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Literacy

Sound play with babies

Did you know?

Learning to read, write and have conversations begins at birth. Play with sounds, share books, draw pictures, an​​​d talk to your baby.

How?

  • Have fun copying your baby’s sounds, noises and gestures.
  • Use playful voices and make faces.
  • Be face to face:
    • Play games like “peek a boo”, “pat a cake”, and “This little piggy”.
    • Make funny faces and sounds like “moooo” or ”putt, putt, putt”.
    • Sing songs with actions and fun sounds like “Wheels on the Bus”/“Old MacDonald ”.
    • Dance and sing your favourite songs with your baby.
  • Use interesting, simple words like ‘wee’, ‘oops’, ‘wow’.
  • Add actions to words (e.g., say “hi” and “bye” while waving).
  • Let your baby play with bright picture books, board books, touch and feel books, and bathtub and rhyming books.
  • Remember that she needs time to coo and babble without a soother in her mouth.

Where to go get help

For more information about how speech-language pathologists and audiologists can help, contact:

  • Your doctor, public health nurse, or other health provider
  • Your local health centre
  • Visit the Talk Box - A parent guide to creating language rich environments​

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