I'm a SAHM and self-proclaimed social loner due to social anxiety. I don't talk much, and I realize that when I'm with my LO, I don't talk enough with him either. He is 7 months old now, and though I know he knows how to babble, I don't hear him doing it much. I try to make conversation with him, but it usually ends shortly after. I keep telling myself it will be more fun to talk with him when he is a little older, but I know I'm not setting a good example at the moment. Can anyone relate to me? How much do you talk with your LO? What things do you say to your LO?
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I'm not a big talker either, but like you I have to make an effort to talk to her. I tell her what we're doing, "we're changing you're diaper now. I'm putting a blue diaper on you. Let's put some diaper cream on."
I ask her questions, especially now that she's older and can respond and repeat what I say (sort of). But I did that when she was littler too. "What color is this block? It's red!"
I read to her a lot too,
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It can feel very lonely and awkward talking to your infant, since it's basically a one-sided conversation! One thing that helped me talk to DD more was the suggestion to just simply narrate your day to your LO. Describe what you're doing, things you're seeing, sounds you're hearing, etc... It feels kinda weird, but it will get easier with more practice!
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I have this problem, too! I am not a big talker and feel bad when I don't talk to her when we're together. I try to tell her what I'm doing when I'm in the kitchen, "I'm getting a pot to put water in so we can have pasta for dinner!" Or I'll tell her what she's doing, "that's the dog's food bowl, please don't lick it. Oh, you licked it. Thank you for doing that before I had a chance to pick it up..." Haha.
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My husband is really good at talking to the boy but I used to have trouble coming up with things to say. One kinda expects these things to come naturally but when it didn't, I decided I had to make a real effort.
I made a point of reading tons of books throughout the day. And then if we were playing I would try and keep a running monologue going about what we were doing. Something like, "oh do you have your bear? your brown bear? are you shaking your bear? Up and down. Up and down. Your bear goes up. Your bear goes down." At a certain point, I would lose steam (because, serious, you could go mad doing that all day!) but I'd force myself to do it again later.
I'd also try and describe what I was doing -- in fact I would sometime imagine I was on a cooking show and I was describing to my studio audience (of one) how to make a dish .I also try and sing -- either real songs or made up silly songs.
It gets a lot easier as they get older and start interacting with you more but for me and my son, I definitely noticed a difference in how much he babbled after I started forcing myself to make the effort. And it cheered me up to realize, he was understanding a lot more than it appeared at the time.
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@Honeybee: I was going to suggest this. It's something we've asked our nanny to do to help with M's speech.
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It wasn't natural for me at first to "talk" to my baby either b/c I wasn't used to a one-sided conversation, haha. That's what it is basically. But I got used it and when you see your baby respond with smiles and babbles, it makes you want to keep talking just to see them smile and babble more. I too didn't know what to say or talk about at first and had to google it for ideas!
I found out you just talk about anything! As long your baby is hearing words that is the important thing. Talk about what you're doing, like "I'm going to make you something to eat, how about some banana ? would you like some banana ? yummy !" etc.... or sing your baby some songs, or nursery rhymes, I did "this piggy went to the market" with my DS but substituted market for Costco and other things, haha. If you take him for a walk or go outside, you could just talk about that ..."let's go outside and go for a walk, let's see what out there" and then name all the things you see, etc.... If you notice your baby is hungry or sleepy or happy or grumpy, etc.. you could just reflect back to him things like "oh are you hungry sweetie ? ok let's get you some milk, etc.." Or, "Oh I see you're sleepy, let's put you down for a nap", and then you could sing him a song, the possibilities are endless. Although I would run out of ideas sometimes, but the more you do it the more you get used it ! Hope this helps
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