Language is one of the most essential skills you can give a child. As a parent, you’ll surely be keen to help your baby articulate their feelings, thoughts, and especially their needs as early as possible. Still, how do you begin? We’d like to tell you about the building blocks for successful language development that you can give your child in their first year.

Listen and learn

Listening is how we show our respect and appreciation for another person’s point of view, and it is the very first building block of language. Babies are listening to sounds, including their mother’s voice, while still in the womb. From birth, they learn to distinguish between sounds and further recognise familiar voices. With time, they learn to differentiate between speech and non-speech sounds and can catch individual words in your sentences, which they then connect to meaning.

How can I set up this building block? Talk to your child in a warm, calm voice. Explain the family environment and introduce them to new faces and objects verbally. Maintain eye contact and make silly noises to keep or regain their attention.

Look at Mummy and Daddy!

As much as we watch over our children, they are always watching us. You are your baby’s primary role model, and they are watching your mouth and jaw closely, ready to imitate those movements that are so integral to their speech development. Looking also plays an important role in social connection. It’s the beginning of reciprocal interaction and also allows them to pick up on social signals.

How can I set up this building block? Keep your face close to your baby’s when you speak to them. Allow them to see your mouth movements clearly.

Speech sounds

Language’s third building block is speech sounds; those noises babies begin making very young. They move their jaw, lips, and tongue to do this and phonate at the same time. The movements are large and imprecise, and the sounds emerge as coos, gurgles, or vowels like “ooh” and “aah.” As they get older, babies make consonant sounds like'm', 'b', and ‘p.’

How can I set up this building block? Keep repeating your baby’s sounds back to them in response. Make different sounds yourself and encourage your baby to mimic them. Let your baby see your mouth when you speak. You don’t need to over-exaggerate your movements. Keeping them natural will help your baby imitate them correctly.

Babbling

The fourth building block of language is babbling. Babies start to combine different speech sounds to make the syllables “ma,” "ba,” and “pa.” Your baby learns how to get their lips together and open and close their jaw, as well as how to maintain their voicing through these movements. Motor control and coordination for speech start to develop. Babbling helps babies practice motor speech movements so they can more accurately achieve the correct sounds required for word production.

How can I set up this building block? Make sounds and talk to your baby to encourage them to babble. Respond to the babbling with enthusiasm and love.

Gestures

The fifth building block of language is gestures. Your baby waves, points, and nods at you early on, trying to communicate their wants and needs.

How can I lay out this building block? Use gestures yourself when you're talking to your baby. Encourage your baby to use gestures by copying and responding to their movements.

Baby’s first words

The sixth—and perhaps most delightful—building block of language is your baby’s first words! We know you’ll have your ears perked for these constantly, but you can usually expect to hear recognisable words around the 12 to 18-month mark. “Mama,” "dada,” and other simple words are very common. As your child grows, you’ll hear them form short phrases and eventually sentences.

How can I lay out this building block? Do you remember how the objects in your nursery school, or maybe the classroom where you learned a second language, were always labelled? Label everything from the furniture to the toys your baby sees every day and read the words aloud often to encourage recognition. Incorporate action words and prepositions when you speak, too. Encourage repetition and use simple, easy-to-pronounce words when you speak to your child.

What are the building blocks of language?

Unii’s Baby Speech Journey highlights the six essential building blocks of language.