Babbling in Baltimore: Dear Abby

Dear Abby,
How old are children before they learn to speak in full sentences? I know children all
over the world learn to speak their own language, but is the process for learning
language similar for all children? My husband things learning English takes children
longer than most of the other languages. What are some of the key milestones in
learning language that I might look or? Does it help or hurt if I speak baby talk to my
baby? My son is almost 18 months old and hardly say anything, and when he does
speak, it's usually just a single word. Is that typical? I would appreciate any ideas you
might have for helping me teach my child to speak.
Babbling in Baltimore
Dear Babbling in Baltimore,

Thank you for reaching out. Parenting can be stressful especially if you desperately wanting to hear
your child talk. Hearing your child talk is the most amazing thing in the world. Each child language
development is different depending on the cultures, for example people in African in (Ivory Coast) has
different beliefs “in the spirit world all people understand all languages (Gottlieb, 2000, p. 161). For some
children if they are exposed to hearing their older siblings talk, they are more likely to stay saying words
at an early age. From the moment babies are already using language to communicate to us, form zero
months infant cries and facial expression is there mode of communication. The first sounds the babies are
capable of making are “oo-ing” and “ah -ing” and gurgling sounds babies make beginning at about 2
months old at 4 to 6 months cooing develops into babbling repetitive consonant vowel combinations such
as “ ba-ba-ba “ or “ do-do-do-do babbling appears to be the universal sounds for babies ( Lee at al., 2010).
However after a couple of months, infants begin to babble in the sounds distinctive to their culture and
ease to babble in sounds they have not heard used by the people around them (Arnett, 2012, p. 163). By
around 8 to 10months, infant begins to use gestures to communicate (Goldin & Meadow, 2009). For
example, they may use their hands to send signal to their parents that they needed to be pick up. Infants
first words usually a spoken a month or two before or after their first birthday, typically first word
include important people like “ Mama” “ Dada” familiar animals like (“dog” ) or familiar object like ( “
car”), food , greetings and farewell ( Waxman & Lidz , 2006). By their first birthday infants can speak
only a word or two they understand about 50 words (Menyuk et al., 1995). At 18 months infants can
combine two words like (“Daddy bye -bye”) (Berger, 2018, p. 180). Your son’s language development is
normal you do not need to panic at 24 months he will learn more vocabulary and eventually able to
combine more syllables. At 24 months infants can combine two or three words together, half the toddler’s
utterance are two or more words long (Berger, 2018, p. 180). The best thing you can do to help your son
learn how to talk is talk to him often, encourage him to learn new vocabulary. Read to him, involve him
in your conversation. Teach your child simple songs and rhymes. Most especially be patients with him
and show him your support.
Wish you the best, here is a website of an article that can help you through. The name of the article is
Milestone Moment. Hope it helps.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/milestonemomentseng508.pdf
Best regards,
Abby.
Dear Abby,
Yesterday I had such a fun time playing with my baby. It was almost like we were
dancing. I'd smile and then she'd smile. I'd make a noise and then she'd make a noise.
We played the same game today, and she acted like she had never done it before. Is it
normal for babies to have such a poor memory? Are there certain things that they are
more likely to remember? Are there things that I can do to help my baby’s memory?
Come to think of it, I can barely remember anything from my own preschool years.
Could it be genetic?
Forgetful in Flagstaff
Dear Forgetful in Flagstaff,
Thank you for reaching out. I understand your worries, it is normal for babies to have poor
memories, and it is not associated with genetic problems. I assure you whatever your daughter’s
experiencing right now is very normal you do not need to panic what she is experiencing called infant
amnesia, where infant cannot remember nothing. The part of the brain that is associated with memory is
not fully develop yet it takes years to develop that is one of the reasons why she cannot remember about
the games you are playing. For example, you may not remember your kindergarten teacher, but it does
not mean you do not have a memory of being in her class. Babies are more attractive to objects and shape
compare to verbal games like you making a noise because their visual memories are strong. For instance
if you are playing with her making noises while using an object to represent it, most likely she will
remember it. Information-processing research finds evidence of very early memories, with visual
memories particularly strong (Leung et al., 2016; Gao et al., 2016). As your daughter gets older, she will
be able to recall more information with less reminders. Many researchers have found that memory
improves markedly by 9 months (Mullaly & Maguire, 2014). Stimulate your baby’s brain by talking to
your baby, playing games with her. Sing to her, make rhymes. Engage her sense and provide complete
emotional support. I will include an article about infant amnesia to help ease your mind.
Hope it helps.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3929851/
Regards,
Abby

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Dear Abby,

Dear Babbling in Baltimore,

Dear Forgetful in Flagstaff,

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