Babies are born with an amazing ability to hear the different tones and speech sounds that make up all the languages in the world. However, as your baby continues to hear her native language(s) being spoken, her mind will focus on those specific tones and sounds and begin to lose the ability to pick up the sounds of other languages.¹ (Don’t worry, though, if you haven’t enrolled her in a bilingual program yet! Children’s minds are so flexible, language learning continues to be relatively easy for them through their early school years.)

At 6-9 months old, your baby is starting to develop greater Expressive Language skills by babbling the sounds and rhythms of her native language. Whether it is English, Chinese, Spanish, or Swahili, she is able to to produce her own matching sounds.^2,3

Because babies are so good at learning language at this age, research suggests that early infancy is a great time to expose your baby to multiple languages.⁴ Though there has been concern that young bilingual children may develop a slight delay in verbal language skills, it is only temporary if it happens at all. There is often a time period where the two languages are mixed up, but this is also short term, and before long the children sort them out.⁵ In fact, bilingual children can have an advantage in language learning because their ears are trained to tell the difference between the distinctive sets of speech sounds, making them better language decoders.⁶

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Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your baby’s development of these Expressive Language skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

1. Speak in your native language and/or encourage a dual language, if desired. Take advantage of your baby’s ability to hear and tell apart the many sounds from all the world’s languages. If you want her to grow up bilingual, speak to her in your native language at home (if it’s different from the local language) or consider enrolling her in a dual language immersion daycare program.
2. Sing nursery songs and rhymes from your native culture. Babies love learning through rhyme and songs. Share your favorite songs from your culture throughout the day, including when you change her, are riding in the car together, or getting ready for bedtime. If you’re not bilingual yourself, listen to foreign language music or stories together with your baby.

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Expressive Language developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) he has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Babbles the sounds and rhythms of your native language.*

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Sources:

¹Moskowitz, Clara (2011). What Bilingual Babies Reveal about the Brain: Q&A with Psychologist Janet Werker. Live Science. Retrieved December 13, 2013 from http://www.livescience.com/13016-bilingual-babies-brain-language-learning.html.

²National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (2010). Speech and Language Developmental Milestones. National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved December 13, 2013, from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/speechandlanguage.aspx.

³Moon, Christine; Lagercrantz, Hugo; and Kuhl, Patricia K. (2013). Language Experience in Utero Affects Vowel Perception after Birth: A Two-Country Study. Acta Paeiatrica. Retrieved December 13, 2013 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.12098/full.

⁴Gray, Richard. Babies Who Hear Foreign Speech Pick Up Languages Faster. The Telegraph. Retrieved December 15, 2013 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1944528/Babies-who-hear-foreign-speech-pick-up-languages-faster.html.

⁵Soto, Roxana A. Raising a Bilingual Child: The Top Five Myths. Baby Center. Retrieved December 13, 2013 from http://www.babycenter.com/0_raising-a-bilingual-child-the-top-five-myths_10340869.bc.

⁶Armes, Cory (2011). Bilingual Babies: Language Delay or Learning Advantage? Scientific Learning: The Science of Learning Blog. Retrieved December 15, 2013 from http://www.scilearn.com/blog/bilingual-babies-cognitive-skills.php.

*Suggested by Playful Bee’s panel of experts as additional skills and abilities common in specified age range.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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