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Toys for Skill Development - Learning to Talk

How Can You Help Your Baby to Learn to Talk?

From the moment you bring baby home, you will be helping him learn to talk. By talking to him about what you're doing throughout the day and singing nursery rhymes to him, he will begin to understand that the world is full of different sounds.

From around six months your baby will have begun to work out that certain sounds have certain meanings and he will be listening intently to you when you talk to him.

Toys to help your Baby to Learn to Talk

Toys like “Baby Tad” from Leapfrog can be quite fun at helping baby to learn about different sounds. Leapfrog also developed its “LittleTouch LeapPad” to help babies from six months start to build their understanding of language.

Helping Your Baby to Learn to Talk – Interacting with Your Baby

Taking baby for a walk and talking about what you see will also help. Car trips can be fun too and you can play spot the lorry games. Even the M1 can be fun on car journeys with a toddler that is looking for a pink lorry!

Around about the first year, your baby will be quite successful at copying sounds. The most common starting sound is ‘Da Da' and ‘Ga Ga' followed eventually by ‘Ma Ma'. Repeat the sounds that he makes and start to interact with him.

The more sounds and voices baby hears, the faster they will learn. Try not to ever have silent space between you and your baby. Even routine tasks for you like making a cup of coffee will be of interest to your baby.

Talking Toys for babies

Talking toys can help baby learn about the phonic sounds he will need as he starts the long journey of learning to talk. Babies need to work out that what they hear is made up of different sounds so do break words down a little when you talk to baby.

Books for you to encourage your baby how to talk

There are a number of fun books that you can read to baby to encourage him to interact with you. Amazon has a number of popular children's books as does Early Learning Centre.

Think about what interests baby – if he likes planes then buy a picture book of planes and airports. If he likes trains, buy a book of trains with some lift-the-flap interest.

Books like “Bard's Rhyme Time” from Baby Einstein is full of surprises or “Elmer's Friends” from David McKee is full of animals and a colourful elephant.

“This Little Baby” from Sandra Lousada is a beautiful book full of baby photos showing different emotions.

Helping Your Baby to Learn to Talk – Other Hints and Tips

The most important part you can play is to keep communicating with your baby about normal everyday things. Try not to be too silent unless you want him to go to sleep. Be excited about his world and he'll soon want to tell you how he feels too.

Just remember to talk to baby when you play and sing together. Always gain his attention before you start to talk to him otherwise he won't follow you at all. When he does talk to you listen to him and make sure he has finished what he is trying to say to you.

And ask occasional questions to get a response. Give him a choice of grapes or raisins.

If you are at all worried about the rate of your baby's development in speaking talk to your health visitor or doctor. Generally a two year old will understand things like ‘pick up your teddy and bring it to me' and they may have a vocabulary of around 10 words.

All children develop at different rates and most catch up by the time they go to school. Remember that some children do not talk a lot but when they do their vocabulary is good. Others may talk a lot but you might not understand them.

Take it slowly with baby and celebrate their new word successes.

To find out more about what to look out for when choosing and buying nursery toys visit our How to Choose and Buy a Baby Toy for Different Ages section and our How to Choose and Buy a Baby Toy for Helping to Develop Different Skills section.

To find out more about the different types of nursery toy that are available for each age group visit our Types of Nursery Toy section.

To find out more about the different online baby and nursery toy shops and stores visit our Top Sites section.

To find out more about the top brands of baby toys visit our Top Brands section

You can also find out more in our How to Play with Baby section.