9: How to Influence Language Development from Infancy

We all know that reading books to our kids is one of the best things we can do to help them in their literacy and language development. But what else can we do as parents in our everyday routines to set our little ones up for the greatest chance of success when it comes to speech outcomes? This episode explores the impact that we can have as parents on these skills, and how simple, conversational strategies with our babies can have huge effects down the road. Talking to your baby with special attention to certain, simple strategies can make a big difference in how infants piece together parts of language and social interactions, and include concepts such as encouraging eye contact, pausing for them to take a turn, utilizing "parent-ese," being mindful of cues for overstimulation, and more. We also talk about how to best set up environments that are conducive to language-learning activities.