A 9-month-old with normal hearing vocalizes only in single syllables. What is the recommended step to support speech and language development?

A 9-month-old with normal hearing vocalizes only in single syllables. What is the recommended step to support speech and language development?

• A. Turn the television to Sesame Street during the day.
• B. Read simple board books to the infant at bedtime.
• C. Provide educational videos that focus on language.
• D. Sing to the child and play lullabies in the baby's room.

Answer: (B)

Engaging in shared reading with an infant builds language by providing rich, labeled vocabulary, simple sentence structures, and opportunities for back-and-forth dialogue. Reading simple board books at bedtime is especially effective because it creates a regular context for talking about pictures, naming objects and actions, and expanding the child’s utterances. The caregiver can point to items, label them, ask gentle questions, and pause to allow the baby to respond, fostering turn-taking and phonological awareness even as the child vocalizes in single syllables. TV programs and educational videos tend to be passive and don’t offer the same back-and-forth interaction that drives language learning. Singing is helpful for rhythm and memory, but reading introduces a broader mix of vocabulary and syntax in a communicative context that most strongly supports early speech and language development.

Engaging in shared reading with an infant builds language by providing rich, labeled vocabulary, simple sentence structures, and opportunities for back-and-forth dialogue. Reading simple board books at bedtime is especially effective because it creates a regular context for talking about pictures, naming objects and actions, and expanding the child’s utterances. The caregiver can point to items, label them, ask gentle questions, and pause to allow the baby to respond, fostering turn-taking and phonological awareness even as the child vocalizes in single syllables.

TV programs and educational videos tend to be passive and don’t offer the same back-and-forth interaction that drives language learning. Singing is helpful for rhythm and memory, but reading introduces a broader mix of vocabulary and syntax in a communicative context that most strongly supports early speech and language development.