Our Baby is Talking!

Our little girl is now 23 weeks old and changing so much; one thing I've always been looking forward to is to be able to have a conversation with our daughter, although a full conversation is probably a couple of years off I look forward to being able to have a "chat" with her.

Up until about a week ago our little girl was making the usual gurgling and occasional cooing noises like any other 0-4 month old baby. I was starting to wonder when we might hear some other noises, then, soon after, we woke up to hear our little girl chatting away to herself (I say chatting, more like random noises that we hadn't heard before!) needless to say we were both over the moon. It came on all of a sudden, literally from the occasional gurgle and coo to a full on chatterbox. She is very pleased with herself and she can see how much we are enjoying it; she is still in the early stages of her speech development as I think she forgets she can do it as she'll go a day without making a noise then all of a sudden she is off again chatting away.

We've been talking to her and making noises towards her constantly since she was born and she is starting to respond with similar sounds; I can't wait to hear what noises will come out of her mouth next. We've noticed different sounds often mean different things, and it's easier to differentiate between general chat, if she's tired and if she's hungry now. It feels great to finally get some direct feedback from our little one, smiles were great but now with the vocal addition it feels like we have a more direct line of communication to her, although it is all gobbledygook at the moment.

This is our first child and the day to day development is so interesting, I'm really looking forward to the further development of her speech over the next few months, and looking forward to her first full words.

Below are some tips that are suggested on the NHS website for helping with your child's speech:

• From your baby's birth make faces, noises and talk about anything and everything throughout the day, along with directly interacting with your baby asking questions such as "Do you want your milk now?" or "Shall we change your bum?".
• Start reading and looking at books with your baby from an early age, point at and talk about the animals/letters/numbers on page.
• If you are attempting to teach your child words or talk with them, then it's best to have the television turned off as background noise can be distracting.
• To get your child used to their name use it at the start of a sentence.

I'm interested to hear your stories from your children's speech development and first words, let me know what happened, how you felt about it and any fun stories from the early stages of your child's vocal development.

About the author

Aaron Clifford

Aaron started programming 13 years ago and is the lead programmer at Mum Network Limited. He married his wife Natalie in June 2012, and their first baby (little girl) was born in December 2012.

Click here to read my full biography.