As soon as your baby begins to "coo," you can respond to these early attempts at communication by "cooing" right back. These back- and-forth baby talk conversations let your infant know that what she has to say is important to you!

Songs are a perfect way to introduce even the youngest babies to syllables, because in music, each syllable gets one beat. Being aware that words can be broken into smaller parts is a critical pre-reading skill – and this can be introduced just by singing to your infant.

When we talk to babies, we instinctively exaggerate words, slow down and elevate the pitch of words. In this way, we can help babies distinguish between different sounds or syllables in words and even identify where one word ends and the next word begins.

Your baby can’t get enough of listening to you talk! Your baby is familiar with and focused on your voice, its tone and its cadence. You can stimulate your baby’s oral language abilities by just talking to her…about anything!

Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a good singer, your baby loves the sound of your voice. Humming and singing to your baby soothes him and gives you some happy bonding time.

Toward the end of the first six months, your infant will begin to experiment with her mouth, tongue and throat and make more sounds. You can react to the sounds your child is making and turn it into a back-and-forth conversation!

This soft cloth book is great for the tiniest hands - and mouths - to explore. Infant eyes prefer to focus on the contrasting colors of red, black and white. You can expose your baby to books with these cotton pages of bold colors and entertaining sounds.