Six Months - Baby will be using consonant-vowel combinations. You can help baby's development further by speaking clearly, slowly and precisely. identify objects and people by name. Be consistent and make it clear to what or whom you are referring. Use short sentences n good English and repeat them until baby responds. Sing songs and read books to baby, making it interactive my asking baby questions and eliciting a response. Don't talk at baby, speak with them; have a conversation.
Seven Months - Baby's language will develop to include short words like "mama" or "dada". Baby will be associating words and actions, like the gesture of waving goodbye.
Eight Months - Games such as "pat-a-cake" and "peek-a-boo" will help your baby to develop language and motor skills as well as encouraging the interaction that is central to communicating verbally. Baby should understand words like "yes" and "no" and respond accordingly (even if the response isn't always what you want!)
Nine Months - Baby is responding to short sentences and developing more social skills. Language is a vital part of that and baby's language skills continue to grow.
Ten Months - Baby's babbling takes on more structure; though the words might be gibberish, the pattern of language is there. Your conversations take on more English-like qualities and baby responds more and more to your questions.
Eleven Months - Though their sentences remain largely nonsensical, baby will be saying short words mixed in with the babbling. These words will be short and specific at first, like "bye", but will begin to develop and more words will appear in their sentences.
Twelve Months - By the end of the first year, baby's language skills will be developing at a pace. Soon baby will be chatting away non-stop as s/he discovers her/his voice and more of the world around her/him.
Over the next few months you'll need to keep helping baby to develop their language skills. Remember to always name things, identifying people and objects repeatedly, naming colours and putting the adjectives and nouns together ("the red car", "the ginger cat"). Use baby's name often and associate objects with baby ("Jack's bib", "Katie's teddy bear"). Be patient and don't try to force baby to say certain words. Really listen to what baby is saying to you and encourage them by responding. Introduce relative concepts, like "big" and "little", and relate them to objects too ("the tall tree"). Start to use more complex sentences ("the tall, green tree") to help bay's speech patterns develop later. Give baby time to get the words out; don't finish their sentences, let them say what they have to say. Continue to read to baby and make sure that baby can se the words. Point the words out as you say them and point to the picture to encourage baby to start associating spoken and written words with the actual object.
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