Researchers agree that we can support healthy development of the brain in three ways:
1) good prenatal care
2) warm and loving attachments between young children and adults
3) positive stimulation from the time of birth.
In order to take advantage of this window, talk and sing face-to-face with babies; talk to young children often in simple words (not baby talk); connect words to objects; and repeat the babbles, noises, and words the children say to you (Oregon’s Child, 1997).
Children incorporate new vocabulary into that language even if they are not speaking. Children whose caregivers speak to them frequently know about 300 more words by the age of 2 than those whose caregivers talk to them less.