86 | Oh BABY! Talk, talk, talk to your baby every day. Your baby would rather hear your voice and look at your face above anything else. Mommy’s voice is his or her absolute favorite sound because your baby associates it with warmth, food, and comfort. By talking to your baby he/she will learn the importance of speech long before he/she comprehends or speaks himself. In just a matter of weeks if not days, he/ she will recognize your voice whether he/she can see you or not. Talking to him/her will calm him when he/she is distressed or give him/her joy. When he/she responds to you with a smile, a gurgle or a coo and he/she sees your reactions, he/she is learning that talk is a two-way process. Early conversation will teach your baby many rules of communication as well as social skills. Although we are all guilty, try not to “baby talk” with your baby all the time; mix in adult language and eventually stop the baby talk all together. You should start reading to your baby immediately even though you don’t think he/she can comprehend. Use different voices and faces while reading and show the baby the pictures. Point to objects in the book and tell your baby what it is. By reading to your baby from the beginning, you open many doors of imagination and learning for him/her. From the moment your baby is born, he/she is learning about the world around him. By 4 months, your baby will entertain himself/herself by babbling and making all kinds of new sounds. His/Her memory and attention span will increase and your baby will begin to apply all the information they’ve absorbed to day-to-day activities. At this time, your baby will be able to sense your mood by the tone in your voice, as well as learn the concept of cause and effect. He/ She will more than likely stumble upon this discovery by accident, for example realizing when he/she kicks his feet, the crib shakes or when he/ she shakes a rattle it makes noise. When your baby discovers that he/ she can cause these reactions, he/she will begin to experiment in a number of ways to make things happen. Your baby will also discover that he/she can cause a reaction from you or an audience. It is important for your baby’s development, to participate in this type of play with him/her in order to help him/her learn their personal ability to influence the baby environment. Close to 7 months, your baby will discover that objects still exist even when they are out of sight. This is a principle called object permanence. Prior to this point in your baby’s life, he/she assumed that the world consisted Baby’s Early Education