Life is busy with a little baby. Every day routines give you a chance to watch, listen and play with your baby to discover how well your baby is communicating for his or her age.
By 6 months most children will:
- Turn to the source of sounds they hear
- Startle in response to sudden loud noises
- Make different cries for different needs (hungry, tired)
- Watch your face as you talk
- Smile and laugh in response to your smiles and laughs
- Imitate coughs and other sounds – e.g. “ah”, “eh”, “buh”
- Play with sounds
You can help your baby communicate:
- Imitate your baby’s sounds
- Imitate and exaggerate facial expressions and actions that your baby makes
- Talk and sing regularly throughout the day with your baby
- Talk about the things you see and do
- Make eye contact with your baby when you say his or her name, when feeding, bathing and changing him or her
- Play with noisemakers, rattles, and squeaky toys, moving them around your baby to encourage him to track the toy with his eyes and reach for it
- Play simple games like “Peek-a-boo.”
If you think your child is not meeting the developmental milestones as expected don’t ‘wait and see’. Contact Us to make a referral for a speech and language assessment.
If your child does not startle to loud sounds or look in the direction of sounds, have his or her hearing checked. Ask your family doctor for a referral to Infant Hearing Program administered through ErinoakKids. (Phone # 1-877-374-6625).
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