Developmental milestones include:

• She is responding to her name
• She makes her own sounds in response to sounds that she hears
• She is starting to experiment with her babbling
• She is trying to imitate sounds
• The range of sounds she can makes is growing
• She can hold a ‘conversation’

All children are different and develop at different rates, so don’t be overly concerned if your baby is acquiring new skills at a different rate to those around her. But if you are worried about her development, talk to a health professional for a little reassurance.

What can I do to encourage her communication?

• Play copycat games. Your baby will love it when you copy his sounds
• Have ‘conversations’ with your baby, waiting for a pause in her babble to ‘answer’.
• Ask her questions – and wait for an answer. Your tone of voice should signal to your baby that you have finished taking and now it’s her turn.
• Introduce your baby to simple words that apply to his everyday life. Use the correct word rather than babytalk – this will help her speech patterns later on.
• Read a book with your baby – at this stage, she’ll start to be interested in the illustrations as well as the sound of your voice, so try to choose a book that has bright and clear pictures.

This article was written by Ella Walsh for Kidspot.