Ways your Baby May be Communicating With You
As humans, the primary means with which we connect with others and transmit information is through the use of language. But of course, babies are not able to communicate with us using words at birth. Typically, we start to see the use of “first words” toward the end of an infant’s first year. But what about before then? How can we tell if our babies are trying to communicate with us?
Well, the truth is, that communication is multifaceted, and babies are mastering lots of other communication skills before those highly anticipated first words. Here are a few of the ways your baby may be communicating with you:
Eye contact
Eye contact is an important social communication skill. Babies make eye contact with us to get our attention, and may even direct us to things they’re interested in by shifting their focus from us to an object. For example, your baby may look from you to a ball laying on the floor and then back at you. This simple action is very likely a form of communication! A perfect response would be to label the object to share in their excitement. “Yes! I see that ball too! Do you want the ball?”
Gesture, grabbing, giving
In the absence of words, babies and young toddlers will often use gestures or grab for or give objects to a caregiver to communicate. They may point to an object they’re interested in, or bring you something they’d like to talk to you about. These are all forms of communication, and a key way that babies tell us what they want to talk about!
Vocalization
Even really young infants use their voices for the purposes of communicating. Babies vocalize for a number of different reasons. Sometimes it’s motor practice, sometimes it serves a soothing function, but much of the time the sounds they make are a way of communicating with you.
Even very young babies are working on changing the tone of their voice to communicate pleasure or displeasure. Sometimes the same sound can be used to communicate all sorts of different functions. The simple syllable “ma” could be used as a complaint that they don’t like the food they’ve been given (i.e. “maaaaaa”), a way of getting your attention to point out something they find interesting (i.e. “ma!”) and sometimes it might just be a way of telling you that they’re enjoying your company.
Facial expressions
Sometimes we need to rely on the facial expressions our babies are making to decipher what they’re communicating. From a very young age, babies will express joy, sadness, surprise, fear, etc. with their faces. This is often accompanied for vocalizations, gestures and eye contact, but is also sometimes a standalone means of communication.
Babies communicate in lots of different ways. Your job as the parent is to try to notice the ways your baby is communicating, to acknowledge their attempts, and do your best to provide the words they would use if they could.
