Talking Baby: Helping Your Child Discover Language

by Margaret Maclagan, Anne Buckley

This book starts by describing a baby’s language development alongside their physical development in the first 18 months. It then discusses play—the way young children learn. It also explores childrens' very early acquisition of words, and how they use them, and it covers the exciting development when a child can put two words together and talk about more complicated things. Lastly it looks at the variety in children’s progress with language which can involve particular stages, such as saying "no" and asking lots of questions. The end of every chapter offers a summary of tips for parents.

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 28, 2016

Reviews

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and concise. A great resource for parents, pre-k teachers, speech therapy students, daycare workers, and early interventionists. The section on speech sound production gave me great ideas on how to explain phonological processes to parents.

If reading this book, keep in mind it details typical development and gives terrific ideas for how parents can help their child develop their language skills during reading, playing, and other activities of daily living.

[Shamekia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a workshop on encouraging Language Development for babies and toddlers. This gave a lot of good info without being filled with jargon. Chapters are short, which is great for parents who don't have a lot of time to dive deep into a lengthy book. Good for picking up and
putting down at a moment's notice.

[Mesa Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talking Baby is an insightful book full of science-based facts, helpful real-life examples, and chapters on developmental milestones that babies experience as they begin talking. A wide array of helpful tips and ideas are provided as well, showing parents exactly how they can enhance their communications with their infant to support language development. For example, the book suggests that parents put their words into simple sentences when speaking to infants, such as "You want a binky? Let's find a binky. Binky for Adam." Another suggestion found in the book is to use very few words at a time if a child is very young and doesn’t know many words yet. "Block in... block out...!" for example. These types of tips paired with the helpful facts throughout the book makes this a great resource for new parents, caregivers, early learning specialists, librarians, and anyone else who may be working with infants.

-Sarah P.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of interesting, easy to understand information about speech development as well as practical tips for parents.