There are some milestones that strike like a lightning bolt in early childhood. As a parent, you remember the first smile, the first step, and the first word. But talking, really talking – it sneaks ...

Among the many developmental milestones that new parents look out for, few are as highly anticipated as their baby's first words. Despite some gibberish preceding actual language, a baby's earliest ...

A new study reinforces evidence that exposure to more words has a positive impact on long-term language progress in infants. Parents who talk more to their infants improve their babies' brain ...

Young babies make many squeals, vowel-like sounds, growls, and short word-like sounds such as 'ba' or 'aga.' Those precursors to speech or 'protophones' are later replaced with early words and, ...

WASHINGTON -- The sooner you start explaining the world to your baby, the better. That doesn’t mean flash cards for tots, or merely pointing out objects: "Here’s an orange. That’s a bowl." New ...

John Spencer receives funding from the US National Institutes of Health. Talking to your baby or toddler shapes the structure of their brain, my colleagues and I have discovered. For the study, which ...

Language and conversation is our lifeblood. And that’s even true, scientists say, if one of the “speakers” may not have fully developed language skills. Led by Dr. Betty Vohr, a professor of ...

October 17, 2011 — Parental talk in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) proved a strong predictor of infant vocalizations at 32 weeks and conversational turns at 32 and 36 weeks in preterm infants ...