Remember the stages of language acquisition I mentioned? When a child faces challenges in any of the higher stages, we need to go back to the previous ones to check if she has mastered that. In that case, the most important time for development of language is infancy. Read on for how one can provide rich experiences to aid the infant’s speech from birth.

Pre-birth

Technically, language acquisition starts much before birth. Sometime between 18-24 weeks of pregnancy, the baby can hear her first sounds- the mother’s heartbeat, the growls of the stomach, etc. Research has shown that the foetus can hear the mother’s voice and other sounds around at about 25weeks.

In fact, in my last trimester, V2 would respond to V’s voice and kick every time she called out ‘babeeee’, or read a particular book to her. It is found that babies respond to lullabies they heard while in the womb.… Click to read the rest

Parents often ask me how one can start montessori right from birth. I wish we had more resources in India about incorporating montessori principles during pregnancy and right from birth. Well, you know what they say, if you can’t find something you want, create it. Still navigating the postpartum fog from my second’s birth, this is precisely what I intend to do, the coming year.

What is the symbiotic period?

Biologically, symbiosis is a close, mutually beneficial, and mostly long-term relationship between 2 different organisms.The symbiotic period is the glorious 6-8 weeks after birth, also described as external pregnancy, where the parent and newborn retreat into a cocoon to understand and adjust to life together.

We must come to the conclusion that the first two years of life are a psychic creation rather than a growth … The acquisition of the first two years are miracles, but they depend on the child’s environment.