0-12 Months

During this first year of life, many changes take place in babies’ ability to communicate. By the time they are a year old they might:

Communicate with you using sounds, gestures, and in some cases a few words.
Change from making different cries, to babbling, playing with sounds, copying sounds and then putting sounds together which eventually will become early words.
Begin to understand the word ‘No!’ although they may not always do as you say!
Be able to give you a toy if you name the toy and point to it at the same time.

Here are some fun ideas to try with your baby as you chat, sing, play and read.

Spend as much time as you can chatting to your baby. The best times are when you are feeding them, changing their nappy or bath time, but any time will do.

When your little one is playing, watch for any attempts to communicate and respond by giving them toys they look at or move towards. Play ‘sound games’ with them imitating any sounds they make. Ensure you pause and wait for them to respond.

As they grow older, between 6 and 12 months, play listening games that have an element of anticipation, like ‘Round and Round the Garden’ and ‘Peep-Bo’. Use gesture such as pointing when labelling objects.

Find more information in our chat as we grow leaflet.

Babies don’t care if you’re a great singer, they only care if you sing to them. Singing to your baby helps them to create special pathways in their brain, which helps them to calm down, soothes them and helps them fall asleep, this especially important in the early months of life,

As lullabies or nursery rhymes have repetitive parts, singing them can also boost your baby’s language development and improve their listening skills.

We have a lovely collection of familiar songs and rhymes from different countries in home languages that you might like to share with your little ones.

Find more information in our supporting leaflets.

Sing as we grow nursery rhymes - English

Sing as we grow nursery rhymes - Bengali

Sing as we grow nursery rhymes - Portuguese

Sing as we grow nursery rhymes - Russian

Sing as we grow

Nursery rhymes for babies

Babies don’t know the difference between toys and household items, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have many toys – it’s what you do with them that counts!

Play with a variety of things and talk to your baby about them and show your little one what they do. You could show what a brush does, for example.

Why not take turns rolling a ball back and forth to introduce turn taking?

Make sure you follow your little one’s interests as they will spend longer playing with something that they have chosen, rather than something you think they will like.

Find more information in our play as we grow leaflet.

Snuggle up and share a book together!

Through the sound of your voice and the warmth of your body, your baby will come to think of reading as a pleasurable activity. Read aloud for a few minutes at a time and don’t worry about finishing entire books, focus on pages that you and your baby enjoy. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t read the words simply talking about the pictures is ‘reading’.

Try to read every day. Before naptime and bedtime is particularly good. Reading before bedtime gives you and your baby a chance to cuddle and connect.

There are a number of different books which are great for babies. Babies enjoy ‘lift-the-flap’ books, ‘touch and feel’ books, and you can even get books they can take in the bath.

Booktrust have some lovely guidance about reading to your baby.

Looking for new stories?

Don’t forget to join your local library where you’ll find a limitless selection.

You can also find out when and where the Storyrhymes sessions are on at your local library.

Here are some book suggestions for your newborn, aged 0-3 months.

Baby Touch: A black-and-white buggy book (2021)
Baby Touch: Faces: a black-and-white book (2019)
Baby Touch: Tummy Time (2020)
Baby Touch: Peekaboo (2019)
Baby Touch: Night Night (2020)
Baby Touch: Animals Tab Book (2019)
Baby Touch: Ears (2020)

Find more information in our read as we grow leaflet.