Helping babies learn language

Language grows fatest in the first four years of life. This is an important time to build strong connections for understanding and talking. Hearing words, listening to conversations, and being cared for help children to learn and use language.

Children learn to pay attention to sounds and voices before they learn to listen to language. Attention is the start of listening and learning. Talking, singing, or reading with other people helps them to build their attention and listening skills.

The brain gets better at hearing sounds, words, and the rhythm of talking. Listening helps children to understand. Understanding first is important and happens before they can learn to speak. The more language a child hears, the stronger their brain grows for learning.

As their memory develops, they learn to remember sounds and words and how to use them. The more they hear language around them, the more they are able to use it to train their brain to remember it.

Language is a social skill. Learning it happens when babies interact with children and adults. Back-and-forth interactions are the start of turn-taking in later conversations.

Real-life experiences are important for setting the foundation for language learning. Talking, playing, and exploring with other children and adults help them to connect with the world around them. This helps them to understand.

Although Cochlear developed these tools to help infants and toddlers with hearing loss to learn language - the principles of learning language are applicable to all. These tools guide parents in building strong communication skills. 

Although Hearing First developed these tools for infants and toddlers with hearing loss, they are valuable to any parent who would like practical steps to help their child learn to listen, speak, and read. They are designed to build daily routines for language learning, support early reading, and open up new opportunities for connection and learning for all children.

There is also a webinar series for parents. This may rely on higher data requirements.

 The Listening Room offers free, fun activities to help parents build their child’s listening and speaking skills at home. Designed for children with hearing loss but useful for all children. It requires you to signup and login. It contains songs, stories, and games for all ages, making language learning enjoyable. 

It is available in the following languages:  Afrikaans, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, multiple English dialects, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish (with regional variants), Swati, Turkish, and Vietnamese .