A newborn baby doesn’t understand the words you say, but they understand your tone of voice, your movements and looks for knowledge in your face. Babies know a lot – and want to know more!

A newborn baby can use all of its senses straight away. Feeling is fully developed, so being close to your child through skin-to-skin contact, giving them caresses and closeness, creates enormous security for the child. Together with the other senses, the bonds between you are strengthened.

Hearing is well developed early on, and fully developed at one month old. A baby can even recognise their parents’ voices and sounds from the foetal stage! That’s why talking and singing to your child from birth is a great way to strengthen your child’s sense of belonging. Doing baby talk is not pointless; research has shown that children prefer to listen to bright voices, so feel free to raise your tone when you talk to your child.

Be close to your child with all your senses: meet their eyes, listen to how they sound and how they move, and you will get to know your child more and more. Language sounds and melodies are stored early, long before your child begins to speak on their own! And the ability to learn languages is innate, however how the language grows and develops depends on the environment.

Telling your child what is going to happen gives them a feeling of security, so feel free to prepare your child for events such as changing a nappy, bathing, sleeping or going out in the pram.

Their sense of smell and taste is also well developed from birth, and a child can recognise both parents’ scents and the taste of breast milk early on. This contributes to security and a sense of belonging.

Vision is the least developed sense, a newborn baby has blurred vision at first, though it is at its best at a distance of 20-30 cm. After about a month, your baby can follow you with their eyes and make eye contact. By smiling and talking to your child, they will soon mirror your facial expressions and smile back. Children prefer and have the easiest time seeing happy and bright colours, preferably with clear contrasts. At two months of age, your baby can see all colours.

Your child’s language together with their social skills begin to develop from approximately two months of age, at which point your child begins to make sounds and imitate you. Faces are what fascinate children the most and eye contact is central to a child’s world. Take advantage of moments when your child shows interest through eye contact and take the opportunity to name movements, facial expressions, body parts, noises and sounds so that your child feels validated. By repeating the same phrases and rhymes on these occasions, your child will soon recognise these as routines and then eventually respond to them through sounds or movements. Feel free to put your own words to favourite songs – it is the voice and language melody that your child will be listening to. Be clear so your child understands and add body language as reinforcement, along with facial expressions and emphasis. Your child will learn to recognise things!

Around six months of age, your child can begin to distinguish between different sounds and voice positions, and can react to the words they recognise. Their yell is now starting to become more nuanced and the child is testing different sounds, voice positions and consonants. Keep talking about what you are doing together and your child will begin to relate to and recognise their surroundings in a safe way. Your child will also want to express what they want and like. Show and read touch books and continue with movements, rhymes and songs, and your child will show more and more interest and develop their ability to communicate.