It's likely that you naturally use actions when you talk to your baby, for example when you say certain words to your baby like 'bye-bye' or you point to things that you are looking at with them.
But did you know that actions are a key part of their language learning?
Dr Guddi Singh explains how and gives her tips in the video below.
Hi, I'm Dr Guddi Singh and I'm here to share some tips and ideas that you can use to help your baby's language and communication skills. We're going to look at how actions can help your babies to learn new words.
Sing to your baby, whether you're on the bus or doing a spot of hoovering. Songs and nursery rhymes can help your baby to understand how words are used.
Use actions with your words like waving when you say goodbye or gestures when you're drinking. This will help your baby to relate what they see and do with language.
Dance with your baby and call out the actions like clapping or wiggling your toes so they can connect the words with the dancing
Using actions not only makes learning for your baby fun and memorable, it helps them to interact with what they can see and hear around them.
How do babies learn from actions?
- Actions help babies to connect the things they see and do with the words that you say.
- The more you repeat a word with its action, the more likely they'll make the connection between that word and it's action.
Easy ways to use actions with baby
- Try making actions when you say words for things you do regularly as part of your day like 'drink', 'eat', 'bedtime/sleep', 'hello/goodbye'.
- Sing nursery rhymes with actions. The repetition of the same songs over and over will help them learn what's coming and reinforce the words.
- Try dancing together and commentating on what they're doing e.g. 'clap, clap, clap' or 'bounce, bounce, bounce'.
- If you make an action like a wave, wait for your baby to respond. Do they wave back to you or make a sound? If they do, acknowledge it by saying it again or something new.
Nursery rhymes with actions
There are lots of great action songs to sing with baby that they'll love to hear over and over. Why not give some of these a go?
