Birth to Nine (9) Months

Caring for a young child is wonderful and sometimes worrisome. This is especially true when caregivers are unsure about whether their child is developing language appropriately.  There is a wide range of what is expected developmentally, and this differs by individual children.  The good news is that caregivers don’t have to “wait and see” because a lot is known about what is considered “typical”.    If a child is developing outside of the norm there is help. 

Infants communicate from the day they are born. They respond to sound by quieting and they startle to sounds quite easily.  Newborn infants let caregivers know when they are “fussy”, hungry, or in distress through differing cries.   Infants under the age of nine months grow rapidly in their skills.  They rely on their caregivers to “read” their cues.  They respond to their environment and their bodily needs by using their voice (vocalizing), reaching, moving their body, looking intently or looking away, and making facial expressions. 

All of these behaviors are not thought-out by the infant but are made in response to how the infant feels internally. An infant coos when they see something of interest, make a face when trying new food, move toward something that is of interest. The caregiver “assigns meaning” to these behaviors.  “You don’t like peas”. “So happy baby” “You don’t want to get changed”.   

Soon the infant reaches toward something of interest and an older infant eventually learns to point. Once an infant learns to sit up, they also learn to make new sounds, playing with the volume and intonation.  An older infant babbles a lot and begins to imitate gestures and sounds.

Although infants do not yet know how to say words, they begin to listen to voices at an early age. They recognize their parent’s voices and begin to recognize sounds in their environment like the family dog barking and the noise of the microwave heating up food. Infants begin to make sense of sound patterns in the language that is spoken at home. Infants recognize and babble the sounds of their parent’s language.  This is why it is so important to make sure that the infant is hearing well in the first year of life. 

When thinking about infant communication there are some important points to remember.

• Newborn infants respond to what they hear. The ability to hear directly affects communication development. Usually, newborns have a hearing screening at birth. If you are concerned about your child’s ability to hear or if there are significant health or family history, or if your child is delayed in their development, an audiologist is the professional who has the qualifications to test the hearing of an infant.
• Infants grow and change quickly.  You should be seeing growth in how your infant moves and vocalizes.
• Infants are social people. Infants look at people often and readily seek them out to communicate.
• By nine months of age infants babble quite a bit, use a variety of “letter” sounds, begin to use gestures and understand simple words and phrases that they hear often.

The good news is that if you are concerned about your infant’s ability to communicate, there are professionals that can help. Speech-language pathologists that specialize in early development are qualified to evaluate these early infant skills and give caregiver’s information about how to help. Caregivers may begin this process by talking with their child’s physician.