From Cries to First Words: Building Speech & Language from Day One

Your baby is communicating right now, even if you haven’t heard a single “real” word yet. This week, Dr. Tiffany walks through what infant speech and language development actually looks like from birth to 12 months, so you can stop guessing and start noticing the small signals that matter: crying patterns, eye contact, cooing, babbling, name response, gestures, imitation, and those first emerging words.

We break the milestones into clear age ranges (0 to 3 months, 4 to 6, 7 to 9, and 10 to 12) and connect each stage to the bigger picture of school readiness. Then we get practical with simple, play-based strategies that fit into real life. Dr. Tiffany also speak directly to daycare providers with easy ways to create language-rich routines and reduce passive time.

If you’re worried, we cover red flags worth bringing to a pediatrician, and why early support makes a big difference. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a parent or childcare friend, and leave a review so more families can find these milestones and tools.

Tuesday Talks—Real conversations sparking real change in education.

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Tuesday Talks is hosted by Dr. Tiffany. She has been a Speech/Language Pathologist for 20 years. She's also a speaker and educational consultant. Dr. Tiffany hosts webinars and in-person workshops for teachers and parents.

Book Dr. Tiffany as a speaker for your teachers, parent groups and professional development sessions! Visit: www.OurWordsMatterConsulting.com

Transcript

Welcome And Who This Helps

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Tuesday Talks, your educational podcast helping parents become strong advocates for their kids and teachers to make big impacts in the classroom. Here we go. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome everybody. Welcome back to another Tuesday Talks. If you're just joining me for the first time, thank you so much. And if you are a returning listener, I sincerely appreciate your time joining me each week as we talk about all things education. And for today's episode, I'm really focusing on my parents of infants and my daycare providers. And honestly, anyone who's ever looked at a baby and wondered, are they doing what they're supposed to be doing? I know they're a baby, but are they progressing how they should be progressing? So today we're talking about speech and language development from birth to 12 months of age. If you have a kid older, like toddler age, be sure to check out my episode earlier this season where I talked about those developmental milestones for ages two through five, which are really important because you're leading up to kindergarten. And then we know all the things can happen when kids enter kindergarten and you know they're tested during that first week of school, the social norms change, the attention time length changes, all of those things. So be sure to check that episode out. But today we're gonna talk about what to look for in our babies, birth to 12 months of age. What's typical? And most importantly, what can you do every single day to support your baby through play? And you heard that right. It's through play. And I'm gonna give you really practical ways at the end of this episode to play with your baby without feeling like you need to carve out this special time to sit on the blanket on the floor with them. Everything's perfect, get out the toys. No, no, no, because we know life is busy and language and speech development is really incorporated into everything that we do every day. So I'm gonna share ways to incorporate that play with your baby in natural ways through things that you're doing every day. So let's get into it.

What Milestones Really Mean

SPEAKER_00 2:10

So first, I wanna talk about, I want to ground ourselves before we jump into milestones. And if you've heard that term developmental milestones before, or if you haven't, I should say, you might be thinking, what does that mean? So developmental milestones are just those markers that, you know, research has showed that kids need to be doing certain things at certain age ranges. Remember, there's no magic that happens at a specific age, but there are ranges of ages where things should be developing or should have developed. So those developmental milestones are gonna be those markers that we want to pay attention to for babies and older kids, but today we're focusing on babies to make sure that things are developing and progressing the way that they are. So if they're not, we can seek intervention and guidance to help them get to where they need to be. And I'm gonna talk about that in this episode as well. So I want to ground ourselves in this in this notion, in understanding that speech is related to the sounds that we make, and language is how we understand and use those sounds to communicate. So when we talk about speech and language development, we're talking about the sounds that our babies are making. We're talking about the language piece, how they're understanding what's being said to them, and then how they use the sounds that they are developing to communicate, to get their needs and wants met. And for babies, they are learning both of these things, speech and language, from the very moment they are born. If you've sat in a room with a baby for even a very short amount of time, you know when they get hungry, what do they do? They cry. That is a form of communication. They don't have the words to say I'm hungry, so they cry to let you know I'm hungry. Maybe they cry to let you know their diaper's wet. Maybe they cry to let you know they're uncomfortable. But whatever the cry is, it gets your attention. And then you start to figure out what the need is. But the babies are using that communication as language. So thinking about it that way. Eye contact, another really great form of communication. Babies are using that as well. Even as they get closer to 12 months of age, eye contact is really important. You know, we have some neurodivergent babies out there that maybe are not using eye contact in what I'll quote and unquote say the typical way, but we do look at eye contact to give us some markers. Babies are looking at the person who's talking to them. Are they looking at you from across the room to get your attention? Do their eyes light up when they see you if you're a familiar face to the baby. We are reading that eye contact as a form of communication for babies too. So if you're waiting for words from your child to really start paying attention as far as whether they're developing or not, I'm here to tell you you're already too late because so much is happening before they ever speak their first words, which I know is an amazing milestone. I have friends, I have coworkers that, of course, they know my background as a speech language pathologist. And so they come and they're like, oh, my baby said their first word. And it's a celebratory moment for sure. But if we're waiting until that happens to really start paying attention to what's going on with the speech and language development, we're already behind. So I want to break this down in a way that feels really easy

Birth To Three Months Basics

SPEAKER_00 5:36

to track. So we're gonna start with zero to three months. So birth to three months of age. So at this stage, babies are crying to communicate their needs. They're making those cooing sounds like, ooh, ah, they're starting to smile, maybe socially. If you come to them with a great big smile and you're, oh, you know, we make the baby voice when we're talking to them, then maybe they reciprocate that smile. Maybe it's a spontaneous smile. They're also at this stage reacting to voices and sounds as well. So if someone comes in with a really loud voice or there's a really loud sound, you'll see them startle, maybe they start to cry. But that is a marker in their development of perceiving, you know, loud, unfamiliar sounds to cause a reaction. And so that's all a part of that cause and effect that I'll talk about in a little bit as well. But what you want to look for in this age range, zero to three months, are they calming to your voice? Are they beginning to make little sounds back? So if you say, hi, hi, are they trying to say something back? Maybe they don't, you know, accurately imitate what you're saying, but are they opening their mouth to just make a I, some type of sound to see if they are, you know, reciprocating what you're saying because that lets you know they're hearing what you're saying, they're picking up on this cause and effect. She says something or he says something, and I can say something too, and playing with their voice, they're realizing their voice in the in at this age range. So definitely something to pay attention to for that, from that zero to three months of age. And again, remember, there's no magic that happens at any of these age ranges that I'm giving you. That if, you know, by the end of their third month of life, if they aren't smiling, then you should rush them to the pediatrician and voice your concerns. I don't want to cause a sense of panic or fear. These are things to look for, to see if they're developing and take note of when they develop. Maybe you just jot a quick note in your phone. Maybe you have a journal and you write the things down. But taking note of the things that I'm gonna talk about today is gonna be really important information to share with your pediatrician should you ever need to communicate some concerns because they're gonna ask you, okay, well, when did you first start to notice this that it wasn't happening? And you need to be able to say

Four To Six Months Babbling Begins

SPEAKER_00 7:59

that. Okay, so for ages um four to six months, it gets a little more fun. Now they're doing a little bit more, you know, they're youngers, like a lot of sleep, eat, poop, repeat. So at this four to six month range, that's when babbling begins. So you might hear them saying and hello, first words right there. Um, you might hear them laughing more or squealing when they get excited. They might be responding to tone of voice. So if you come with a high-pitch, happy, happy voice, or maybe you're talking to another sibling of theirs, and maybe you're getting stirring with them, the baby is responding to that type of voice too. And then they're taking turns making sounds. Remember, we talked about that starting to develop at ages zero to three months, and now four to six months, it be maybe starts to become a little bit more familiar and common for you to say, Mama, mama, and then maybe they start to just put their lips together, just make a mu sound. And that is that reciprocal communication that we do every day as adults. We speak, then the other person speaks. And so your child is demonstrating understanding of that. This is the glimpse of that conversation that will come later when they're talking so much that you wish that they would just take a break from talking. I don't know. I hear that a lot from parents too. All

Seven To Nine Months Name Response

SPEAKER_00 9:23

right, so for that seven to nine month range, this is where we see them responding to their name because they're hearing it or they should be. And I'm gonna talk about that and the practical ways that you can interact through play with your child. They're responding to their name because it's very familiar to them. They're understanding simple words like no or bye-bye, right? Now at this age, they might be crawling, maybe crawling towards something that they don't need to get to, and you say no, and they're understanding I need to stop and look to mom, look to dad, whoever the caregiver is, daycare worker. They're also responding to simple words like bye-bye. Maybe they start to wave with the whole hand. Um, maybe they start to try to say bye-bye. You they're using sounds too at this age range from seven to nine months to get attention as well. So before, when they were younger, zero to three months, they were using crying to get attention. Now they might start using sounds, it might be just a high-pitched ah scream or sorts, but they're using sounds now to get attention, not relying on crying to get the attention. All related to that sense of awareness of their voice developing. And then they're beginning to use gestures like reaching their arms up or raising their arms up, which lets the adult know they want to be picked up, or maybe they reach towards an object that they see on the floor, lets the adult know that they are wanting that. So communication is becoming more intentional at this seven to nine month range than maybe it was previously.

Ten To Twelve Months Skills Connect

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Now, 10 to 12 months. This is really kind of like the sweet spot for me as a speech language pathologist, just because you know, things are really, really starting to connect. Their first words are starting to emerge. They're imitating sounds more readily, more consistently. They're using gestures, like they're pointing to things that they want. If there's a familiar snack that they want on a table, they're pointing up to it to let you know that they want it. They're waving more now. Maybe the whole hand wave is now turning into just the four fingers waving, or maybe they're moving their um elbow and shoulder side to side to move their hand. And then they're understanding simple directions, like come here. Thinking about these milestone markers, first words, imitating sounds, pointing, waving, responding to simple directions. Think about how those things relate to what they're expected to do in kindergarten, right? All roads lead to kindergarten, the child's first experience with school. They're gonna need to have words to communicate, right? They're going to need to imitate sounds as they learn letter sounds, right? They're going to need to learn how to use gestures, perhaps to let a teacher know that they want something that maybe they don't have the word in their vocabulary for at that time. Maybe they are wanting to use gestures to talk with a friend to let them know they don't like something, but they don't have those words in their vocabulary. In kindergarten, they might also they're, I'm sorry, not might, they are definitely going to need to understand simple directions. And so these things are all really developing nicely and solidly throughout this 10 to 12 month range.

Understanding Comes Before Talking

SPEAKER_00 12:46

So, what I also want to share is that in this stage, this range, words may come, but understanding comes first. Know that kids are like sponges, even as babies. They are soaking up everything that they're hearing, everything. And so that understanding is going to develop first. We call that receptive language. That is gonna come first. It's like you're planting little seeds. The more you talk to them, the more you say their name, the more you model things for them. They are soaking it all up. And so the words may come, but the understanding is going to happen first, which is so important because now I'm gonna talk about what parents and even daycare workers can do that you need to be doing daily, that's really practical. And it gives a great it grounds the child in that reality of what communication looks like using their speech and language skills.

Everyday Routines That Build Language

SPEAKER_00 13:44

So I want to bring this into your everyday life. You do not need fancy tools. I know there's a lot of fun things out there on Amazon and in the stores that, you know, say they promote, you know, talking, communication, all these things. You don't need to buy expensive toys. You don't need those things to help your child develop their speech and language skills. What you do need is interaction. Remember, we're not just talking at our kids, we're talking with them, right? They need interaction. And so, yes, that takes time to do that, but I'm gonna talk about some ways that you can just do it throughout your everyday routine. And so here's what that kind of looks like something that I say to parents all the time talk all day long, narrate their life. There are things that are going on every day that you can narrate, and that is remember the understanding comes first. That is planting the seeds in their brains so that those words are becoming more familiar. And then when the words do come, now they have a vocabulary that's been built up because you're narrating their day. What am I talking about? So every day kids are, you know, getting their bath, putting clothes on, eating, getting in the car. These are things that you can narrate all day. For example, mommy's making your bottle. Here's your bottle. Get in the bottle warm. We're putting on your socks. Or my kid liked to always take his socks off when he was a baby. So, oops, your sock is gone. Let's get your sock. Now, in all of these instances, you could very well warm the bottle, put the sock on, or find the sock, and never say one word, right? Because I feel like some parents just feel like the baby is just there, and then you need to focus on getting the things ready for the baby, which is very important. But if you can narrate what you're doing, you're planting those seeds in your baby's mind. They're hearing that language, and there's research out there to support that a child needs to hear a word 500 times before it becomes a part of their vocabulary. Think about that for a minute. 500 times they need to hear a word before it becomes part of their lexicon, they're part of their vocabulary. So narrating their day is one of the easiest ways for you to get so much bang for your buck, your buck being your time. You don't need to go spend money on fancy toys. Narrate their day, narrate everything that's happening for them. At the daycare, same thing. You're narrating their day. Those things become familiar, right? They're part of their routine. So you are planting the seeds of those words every single time that you say them. And so then that is being stored, and later it becomes that expressive language piece. And then that's when the speech sounds are also being used as well. Make sure that you get face to face, not narrating their day all day long, looking right at them. But another way to stimulate speech and language production is get face-to-face because they learn from watching your mouth. Let them see how the sounds are made, right? You're in front of them. You're saying, mama, mama, mama, or maybe it's dad, that whatever the word is, bah-ba for bottle, whatever. But make sure that you're getting face to face with them so they can see that your mouth is opening, it's closing. I'm pushing my lips together, I'm pushing my lips out, whatever the sounds may be, they need to see how those sounds are made. Very important. So if you can, you know, use um maybe you just have a couple of minutes after work, in between bath, and going to bed, and you can get that face-to-face time with them to help them see how sounds are made, that's going to be super important. And that's just not for older babies. Start these things that I am sharing with you today, these practical ways to promote speech and language development right from the jump. You may think that the baby just sleep, eat, poop, repeat, and nothing is happening. Things are happening. So start out narrating that their day, start out getting that face-to-face time and the rest of these things I'm going to share with you, because then it becomes a part of your routine. Now it is ingrained in you to do these things because you've been doing them from the very beginning when your baby was maybe three months old. So now as they get older, it's become a habit for you. Instead of waiting until they're 10 to 12 months old. Now, okay, now I'll narrate their day. Don't wait. Do not wait. That'll be a recurring theme that you hear. Another great practical thing you can do is pause and wait. Saying something, then giving them the space to respond, even if it's just a sound. Pause and wait. That wait time is so important. It is giving them time to process what they've heard and figure out what to do with it. Am I just receiving it and holding on to it? Do I want to try to make a sound now to match what the adult has made? It that that wait time, that pause is so important because if we're constantly giving words, constantly prompting, constantly, you know, getting that face-to-face, mama, mama, mama, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, baba, baba. And you're constantly going, you're not giving any pause. So your kids being overstimulated. They don't have time to process what you're saying. So maybe say, mama, mama, and then maybe pause for a little bit. See what they're gonna do with it. Are they gonna try to make this out or are they just gonna sit there and look at you? If they just sit there and look at you, that's totally fine, but give them that opportunity and that pause to show you what they can do. Another great thing to do is repeat and expand. So, like if your baby says uh Wawa, right? That's a typical um abbreviation for water from little kids. So they may say wawa, which is great. We give them credit for saying the speech sounds. Excellent. Celebrate them, and then you're gonna repeat it and you're gonna expand it because wawa is not how we refer to water as they get older. Wawa, I'm from I lived in Virginia for a while. It's a very nice gas station chain up north, but it doesn't mean Wawa to everyone. So repeat and expand. So, in that example, if your baby says wawa, right? You say yes, wawa, water, water, you're connecting with them. That this phrase, these two little sounds they try to put together, actually sound like this whole word, and that's gonna be so important. Remember, you're making connections, you're planting seeds, super important. Songs and nursery rhymes, super duper easy. If your kid loves wheels on the bus, I know my son did when he was younger, he could listen to it on repeat on YouTube kids. I'm not anti-screen time, you do what's best for your kid, but you do need to have that interaction with them and it needs to come from you. But screen time is perfectly fine. If you're singing the songs yourself, more power to you. But repetition builds memory and language patterns. So if there is a song that your kid loves and you are completely over it because you heard it a thousand times, keep listening to it. That repetition is building up memory, it's forming those language patterns that they are going to need that will serve them as they get older. Sing the songs in the car, sing the songs with them if their songs are on the tablet. Show, sing the songs to them while you get in that face-to-face time so they can see how the sounds are being made as well. And then reading. There's so much research that supports literacy and the connection to speech and language development. All you need to do is just type that into Google literacy and speech and language development. You'll get so much information. It might be overwhelming, but reading to them daily, even as young as two months old, it's not about the story, right? The two months old. I'm not gonna ruin that book. Or whatever, Goldilocks or Goodnight Moon, whatever it is. It's about the exposure. Remember, hearing a word at least 500 times is what research has shown for a child to be able to have that word as part of their vocabulary that they can use later. So the younger the better. It gets them into this habit of expecting to hear this story. You don't need to change the book every day. Remember, repetition is great. Read the same book for a week. Expose them to the words, expose them to the rise and fall of your voice when certain characters talk or certain events happen in the story. It is going to form this expectation from them of having this book read. And it forms a habit for you when you start it while they're younger. Can be, you know, some of the books for babies are squishy. They're made out of material. It can be something as simple as that. It is about the exposure. So just continue to think about that. That exposure is

Daycare Routines That Teach Language

SPEAKER_00 23:00

key. And for my daycare providers, you know, this is your moment too. This age range is when moms and dads are dropping their kids off with you for upwards of eight hours or more a day. And so you are really critical in the early language development. And this is, I'm going to share some ways how I feel like you can support babies that are in your care. Of course, creating those language-rich routines, talking through all of it, the diapering, the feeding, the transitions, using consistent songs and phrases, because remember, babies learn through song and repetition, and they learn through repetition. So using those songs and phrases is going to be very helpful. Get on their level, that eye contact, that face-to-face, so they can see how sounds are being made is key. Limit passive time. So less just swinging on the swing, which is great for common babies that may be in a more escalated state, but they need more interaction. And I know it can be hard because sometimes there's a lot of babies in the room and they all have needs, and it sometimes happens at the same exact time. But once you get past that moment, having more interaction with them is going to be super important. And as a parent, you can even ask about that when you're, you know, thinking about which daycare to choose. How do you all interact with the baby? See what their response is to kind of give you insight into how they see speech and language development in babies. Because I'll tell you, a lot of times people just feel like babies are babies. Until they get about six, eight months old, nobody's really paying attention to that speech and language development because we're thinking about the expression, we're thinking about words when they're little, they are still communicating and they are still receiving and processing the information that you're sharing. Daycare workers also encouraging turn taking. That's that conversational turn taking, even babbling back and forth, that counts. You know, of a sound or word that is consistently being said throughout the day. Maybe you start with Baba, Baba, give that wait time, see if they give it back. Maybe the first day they don't. They're looking at you like, what is this woman doing? But they can start to catch on as you continue with that consistency. And then communicate with parents. This is so important. Share what you're seeing. Just saying, you know, so-and-so had a great day. You know, they had this many wet diapers, they drank this much milk. That's very important. But share what you're seeing. And the way you can share what the only way you can share what you're seeing is to know what you're looking for, right? So being sure that you are understanding what the developmental milestones of birth to 12 months old are. And then that way you can communicate any progress or concerns. Because parents really do look to you to be kind of that guide. If you think about it, you're spending a great deal of time with their child five days a week in most cases. And so they're looking to you to give that insight and that input as well. So

Simple Play That Grows Communication

SPEAKER_00 25:58

if you're thinking of what are some play-based ways to build language, I love to keep it simple and fun. Simple and fun. Peekaboo teaches great anticipation, it teaches social interaction, patty cake builds rhythm and imitation as well. Think about cause and effect toys. Like you do something because you want something to happen. So, like the old school kind of jack in the box where you crank the little thing and you pop the thing will pop out. That's cause and effect. I'm doing this, and the effect is this thing pops out. So that cause and effect is going to be super important because that is a life-learned skill that they will be served well by if they've developed it and I'm sorry, are continuing to develop it as they get into kindergarten. Remember, all roles lead to getting your child ready for school. Plain and simple. You'll hear me come back to that many times because getting our kids ready for kindergarten is not just about whether they can write their name, count to a hundred, and do some simple math. If they haven't developed basic speech and language skills, you're already behind the eight ball. School is more than just the academic piece. So you'll hear me say that many times on Tuesday talks for sure. Um mirror play. Babies watching their own mouth mood, put them in front of a mirror. If it's something that could be propped up on the floor, maybe have a big mirror in your bathroom, maybe have the taller mirror that um you have in your bedroom to look at yourself after you get dressed. Hold them. Hold them up. You're both in the mirror. Let them watch themselves try to make those sounds so they can see what their own mouths are doing. They see it, they feel it, they can repeat it. And then lastly, pointing and naming, labeling everything around them. If you remember like the color purple movie of going around labeling everything in the house, as she's learning how to read, that's super important. We're not teaching babies how to read, but we do want them to know what common objects are named. So, you know, here's your ball instead of just giving them the ball. Here's your book instead of just giving them the book. Ready for your bottle instead of just giving them the bottle. Labeling things and incorporating that as part of your narration will really go a long way because play is not extra. Play-based learning should be happening birth all the way through, in my personal opinion, because as an even as an adult, I learned some things better through play than I do just reading a manual or something like that, right? Play is an extra. Play is the work. Interaction, interacting with your baby isn't extra. That is the work, right? So making sure you're being really intentional about those interactions is going to be super duper helpful.

Red Flags And When To Act

SPEAKER_00 28:50

All right, so when to be concerned, because this is very important. We're tracking our milestones for our baby. We need to know when we need to be concerned. Remember, I said there's no magic that happens when a kid turns six months old, and now they just magically start to do all of the things that I talked about earlier. It doesn't happen that way. We need to give babies time. You give kids time, we give adults time. Same thing for babies. So I want to talk about the part that a lot of times people avoid, and that is voicing concerns because everybody, we want to see our child through rose-colored glasses, everything's great. We don't want to, you know, anticipate something that maybe won't even come to fruition. We don't want to, you know, become anxious about things, but there are times when you should pause and say, I need to talk to my child's pediatrician about this. And so be really mindful if around three to four months your baby isn't making any sounds, they're radio silent aside from crying. That can, you know, be an indicator that maybe their speech and language development is not developing as it should be. Um, maybe six to seven months, they aren't babbling yet. That ba-ba-bah playing with their voice, they're not doing that at that six to seven month range. Not responding to their name by nine months. If you're, you know, their back is to you or they're, you know, sitted and seated in their swing or whatever activity they're doing and you're calling their name and they're not responding to you. That could be an indicator of hearing issues. It could also be an indicator of them just not being aware that my name's being called and this is what I need to do. Remember, cause and effect, very important. Um, also, like by 12 months, if they're not using any gestures like pointing or waving, maybe you just haven't modeled it enough, maybe they haven't seen it enough. But if by 12 months they're not doing it at all, that's the key word, they're not doing it at all. That's when you really want to bring it to your pediatrician's attention. If they're occasionally waving, I think that's perfectly fine. Because sometimes you feel like waving, sometimes you don't, even as a baby. So think about these things in a way that they're they're not happening. Not that inconsistently happening. Those are two different things, right? Inconsistently happening is different from not happening at all. So the things that I'm talking about now, they're not happening at all. They're not making sounds by age three to four months, they're not babbling by age six to seven months, they're not responding to their name by age nine months, they're not using gestures like pointing or waving by 12 months of age. Um, they don't seem to hear or respond to sounds. Um, maybe they just have limited interaction. These are all things to mention to your pediatrician. If you've written down some of the instances where you try to imitate some words or sounds and didn't get anything, and you're still not getting any, you know, imitation back. That's something to kind of be able to share with the pediatrician as well. But the key here is don't just wait and see what happens. Please. Don't just wait to see what happens. I know it takes a level of acceptance for us to feel like, okay, I'm accepting that perhaps there's something going on with my kid. Let me ask the pediatrician. Don't let your pride or ego get in the way of your child getting services that they may need. And that has to start with a conversation with their pediatrician. Early support makes a big, big difference. Huge difference. So come to that level of comfortability that you can talk with your kids, pediatrician, to voice your concerns. And if you feel like you're getting brushed off or rushed out of the office, go back to some of those developmental milestones that I just mentioned in this week's episode and share those with the pediatrician. Well, I read or I heard the kids should be doing this between this age range, and my kid isn't doing it. We have to advocate for our kids. We can't just rely on others to take it as seriously as we take it. But if your child isn't doing those things that I mentioned, that is, you know, the basis for a conversation with the pediatrician for sure.

Persistence Plus Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 33:10

So today we talked about how speech language starts long before the first words. Remember, if you're waiting for first words to start imprinting and putting information into their receptive language reservoir, you're already behind the game. We walk through some milestones from birth to 12 months of age, and you got some really practical, easy ways to support your baby's speech and language development every day through play. And here's what I want you to really walk away with. You don't need perfection. You don't need perfection, you need persistence. Let me say that again. You don't need perfection, you need persistence. Your voice, your face, your interactions. That is your baby's first classroom. Remember, we talked about all roles lead to kindergarten, but your interaction, your face, your voice, that is your baby's first classroom. And if you have concerns, you have to speak up, you have to ask questions, you have to kind of push back on something that just doesn't line up with what your research and what you have learned to be true. Talk to your pediatrician. Because when it comes to development, earlier is always better. And if your child needs services, the earlier they get them, the better. So thank you so much for joining me for another Tuesday Talks This Week. Share this episode with another mom friend, another daycare worker, anyone who has a baby in their life so that they know what to look for and they know how to pour into the baby as well when you're looking at developing their speech and language communication. Thank you so much, and I'll see you next week. Bye. Be sure to share this episode and join me next week for a brand new Tuesday Talks. See ya.