WAYS TO SUPPORT ARTICULATION FOR INFANTS

Did you know that you can help an infant start to develop their articulation skills?  Here are some fun infant games to play:

Watch-My-Face

Infants need to see adult faces up close.  This helps with early imitation skills, which are a great part of human connection.  This also develops vision and coordination.  As early as two months old, babies will appear to try to imitate your mouth movements if you say sounds like "oooo" and "ahhh" while they are watching your face.  Adding some high pitch "ooo's" or pitch-falling "aaah's" might also get their attention.  

Sing-Me-A-Song

The infant stage is a perfect time to sing lullabies and rhyming songs to your baby.  Keep your face close as often as possible.  Playing pat-a-cake is a great face-to-face game that helps with articulation in a very wholistic way. 

Bubba-bubba

When babies are around 6 months old they may be starting to make lots of babbling sounds.  These are generally sounds like bababa, gagaga, dadada.  Some babies may make just a lot of the aaaa vowel sound.  One game to play with your baby is while they are vocalizing (using their voice), you can tap their lips with your finger to cause them to "accidentally" create the bababa sound.  Some babies think this is great fun!  And some others will start to try to bring their hand to their mouth to try it themselves!