Parenting Tips for Your 3 Month Old Baby

Talking with babies helps their brains grow! Here is what you can do:

• Be at your baby’s eye level. Get down to where you meet your baby's eyes or prop her up safely in an infant seat to make eye contact.

• Look into your baby’s eyes and talk to her. Repeat the sounds she makes. The two of you can play verbal pingpong. Your baby makes a sound. Then you make the same sound. Keep going back and forth.

• Each child will “talk” in different ways. Your job is to decipher your baby’s special ways of trying to talk to you. When you respond back to your baby, you help her refine her emerging language skills.

• Let your baby join in household activities. Tell her what you are doing. Let her see what's happening. Talk to her in complete sentences. For example: "After I fold these clothes, we're going to take a walk." When you label what is happening, you help your baby connect words with actions and feelings.

• Your baby doesn't use words yet, but she will understand the universal language called body language. You can tell your baby you love her by giving her a hug, singing her a song, or gently rocking her to music. You will find that she talks back by using her body. She will give you a smile, a giggle, a coo, a hearty chuckle, or a wiggle.

• Use both words and body language to tell your baby you care. She will learn to value the good things that happen when people enjoy talking to each other.

Good language skills help wire your baby’s brain in the most powerful way. Language skills are the key to social and emotional well-being as well as school success.

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