do this pretty well (most of the time), but the part of your toddler’s brain that helps them with attention is still developing. You can help.

Attention is more than listening 

It's true! Many sucking behaviours will develop in your baby as they feed and explore objects. These different movements will allow the development and control of the muscles required to generate sounds and speak. 

Children learn more effectively when they hear the same books read again and over. Hearing the same words again and over helps them comprehend the meaning of the words and to use them in context. The text is familiar, which gives your child the confidence to read on his or her own. The use of repeated words helps your child to directly participate in the reading experience, which boosts their confidence and makes story time more fun. When your child feels at ease with a repeating narrative and can participate, this will help lay the foundation for future literacy skills. 

Have you noticed your toddler becoming aware of their emotions and beginning to use words to describe some of them? You may hear them start to say how they feel; this can be helpful for your toddler, as it helps them to regulate their emotions.  

Emotions can be very powerful for toddlers, as can the feelings that come with them.  

In this video on YouTube, Prof Ben Ambridge from the ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD) outlines why 'clever mistakes' are often a sign of progress in language learning and why the best way to respond to them is to keep on talking.

When your baby looks at the same object as you or another person, they will find themselves in something call a ‘shared-attention episode.’ 
 

These moments allow for an exchange of information between them and another person. This helps them to learn about what you're sharing as you look at something together, their thoughts, intentions, the environment in which it occurs and the object. 
 
There is a lot of cognitive processing at play here as your baby processes and responds to both intentional and incidental signalling and gaze between both the initiator of this interaction and the responder. They might be the initiator and you respond, or vice versa.
 
So, just talking about a simple object with your child and looking at it together has many learning opportunities for their cognition, language, and social and emotional development.

Your toddler has a thirst for learning and might be using new words all the time. The first words your toddler says will probably be the ones they hear a lot – and the words that seem important to the people around them. But how does your toddler learn new words beyond simply listening?  

Not all listening is equally good for learning new words 

Every skill your baby masters is amazing and an important step in their development. But, we just love skills that seem really simple but are actually quite complicated. Waiting in a ‘ready, steady, go’ game is one of those! 

What’s so special about waiting for a moment?  

Your baby might not be saying words just yet, but now they can use their voice to get your attention, they’ll let you know when they want a chat...  

Your baby is excited to be able to use their voice – they’ve been practising for a while and their conversational toolkit has been growing. If you hear your baby making deliberate sounds, look at what they’re doing. Your baby will greet you with a big smile, as they will have achieved their goal of catching your attention.  

Babbling is a telltale sign that your baby is gaining control over their speech. They are learning to control the movement in their throat, allowing them to play around with volume, pitch changes and more controlled sounds. 

Our vocal tracts are quite fascinating: such a small part of our body produces a major part of our communication.