Language Milestones & Literacy Targets for Babies

There’s evidence that initial memory and learning of voices and language begins before birth. By the third trimester of pregnancy, the sound of a mother’s voice may be transmitted from the amniotic fluid through the fetus’s skull and into the inner ear. So go ahead and speak up. Talk to your baby bump, because exposure to ambient language in the womb likely contributes to their phonetic perception.

Fun fact: Babies learn to perceive vowels before consonants, because “vowels are louder, longer in duration and carry salient prosodic information (melody, rhythm and stress).” One study of newborns in the United States and Sweden found evidence that at less than a day old, babies could distinguish between and reacted differently to vowel sounds from their first (familiar) language and another language. Why? Because they’d been hearing Mom’s voice and getting used to her vowel sounds for weeks prior. 

Picture infants, just 20 hours old, lying on their backs in bassinets with sensor-fitted, computer-connected pacifiers in their mouths and padded headphones on their ears. That’s how the researchers tested their hypothesis!

Development from Birth to 6 Months

In the beginning, your newborn baby is speechless, except for a symphony of intermittent crying. They use the only sounds they know to tell you how they feel: whines of discomfort, low rumbles of hunger, and the soft moans of fatigue.

Your challenge is to tend to the immediate need—change the diaper, feed the baby, sing the lullaby—while also recognizing crying’s place in a broader language, learning, and literacy jour- ney. As speech and language therapist Nicola Lathey puts it, “crying is, in fact, nature’s way of enabling a baby to climb the language development ladder!” Waaaaaah!—those long vowel sounds are the seeds of words to come.

By the third month of life, infants add coos (comfort sounds in stress-free situations) to the mix, and win caregivers’ attention and loving responses. It’s easy to overlook the learning happen- ing amid the feeding, clothing, and washing that make up new-born life. But with practice, you can tune in, and you’ll be rewarded with new insights and discoveries. You’ll be able to notice the precious moments when cries become more speech-like in tone, as your little one gradually gains more control of their voice. 

Of course, your level of talk and engagement affects your little one’s, so talk and sing at every opportunity. Mealtimes, bath times, and diaper changes are perfect points in the day to make conversation.

Beyond verbal communication, a lot of language development goes on through gestures, facial expressions, and even eye gaze. Infants pay a lot of attention to and learn from what they see, including what they see you looking at. Babies start following caregivers’ gaze between 2 and 4 months old—and evidence shows that they tend to learn more with gaze cues than without them.

Even though they won’t be able to read the words, include books from day one to get yourself into a routine of talking and reading to your baby. By 6 months old, little ones can enjoy hearing and physically exploring books. Board or vinyl books with limited text and unadorned illustrations provide the right-fit visual and tactile stimulation your infant needs. Books with poems and nursery rhymes, too, regardless of illustrations, make it easy to use your voice in a way that will please little ears.

Start sharing books with your baby and begin discovering what they like best. Every baby is different, and yes, they have preferences. It’s fun to see their reactions—reaching for the pages, pushing books away, even falling asleep. From the get-go, your baby is driving their own learning by following their interests and gathering information. Isn’t that incredible?

Although some books make it easier to support your child where they are now, don’t stress about picking the “perfect” first books. There are none. As literacy specialists Caroline J. Blakemore and Barbara Weston Ramirez put it, “Your choice of books is not as important as making the choice to read to your baby on a regular basis.” So choosing books you enjoy is powerful, too.

Judge books by their shortness and sweetness at this age, not their literary merits. You’re likely to hold your infant’s attention on a book for only a minute or two, so you might as well make it a fun, complete experience by picking a book that delivers language and visual interest fast. And here’s a pro tip that Susan Neuman, a professor of childhood and literacy education at New York University, shared with me: “Quit before they get restless. You end at the crest of the wave.”

Select Birth-to-6-Month Milestones & Targets 

Oral Language

• Cries
• Coos
• Growls, squeals, blows raspberries, and other forms of vocal play
• Recognizes and responds to your voice

Book Behavior

• Looks at books
• Reaches for books
• Looks at print and images on pages
• Holds chin up to view pages when on tummy
• Prefers to look at higher-contrast images and human faces

Development from 6 to 12 Months

The language-learning journey continues in the latter half of the first year, through back-and-forth exchanges between you and your baby. By this age, babies may respond to simple requests like “come here,” imitate your speech, and shake their head no. They explore the world around them by gazing at and reaching for things, then passing the objects from hand to hand or hand to mouth. 

They’re also getting more active in telling you what they think. They make sounds in response to the sounds they hear and to express pleasure or discontentment. They answer to their names, look where you point, and point at things themselves. One study found that when infants made eye contact with a caregiver while gesturing and vocalizing, the caregivers were more likely to respond. And how responsive caregivers were to infants’ gaze-coordinated vocalizations was the best predictor of expressive language development up to 2 years old.

And now, believe it or not, is prime time to make read-alouds interactive. One study found evidence that when moms directed more questions to their 10-month-olds while reading stories, their children had better expressive and receptive language skills at 18 months old than those whose mothers hadn’t engaged with shared books in this way. (Sorry, no dads were included in this research.) 

The toddlers who’d been peppered with questions like What’s that? Where’s the doggie? Do you wanna turn the pages? Ready? during storytime as babies showed greater ability to understand what others said to them. They also showed a higher capacity to communicate their needs, thoughts, and ideas using words, phrases, and gestures. So there’s value in reading books and asking related questions, even before kids can answer fully.

Think of books as tools for connection at this age. Play peekaboo with them. Point and name things on their pages. And don’t be alarmed if little ones chew or throw them. That’s learning, too. Book sharing at this age can help kids gain fine motor skills and learn language, background knowledge, print concepts, new words, and more. Along the way, remember they’re

still babies and be attentive to their cues for whether to read more or take a break. Responsiveness is key.

Select 6-to-12-Month Milestones & Targets 

Oral Language

• Babbles with long and short strings of consonant-vowel combinations e.g., bababababa
• Babbles may mirror the rising and falling intonation of caregiver questions
• Uses sounds and gestures to capture your attention
• Turns toward sounds
• Recognizes their own name

Book Behavior

• Grasps books using their thumbs
• Pats, strokes, scratches, and chews books
• Moves books from hand to hand
• Directs their eye gaze to large, bright, and/or high- contrast pictures in books
• Points to pictures in books

Edited and reprinted with permission from Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart, published by AVERY, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

Copyright © 2022 by Maya Payne Smart.