Speech Sounds
0-12 Months
Speech sounds are the sounds we make, using our mouth, to form words. To make sounds the brain needs an idea to communicate, then it send the idea to the mouth telling it which words to say and the sounds to make. This includes signals to the muscles that control the tongue, lips and jaw.
By 12 months old children will usually:
- Demonstrate the emergence of early sounds
- Make talking noises, babble strings of sounds like ‘mama-ma and ba-ba-ba
- Starts combining different syllables in vocal play e.g bampapa
- Gesture and vocalises to indicate wants/needs
- Use a wide range of sounds/intonation
You can help by:
- Copy sounds your baby makes
- Talk to your baby: make different sounds , vary the intonation and loudness of your voice. Your baby will watch your face and enjoy listening to your voice.
- Share rhymes and stories : sharing rhymes and stories with your baby is a great way to develop your child’s speech sounds. The repetition and rhyming will help your baby listen to sounds/words .
