Toddlers benefit from ‘crib talk’

Starting sometime between 12 and 18 months, your child’s babbles may start to have all of the inflections, pitch, and rhythm (and even the questions, scolding, and passion) that we adults have in conversation—just without the intelligible words 🙂

To learn how to talk, your toddler needs to spend as much time as possible exploring and practicing sounds to strengthen their mouth and vocal cords. They may start to babble when waking up from a nap or playing alone. This kind of monologue is called “crib talk” and should be allowed to go on uninterrupted. 

If your toddler babbles to you and then pauses, you can respond to their inflections with animation as if you understand what they are saying. Give them plenty of space to talk, and see if you can keep the “conversation” going.