There are many resources on the internet to help with understanding your baby’s language development and ability to read. Here are some good materials from reliable sources. Follow the links to gain even more information on these topics.

Language Milestones

Mayo Clinic has some simple guidelines for language development.

For a checklist that you can use to evaluate your child’s language development go to: National Institute of Health

To better understand what is normal or average language development see: Kids Health

Strategies to Encourage Language Learning

The teacher’s voice was warm and caring as she soothed Katrina after a fall. Katrina, 9 months old, crying intensely, stopped and looked up at the teacher. The teacher continued comforting Katrina with calm words. The teacher then stopped and waited expectantly for Katrina to take a turn in the conversation. Katrina started babbling, as if telling the teacher all about the nasty fall. This communication exchange seemed emotionally satisfying to both Katrina and the teacher, as Katrina stopped crying, gave a big sigh, and began babbling excitedly.

The teacher in this example is using responsive language. She is empathic and waits for Katrina to take a turn in the conversation. We have identified a dozen strategies like those represented in the scenario with Katrina that parents and teachers use to support children learning to express themselves, to hear and understand language, and to become competent communicators.

1. Build Relationships—Be an Empathic Language Partner

When a person cares about another person, he or she usually wants to communicate with that person. An infant or toddler will want to communicate with you when she feels safe and cared for in loving ways. Infants and toddlers communicate when it is pleasant to communicate, when the affect or feeling of the communication is warm and loving, and when they understand that their communication attempts will get a response.

2. Respond and Take Turns—Be an Interactive Language Partner

Read the rest of this very applicable article at: Education.com

 Why Bi-linguals are Smarter

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

To read more: Benefits of Bilingualism

The Brain-growing Magic of Foreign Languages

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