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I talk to my LO all the time. I used to bug DH about talking to her, so now he talks to her all the time, too. In turn, we have a very very talkative child. I'm not sure this is the reason she has a very large vocab & lots of sentences but I keep going with it because she soaks everything up.

I probably don't talk to her enough. I mean, I try to have meaningful talks with her (haha, she's only 8 months old), but I don't do the narrating-my-every-move-all-day-long thing.

I used to see moms in grocery stores talking super loud to their babies (who were too young to talk back) and think that I would drive myself crazy if I did that. But I also sort of figured I would change my mind when I had a kid.

But nope, I still think it's crazy to have whole long conversations with your non verbal baby in public. It's just not me!

DD is always with me so I'm constantly talking to her. Showing her things, explaining things and she talks to me and repeats my words.

I'm in the middle. I'm like you and prefer quiet when I'm at home. And sometimes I just don't know what to say!
I often also find myself preoccupied with dishes/dinner/laundry on the weeknights, so I don't spend much time actually interacting with her. Constantly working on putting that aside until after she goes to bed.

@Mrs Green Grass: My sister got me into the habit of talking to LO so just explain everything you're doing.

I'm putting the dishes away. this is a red dish. Can you point to the red dish.

She started to really repeat everything we said when she was about 15 months.

Both DH and I talk and sing constantly. Sometimes we fear we're going crazy, but we figure it's good for LO. We don't yammer as much in public, though!

My issue is, I think I praise LO too much, I keep reading about how damaging it is to praise kids for every little thing, but it's so hard not to say things like ”you picked up the ball, good job!” or ” way to pull yourself up!” ...

@Mrs Green Grass: On our walk home everyday I pretend we are having a conversation about her day. I'll ask her if she played with the dog "nana" and she'll answer "Nana!" and if she ate any cheese "Chis!" did you drink milk? "Milllll!"

Kind of prompting her with words that she knows.

When we're in the elevator I say "I'm pressing the button" "Butt!"
"did you see that truck?" "Tuck!"
It's gotten easier now that she has more of a vocab.

@mrsjazz: same here. We both talk to her and narrate to her all the time. She is also incredibly talkative, but who knows if that is why.

I do not talk enough and I am worried about it.

I'm a quiet person in general and narrate in my head ALL THE TIME. I feel quite silly just talking out loud. I realize I need to do it for L, but by the time my thought is through, I realize it was in my head and then give myself crap for not saying it out loud.

It's been a really hard adjustment for me because he is usually the only one home for me to talk to and I just tend to think in my head about stuff rather than speak it to him. ugh.

@Mrs Green Grass: I found it SO much easier to talk to M once she started talking back to me, even just a little bit. I don't force it, but I try to sort of narrate everything that I'm doing, so she gets lots of vocab words that way. Once she started repeating them back to me it felt way more natural. I don't push it though. If I'm not into it and she's not whining, I think it's good for her to experience some quiet time.

I'm sure just the fact that you're worried about this means that you're going above and beyond!

@Mrs Green Grass: Food for thought: I talked to Ellie CONSTANTLY because of those studies and general new-parent-wanting-to-be-perfectness (and also because I am naturally a big talker). I talked about everything from food additives to politics to nature. Ellie was a very late talker, though now she has a wonderful vocabulary.

Lorelei, on the other hand, has had times where I've been busy with Ellie, or something else, and not spoken to her for decent periods of time. She heard a lot less language than Ellie did. She's a huge talker with a nutso vocabulary for her age. I think having some time to think her own thoughts and process the language she was hearing was beneficial to her.

I know that my girls are different. But I think the most important thing is that when you are communicating, be present. The studies that were the most interesting to me (I can try to dig them up for you, but I am pretty sure that a discussion and synopsis was in the book, "Nurture Shock.") showed that mirroring a young child's (as young as infancy) language and expanding on that was the most helpful when it came to language acquisition. So if they make a sound, make a sound back. Expand on the noises they are making. Talk about what they might be seeing or looking at; but make sure to keep in mind, even then, that language is a back-and-forth. If I'm telling you a story and you just jump in and start talking about something else and don't pay attention to my cues (verbal and non-verbal) it kills the conversation. Later, when real words start creeping in, even approximations (like "ki" for kitty), you can do the same thing. "Yes, that is a kitty. What do you think the kitty is doing?" And then you can wait for a response.

I don't think you have anything to worry about, though I know all the studies and information out there can make it feel like there's much to measure up to. I think the main thing is to not have an empoverished environment, and most people with adequate resources don't really have to try to make that a reality.

@Mrs. Twine: This is good to read-- sometimes I worry that I shouldn't be mimicking her nonsense sounds since it's not teaching her vocabulary, but it feels right so I do it. So, yay for research showing it is right

Of course, I do it most when she makes M sounds and try to get her to say mama.

@Mrs Green Grass: Our stroller faces me for now, so it makes it a lot easier since I can see her face, same with our carrier (she is still front, facing in). It would be way more awkward if I couldn't see her, I agree.

When she was really little and would just scream in the stroller sometimes, I sure I sounded like an insane person. Tiny baby screaming her head off and mom is pushing the stroller going, 'Oooh listen to the crunching leaves. The leaves fell of the trees and got dry and crunchy, hear it?' If I saw myself I'd call the loony bin.

I think I talk to him enough? It helps that at 2 years old, we have conversations, it never feels like I'm just "talking to myself" - which I'm not but sometimes he would be pretty unresponsive as a baby.

I try not to use any baby talk/baby speak and use normal vocabulary since I read that also is supposed to help? And of course we try to read everyday. So I think I talk to him enough?

All the time! They're constantly being talked to & interacted with at 5mo. I'd read the article (and other similar) @freckles: linked and was happy that perhaps all my constant chatter is somewhat helping their development.