Mealtime Tips
Conversations
Talking to and with your baby about what they’re eating or doing and having conversation with your family at the table during their daily mealtime routines is a great opportunity for them to learn new words, sounds and experiences.
“At mealtimes, chatting to me and having conversations helps me to hear and learn new words. Even though I might not say them yet, I am still listening and watching, learning lots of new words to try out myself soon. I like lots of praise and encouragement, it makes me feel happy and confident about what I am doing.”
Talking to and with your baby about what they’re eating or doing and having conversation with your family at the table during their daily mealtime routines is a great opportunity for them to learn new words, sounds and experiences.
Have a go at:
- Chatting with them about what you’re going to do that day after breakfast.
- Introduce new words to describe the food like ‘juicy’ orange or ‘creamy’ mashed sweet potatoes.
- Have conversations with other family members so they hear more new language and learn communication skills.
Conversations at home during your daily routines is a great chance for your baby to develop, practice and expand their vocabulary. Spending time responding and talking to your baby, introducing different words help to build the foundations for lifelong language development and learning. Babies watch what you do and will learn about how to have conversations and what words you use.
Encouraging your baby as they grow to try out new words, or foods or talking about what is going on in their environment helps them to feel confident and gain new skills that they will try out as they grow.
Naming Things
“Mealtimes is a fun way for me to learn new words. I like it when you talk to me about what you're doing and when you name things that I show an interest in. It helps me if you keep it simple but add more words in as I grow.”
During mealtimes with your My Babiie highchair, keep chatting with your baby about what you’re doing and associating names to the food or objects they’re using or seeing.
Focus in on what they are interested in, whether that’s a sound of a dog outside, the spoon they’re using or a piece of fruit. Try to use as much description, expand the word by introducing a way to describe its colour, flavour, texture, touch or smell. ‘Yellow banana’, ‘squishy banana’, ‘the wooden spoon is hard’.
Keep it fun short and simple.
When you spend time interacting playfully with your baby during mealtimes, the more words they hear over and over again will help them to start pointing out to the things you name and join in.
It helps them feel close to you and understand the world.
When you spend time interacting playfully with your baby during mealtimes, the more words they hear over and over again will help them to start pointing out to the things you name and join in.
It helps them feel close to you and understand the world.
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