Talking, Singing ... is it ever enough?

[Thaleia]

I have a 9m DS and I am wondering if I talk & sing enough with him. I am pretty sure I'm doing ok on the play front but at some point during the day, I just don't have anymore to say. Or sing.

It's hard to put "minutes" on it but how do you feel?

I wasn't aware you were supposed to count?

I just treated the kid as a person who might be interested in the world, so I explained everything to her as I went along - and I mean everything - how I was making dinner, how and why I was sorting the washing, why it was raining, what the weather was like, what we were going to do next and why, what the names of the shops we were going in were ...

Admittedly we now have a three-year old who narrates her whole life (e.g. over breakfast "So, on that morning they decided to go to Aldi for an adventure, but first they had breakfast" and so on) but I never ran out of things to say.

I wouldn't worry about it though. Soon you won't be able to get a word in :)

A lot of other activities are good for language development, not just talking. For example, letting them feel all sorts of different textures with their hands and mouths, listening to music and dancing, making noise with musical instruments or puts and pans and wooden spoons. I think that multi sensory rooms are brilliant to help children in language development. Also reading books, obviously. And making lots of silly noises like animal noises and car noises. I am a childminder and the little girl I look after just said 'ding dong' today because I say that every single time someone knocks on the door.

You can cook spaghetti, and put it on the high chair tray, and let the child play with it and feel it with his mouth. Also, I do this with jelly (I use vegetarian jelly) it's a real mess but it helps babies experience various sensations in the mouth and it's very good for their development.

Sometimes with talking it's about quality, not about quantity. With all my minded babies (and my children) I try to spend ten minutes just with the child sitting on my knees facing me, and I make simple noises such as ME ME and MA MA and LA LA and if they try to imitate me I praise them. Just encourage them to make any sounds really.