Acting Out Signals in Pre-Speaking Children

When our children were two or three months old, we began to get them accustomed to hand, voice and facial expression signals. It started with the spontaneous baby sounds, including grunts, babbling and arm waving. We encouraged the signals and responded to them, setting up a pattern of understanding at the first development in our two-way communications.

We also hung mobiles over their cribs, giving them opportunity to see the mobiles move to air currents, and to baby talk to the figures on the mobiles. They also had little wooden boards, with plastic doors to open and shut, wheels to spin and handles to pull. We'd often stand by the crib and share in the experiments, sharing sounds of pleasure and approval with the baby.

When it was each of the parent's turn for the milk bottle feeding, we cuddled with the child and made more one-syllable sounds. At about three months, each child started responding to our sounds by repeating them. Thus we had our first conversations.

We also encouraged hand signals when our children began sitting up at about five months. We'd wave hello and good bye, and there would be imitation responses. Soon, the child began making understandable hand gestures voluntarily, and we encouraged them by responding in kind. This was also the moment when we began to teach speech, first with the traditional words of mama and papa. Then, with the help of recorded kiddie music and everyday repetition, we began teaching simple lyrics and singing.

Of course, when the children's verbal language developed to tell us their needs beyond crying, we could resolve problems much easier and more quickly. By about age ten months, our children were already taking their first steps and could show and point to what they wanted, while also using basic one- and two-word speeches. When our one-year-old daughter first saw snow, she said in wonder, "Makes all white." Incidentally, she's a TV writer/producer now.

Teaching our kids to speak required great patience, but at the same time, it gave us greater pleasure to see them develop the skills and use them effectively. We didn't stop working on their language skills when they started school. We made it a family dinner tradition to discuss language, writing and current events. We believe the effort helped them not only cope with their school work, but because of their early start, excel throughout their education and into their careers.