Health Tip: Talk to Your Baby

-- Talking with your baby helps the child's language development, the Nemours Foundation says.

Researchers have found that the number of words a parent said to a child was strongly associated with the depth of the child's vocabulary at the age of 3.

And when parents used different words and sentences in conversation, their children had higher rates of vocabulary growth, vocabulary use and IQ scores at age 3, the foundation added.

Nemours suggests these approaches in each phase of your child's life:

In the first five months of life, use "tummy time" as an opportunity to describe out loud what you can see, smell and hear from your baby's point of view.
From ages 6 to 11 months, talk through your actions with your baby during everyday tasks, such as baths.
From 12 to 17 months, use finger movements when sharing nursery rhymes to encourage the child to join and mimic your actions.
From 18 to 23 months, sing nursery rhymes that act out actions such as "1,2, Buckle My Shoe."

Posted: January 2019