Your baby's tuning in and linking words and objects
Your baby has been listening to voices and sounds since before they were even born, and from birth they have been hearing and responding to the sound patterns of spoken language. Even in the first few months of life, babies will be able to discriminate between different sounds, and will show a preference for familiar voices, such as those of their primary caregivers.[1]
They will have been interested in looking at and responding to you and the other people around them but now might also show more interest in toys and objects when you talk about them.
Listening, attention, and understanding
Now when you play with your baby, they will be more aware of what you say and are beginning to link what you say with toys and objects.[2] The more you say the names of objects as you talk about them during play with your child, the more they will link the names of them with the object itself, developing their ability to focus their attention, and in turn, their early talking skills.[3]
Tuning into sounds of language
When your baby was born, they were ready to learn any language in the world and were able to distinguish between the many different sounds used in different languages. Gradually, they will tune into the sounds used in the language or languages they hear and will use, and will no longer distinguish speech sounds used in other languages.[2]
When you play with your baby, it's likely that you use a happy tone and your pitch rises at the end of a sentence; you probably also use fewer words and keep sentences fairly short.
Do happy tones catch their attention?
The speech that most adults use when talking to a baby, often without thinking about it, is known as infant-directed speech. Some scientists think that this speech helps babies to learn and might help them to listen to speech as the happy enthusiastic tone catches their attention.[2]
What seems clear is that your baby will understand what you say before they can say words themselves. They can break the flow of the speech that they hear into individual words.[2] When you play with them and talk about what you are doing during the day, they will begin to link the words they hear with particular objects and start to understand the meaning of some words.
Responding to familiar words
Your baby listens to what you say and will gradually start to recognise and respond to words that they hear frequently, such as ‘nappy,’ ‘teddy’ or ‘bye bye.’
In the next few months, you will notice that your baby seems to understand some words, and they might look towards a person or toy when you say their name.
Your baby will begin to recognise the different words that they hear in day-to-day life. Then, as they begin to make sounds themselves, they may start to repeat common words that are familiar to them, or make sounds that are similar to these familiar words.
References:
[1] Sample Gosse, H., & Gotzke, C. (2007). Parent/Caregiver Narrative: Listening 0 - 3 Months. In L.M. Phillips (Ed.), Handbook of language and literacy development: A Roadmap from 0 - 60 Months. [online], pp. 1 -2. London, ON: Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network. Available at: Handbook of language and literacy development.
[2] John Santrock (2010). Child Development: An Introduction. 13th ed. London: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.
[3] Kerry Weiss, Lauren Crosby, M.D., F.A.A.P. . (2021). When Do Babies Recognize and Respond to Their Name?. Available: https://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/understand-words/.