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Look who's talking

1 May 2004

There used to be a slightly scary advert on the TV where a baby spoke like a toddler and a toddler like a young child, all in the name of plugging a building society. Chances are it didn't succeed in getting us to remember the building society, but it did highlight the fact that there's a certain order in which children learn how to communicate. They learn to vocalise and make linguistic sounds first, before graduating to words, short phrases and, finally, sentences later on.

All parents know this, but what they might not know is just how early a child starts developing its ability to learn, and how important it is to talk to and interact with a baby - well before the first word is uttered.

Throughout the first three years of life, as a child receives loving care and stimulation, neural connections or 'pathways' are forming between its brain cells. Warm, responsive parents who cuddle, talk and read to their children and provide challenging learning experiences promote the formation of new, useful connections - more brain power, in other words.

But if the child is in an inadequately stimulating environment, or if the stimulation is mostly disorganized or chaotic, fewer beneficial neural pathways will develop. The child will be less prepared to respond appropriately to other people, or cope with changing life circumstances.

Talking books
Parents may worry what to talk about, but it really doesn't matter, says Liz Attenborough, co-ordinator of the National Literacy Trust's Talk to Your Baby campaign. "The important thing is to get parents to talk - and for them to give the child a chance to talk back," she says.

The NLT's campaign was launched as a result of teachers saying that children were arriving at reception class with a low level of communication skills. Some had never even had a one-to-one conversation. "You can't just stick a child in front of a telly and think they'll pick up sounds from there," says Liz. "They have to have a chance to respond and to interact."

Sitting down with a child and telling stories or reading to them gives them that chance - in spades. After all, years before they actually learn to read, children enjoy looking at the pictures in books, hearing the cadence of the words and spending the time cuddled up with a parent, friend or relative. It's great for helping parent and child to bond, too.

And if children are encouraged to develop oral language and communication skills in this way, it's not just easier for them to gain access to the curriculum later on, but they'll find it easier to become active members of the community - and, eventually, adult society - as well.

This year, with Sure Start funding, every baby in England will get a bag from Bookstart (run by Booktrust, a charity that promotes books and reading). Inside there'll be two board books, a table mat with nursery rhymes, and tips on when and how to read to babies.

"The parent is a child's most important teacher," says Rosemary Clarke, head of Bookstart. "And getting them to read to a child, little and often, is the best start we can give them. It helps with the child's concentration as well as their language skills." In a pilot study, Bookstart found that babies who'd had frequent contact with books had longer attention spans and better listening skills when they got to playgroup at the age of two or three.

Janet Cooper is the Principal Speech and Language Therapist for the Sure Start local programme in North Staffordshire. She's found that inviting parents along to storytelling sessions encourages them to read to their children. "If parents aren't doing it, they often don't know where to start," says Janet. "From watching us, they learn about intonation, where to pause, having eye contact with the child and smiling. Often they ask to borrow the book they've seen read because they know how to read it."

The best source of books for children is the local library, but many parents think of libraries as silent, forbidding places. There's an easy way to get round that, though. Says Janet: "We deliberately hold storytelling sessions in the library to dispel those kind of views."

Added to which, libraries are more child-friendly now than ever before. This year, in response to the growth of Sure Start schemes focused on getting parents into libraries, a new job has been created at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals - an Early Years Library Development Manager. "

It's not just about having the right books for young children, it's about creating the right environment," says Natasha Innocent, who holds the job. "In Durham, parents were asked what would make their local library more family-friendly. The answers that came back were very practical, and included such things as breast-feeding chairs and high chairs. Quite simply, it's all about getting libraries to adapt to the needs of parents with young children."

Natasha is working to get Early Years concerns onto the agenda of every chief librarian. "This issue has often been left up to the children's department, but it needs to be more integrated than that," she says. "After all, no under-five is going to be coming to the library without a parent." No - but if they're introduced to books young enough, kids will be pestering their parents to take them there as soon as they learn to talk.

(Taken from Sure Start magazine, Spring 2004)

Tags: Talk To Your Baby