Infant and Toddler Language Development Series: Part 1

5:33PM Jan 15, 2025

Speakers:

Narrator

Priscilla W.

Cindy McInroy

Keywords:

infant language development

early childhood

receptive language

expressive language

narrating life

joint attention

language acquisition

speech therapy

language milestones

developmental milestones

language and literacy

multilingual exposure

hearing screening

ear infections

language resources

Welcome to Inclusion Matters, a podcast about children's development from the Center for Inclusive Child Care.

Welcome to Inclusion Matters a podcast from the Center for Inclusive Child Care. I'm Priscilla Weigel, the executive director, and I'm here today with a dear friend and colleague from many, many years in the field, my former colleague from Frazier, I've known this person for over 30 years. Can I even say that? Oh, my goodness. Cindy McInroy, who is a speech language therapist and has really extensive experience in the field of early childhood and language development of young children, especially those who might have some challenges. And so, Cindy, welcome. So glad you're here. Well, thanks. I'm glad to be here. We're going to have a good conversation. We're going to have multiple conversations. We're going to do, you know, multi part series on this topic. Because I do feel that, and you probably, as well, know that there's, you know, language development is so key to all development to really come in as the foundation of how young babies initiate, communicate, and then as they move into preschool and later in life. So these years of early childhood are so important when you look at language development,

Yeah, they really are a solid, like we always talk to them, about, about them being formative kind of years, but especially for language, kids brains, their critical learning period is from birth to six, and all of the primary things I learn about how language works, for me, happens pretty much in that same window, with a lot of it happening before the age of four. And I think that in talking to the listeners, is that knowing that children are learning language long before they start having anything that sounds like a word. That, that language understanding starts even before they're born, in recognizing the kind of music that family is listening to. So yeah.

That's pretty exciting and mind blowing, actually, when you think about how those little sponges start soaking that all upeven in the womb,

Yeah, yep, right away. And that's why, when they're barely hours old, they recognize that voice of the someone who's important to me and start to turn to it.

Yeah, yeah. Well, we're gonna start our first conversation really focused on infants and what they need to process through as they're learning to communicate. They need to get their needs met. They need to know how to respond to those caregivers, to turn to that voice that's familiar. So what are some things that you think really our listeners should know about that early stage of development?

So I think the very first and the most important thing I tell all caregivers, or anybody working with children, especially young children, is the order of how language is acquired. And that is that the understanding of language, or what we call receptive language, is developed first, before I have expressive language, and that's the words or the sounds or word approximations that I say that show what I know, and it precedes it by, like six months to a year. So right away, when a baby is born, it's super important, and I will probably say this multiple times in some variation through this, is that you start kind of narrating, and that you you talk to them, and you narrate life and explain to them what's happening and what's going on, because that's all that vocabulary that they're soaking up and that they're learning. I can't give you an exact data statistic thing, but I know it's somewhere in the 10s of 1000s of words that a child has absorbed and learned before they start to even say something as simple as, like, mama and so, so that's why, right away, when they're born, you start doing things like, oh, you know, it's time for your bath time. I'm going to get, that's the water. The water is running. Let's check, let's see if it's hot and you kind of talk through I usually, too, I lovingly joke with caregivers that it also can help you, keep you sane, because there's nobody else talking to you during that, or life is gonna be kind of frazzledly and you're doing this thing, and it keeps you awake and on task and moving forward to the next thing, because yours, yours, may be the only voice you get to hear at some point.

Yes, that's a great reminder Cindy.

So make it fun. Tell jokes about what's going on. That's also how they learn the tone of voice, the facial expression that goes with things. Children are confused as they get older, if we're smiling at them and saying, "oh, that's not okay," then they don't understand that, you know, versus a kind of concern face, "oh, that's not okay, and I really want you to be safe." Even when they're tiny, tiny, starting to talk and use those kinds of words and that tone and that facial gesture, because that's they start to recognize eyes and the shapes of eyes and what a face looks like when it's got different emotion on it, and that voice that I hear, even though I may not understand the words, that starts to all build together into what the meaning of language is and how I can then use words to express those very same things when they become two years old and yell at you, I'm mad. Stop it.

Yes, and you think my work here is done.

You're a complete human being.

Yes, but and I also, you know, I'm just thinking about this immersive environment of language. And sometimes, you know, I've heard a few folks who have, you know, like new first time parents, new families, saying, oh, when should I start reading to my child?

I was just thinking about that too, and I've had many parents, sometimes parents themselves, or caregivers who are just more quiet, more shy kind of people, people who are not as loquacious as me in the world, and who they're like, but I don't understand why should I talk to him, because he doesn't talk back. And that that's a confusing kind of a thing to them, so that's why I say talk to them, so they're learning and they're learning this stuff, so when they're ready to talk back, but they may well have that same personality. Books are always, early on is fine, and literacy is important because we know that it ties language ties to literacy. Because just the way that sounds become words and words become sentences, and sentences become book, conversations I have with you, so do sounds associate to letters, letters become words, words become sentences, sentences become reading and a book. So they are tied in the foundation of what they are. It's a written language that I learned versus the spoken language I hear. But I always also want to impress on families that books are not necessarily the magic portal to everything language, that reading is important because it builds vocabulary. It gives you context. It gives you something to have a language relationship with your child about. But you also have to know that it's also experiencing the book. So tell the story without the words. Start when they're just tiny in those first words books, and pick one thing on each page and talk about it, just touch it and label it. Because eventually what kids will do is they start patting and touching the pictures. And it's not that they know what they are. They're wanting you to say the word, and they they point with like, what's that, what's that? And then you label it and label it in different ways. It's a ball. That's a red ball. Balls bounce. You like your ball. We play with balls. So every time they point at it, you're not stuck going, it's a ball, it's a ball, it's a ball. The other thing too is being really cautious of not making our children into small dog and pony shows and pointing and asking, what's that, what's that, what's that? I meet many, many young talkers that point at everything and go, that, that, that, or they'll go, dis, dis, this. How hard is language? Everything's got two words. It's either a dis or a dat, because that's what they see. We point, we say this, it must be what it's called. So being flexible, describing what it does, describe where we find it, what color it is. It's a big it's a little, point to the one in the room and associate it so they know that that 2d picture symbol is the same thing as that object. And the color, it doesn't matter if they say they imitate a color after you and it's not quite right, yeah, it's okay. They said it was a color. And I always just go, yeah, it's kind of blue. It's more green, you know.

Oh, that's wonderful. Well, and you know, other things that you're going to notice as that that speech is developing, there's going to be more of this babbling kind of back and forth, which is so much fun when young children start that process and they've got the intonation and the as if they're having this really deep and long conversation with you as an adult,

Yeah, so that's kind of, yep, so so it's kind of happens is that first in those, like, early, early months are they're gonna just coo, like that birth to three, and, you know the sounds of amazement, everything's all ooh, ah, and then sometimes, like, hey, and they make, like, all these noises that are just these open vowels. And then they start to giggle, and they start to laugh. And then that stuff starts to get, like, a little bit longer and stretched out. And then they start probably about the age, or closer to, like, about six months, and they start throwing in a consonant. And then it's like, baa, umm And so lots of times to the like, num, num, num, when they're eating or something, they'll say those kinds of sounds start to play. Then a little bit past that, then as they are closer to like, especially around like that nine month-ish kind of age, then they start to do, like the babbling. And so speech wise, speech therapy wise, we call that kind of little baby talk, two different things. So babbling is when it's just simple, ba, ba, ba, ba, ma,ma,ma,ma, just that kind of the same consonant, and I say it over and over. Then what you were talking about Priscilla is what we call jargon, and that's when they go when that's the gibbagibibi and then, you know, and it sounds like they're having an entire conversation, and this got all the intonation and everything to it, and there's not necessarily any true words in there. And that is, that's normal development. First I babble and then I use jargon. Here's an interesting fact for people, because we'll talk later on with older kids about articulation speech sounds. When kids are doing that jargon, sometimes you'll hear make really kind of strange sounds less time they throw in raspberries or some sort of a weird throat sound. Children practice every single sound in the entire global universe, all the world of sounds in all the world's languages every infant in the world makes when they're in that jargon period. Then their brain starts to prune out the ones they don't need and practice only the ones they hear in the language you are modeling for them.Which is really an amazing thing.

That is an amazing thing. I'm so glad you shared that. Wow.

So they're, so they're born with a brain that's got a tool kit to talk whatever language it's modeled to that also then connects to our any of our families who are multilingually exposed children. Expose them to all of those languages. It does not confuse them. They do not know they are different languages until they're like four and start to learn how to do what we call code switch. They can learn them. They can learn them both. And you ought you want that receptive, that understanding part of every language building so that when they're ready to start talking them, they can, and it's what culturally ties them to the things that are important you, to you as a family member in the global world.

Oh, my goodness, that's just worth the price of admission today. Cindy McInroy that's a great tidbit to really, oh, I mean truly, every day in this work, we are marveled by, I mean, we marvel at children and what they can do and what they're capable of. And I think so often we forget the power that they have within that little human being, to do and learn,

Yeah, and because so much of the time they are so dependent on us, and there is that part that so as they're growing, I like to go by the rule of ages too. So a child up to one year old only can follow a one step direction. They are using single words. So a one year old uses one word at a time, follows a one step direction, and can really understand, really the carry over what you're telling them when you're trying to talk about behavior or changing something or whatever, for about one minute, because then they're on to the next exciting thing. So that understanding part of it, that is, they're able to do things like, when you say, you know, get your shoes, or highly routine directions, time for a bath, and they start heading towards the bathroom, or, let's go outside, and they start going towards the door. So they start to recognize really highly routine things they understand, and can start to make some really simple choices. When you show them two things at around one year old, you show them two things, and you're like, you know, do you want two snack things, or do you want this book or this book? They'll reach towards one a lot of times. They'll start to realize that they don't need to get both, that they just pick one. So really base, just simple kind of directions are things that they can follow. They recognize family member names. They can differentiate if they're siblings or grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, and when someone says that name, to turn and look and know that, oh, that's that person over there, and sometimes be able to recognize them in a photograph, not always that sometimes it is a little bit older,

And just it opens up a whole pathway of them becoming that little person. I mean, that's really what it's all about, is helping support their understanding of the world around them. And we're kind of that navigator. We're that guide as the caregiver.

Yeah, and I think especially at this young stage, this like infant, early toddler kind of a stage too, is that communication is all about connection, and it's about that reciprocal give and take. So what's really important is things that like, what we call joint attention, so that when you take out a toy, you start to look at it they look down at it, they look back up at you. They look back down at the toy, and then you continue play. That's joint engagement, joint attention. Being able to vocalize for attention, like I'm sitting in, I mean, they cry for needs, and they have differentiated cries, as infants, but then by the time they're not very old, they're like, just six, seven months ish, then they have, they know that they can, they cry when they're in extreme duress, but they kind of squawk when they just want something. They blow raspberries and giggle when they want to play. So even though there isn't words to it, their voice is now they're, they're figuring out there are different ways to engage you for my different kinds of needs I have. Yeah, and then I think, and physically reaching out to you and just intently looking at whoever is near them as a way of engaging them. So when we talk about concerns and red flags, those things as a child is nearing one year old, if it is hard to get them to attend to their name, if it is, if they don't have that shared enjoyment of looking back and forth to see what your face is responding to, that they're doing, that joint engagement is something that's that's developed really young, that's something to talk to a doctor about or to bring up and just say, hey, there's some of these early based kind of things that just don't seem like they're there. Number one, you're going to want to make sure always that a child's hearing is intact. That's the very first thing we want to look at if we have a concern for community, whatever age. Wonderful is that we have newborn hearing screening now in all of our healthcare facilities across Minnesota, and the very tight process, if a child does not pass that newborn hearing screening at birth, and then that it followed up within six days, followed up with six weeks, and we make sure that that hearing is there. But as kids get older, sometimes we just have kids who just are unfortunate and start as infants having a lot of ear infections or just persistent middle ear fluid. And I wish I could say there's a strong predictive factor in that, but it's about a 50/50, effect that about 50% of kids with frequent ear infections may have, or will have a language delay or some sort of a little challenge with articulation, but about 50% of them don't. And it just, it ends up being the kind of learners. My philosophy is just the kind of learners. And when we talk a little bit later about the difference in kind of learning, it's just, we have kids who are really see it, do it, we, as people, end up seei it, do it, or kids who are hear it, do it. Kids who learn better visually, probably those hearing things don't affect them very much because they're super visual learners. Kids who are more hear it, do its and really reliant on being told and figuring it out from hearing it, they're probably a little more affected by that.

Yeah, interesting. And that is something you know, in our work with our coaching, and we do a lot of supporting educators out there in the field and families, to say is, you know, is this child, what are the issues here, when this child isn't able to follow those directions and watching that child when a direction is given, where do their eyes go? Do they look and watch that's, I mean, and you're just explaining that. Are they visual, visually trying to figure out what's happening, or are they just standing there waiting for you to say it again, louder, clearer, you know, and I will tell you how you can support them with visual prompts.

Right, right, or kids that, and there's kind of like, so the difference between can they follow directions, and then also a small, minor differentiation, what I call words. So first of all, with following directions is, do they follow that simple direction, because you say it, or do they, do you feel like you're giving a lot of, are you pointing and kind of showing and giving them some cues and some hints, and they're following through because you're giving them cues and hints, or you're demonstrating it, and then they're doing it. So it's all about trying to step back and give some pause, say something, give a little five to 10 seconds and see if they do it. Or do you have to repeat it? Do you have to gesture to get it through? Because then you get a sense of how they're comprehending, how they're understanding what they're learning. Word wise, those early emergent modifiers are what I call early emergent modifiers. So things like, oh oh, wow, num, num, by, those kinds of words are animal sounds, play sounds. Those are things that I count that are like, yeah, they're words. But when I'm looking for what's a word, I want like a word that's a label for a thing. So go, mom milk. So it shows me that they understand. It's a symbolic representation of that thing, okay, but that's why early on, we do teach them those easy things, so big, oh oh, bye, bye. You know those fun sounds, animal and play sounds, because kids itshow kids acquire language, so yeah.

Yeah, wow, such a time in a child's life that can be just zipped over when we think about language because and just listening to this conversation that we're having and thinking, what a wealth of expertise you're sharing with folks who are right now in the midst of infancy with their little one, trying to figure out what they could be doing as a caregiver to really enhance. And I know that there's a lot of resources out there as well, if you have concerns, or even you should just want those developmental milestones to be aware of that for you as a as a caregiver.

Yeah, so a really, really three good go to places to go to are so the Help Me Grow website, you can look by developmental area, and it's broken down by little, tiny age windows, and it has lists of both receptively and expressively, what the child is supposed to be doing, and things that you can be doing as activities in that area. They also another one is the CDC website, which I know sounds really weird, why would the Centers for Disease Control. This is not a pandemic related thing. The reason they have an entire section on it's called, Know The Signs Act Early, because when, according to the United States, the CDC data statistics, something is considered a disease when it has a greater than one in 10 incidents. It is something they have to address. So when autism or autism spectrum disorder became a diagnosis being given to not one in 10, seven in 10 anyway, it reached, it reached the incidence rate, autism did, then it met the CDC criteria for something that they need to address as an organization, following their bylaws, their rules. So there was an entire section on communication development and concern things or things you should be aware of that may be potential indicators of a child having autism spectrum disorder. And it's very excellent. And talks about referral sources there, because I know many times when, when you go on, you Google not talking, you will get 250,000 hits, all of them on autism. And so yeah, it, it's a primary gateway in and then, and then the other one is just my national organization, the American Speech Language Hearing Association, ASHA, A, S, H, A, they also have an entire page on just language and language development broken down into milestones.

Beautiful, well, Cindy, we're going to wrap up this conversation about the infant stage, and we're going to come back for another episode talking about toddlers and preschoolers and what's next on this continuum of development. So thank you. Thank you. Cindy McInroy, speech and language therapist, friend for years, colleague, super excited about our the next part of our conversation,

Talk to you again soon.

Thanks for listening. For more resources visit us at inclusivechildcare.org.