Even before they are born, your baby is developing connections between their brain cells and getting ready to learn about speech and language.

Your baby can hear sounds before they are born. Talking and singing to your baby can help them develop their speech and language skills when they arrive. Try singing a song to soothe your baby. Continuing singing when baby arrives can help them to move round less and pay more attention to you.

When your baby hears their favourite people talking, their brain starts to develop speech processing skills that are important to help them become tiny talkers. Try getting family and friends to talk and sing to your bump, which will help them to learn the rhythm and pitch of your language.

Babies at this age are becoming more active within their world and are starting to learn about people and objects.

Children at this age can often understand some familiar words and may be beginning to say several. They are learning that talking is useful and fun, and beginning to expand their vocabulary.

When playing with your child, sing and do the actions to their favourite nursery rhymes. When you are singing, leave a pause to see if your child can fill the missing word, such as “Twinkle Twinkle Little…” Their words might not yet be clear, but over time this will help them to learn new words and have fun singing.

Playing simple games with your child’s favourite toys can help them practise their language skills. It gives them a chance to repeat the things you have said to them about everyday routines and activities. For example, practice putting a teddy to bed, saying words like “night night, Teddy”. Use lots of words for actions like “Teddy’s sleepy”, and pulling the covers over, saying “lets tuck Teddy in bed”.

Some everyday activities like hand-washing are great opportunities to learn new words. Whilst helping your child to wash their hands, describe what you’re doing at every step, like “turn on the tap”, “pump the soap”, “wash”, and “dry”. Repeating these words will help your child learn.

At this age, your child might be using more descriptive language, asking lots more questions and using longer sentences. They may talk about things that happened in the past and the present.

Try joining in with your child’s imaginary play. This can be anything from tea-parties with Teddy, or playing firefighters. Show your child new ideas, such has how a firefighter sprays water or how Teddy stirs tea. Use verbs or action words to describe what you and your child are doing, like “the firefighter sprays water everywhere and soaks everything!”, or “teddy sips her tea because it is very hot!”.

Describe a recent activity from everyday life, like yesterday’s walk in the park, or the trip to the supermarket. Take turns to remember things, like “what did we buy from the shop?”, or “we saw a big red bus near the park yesterday, what else did we see at the park”. Use lots of praise and help your child to expand sentences, like “and what colour was it?”, or “was it big or small?”.

Try collecting objects from around the house and ask your child to close their eyes while you hide one behind your back. Describe the object to them until they guess what it is, for example “I am yellow, I am curved, I need to be peeled, I am a tasty snack” (a banana). Give as many clues as needed until your child guesses the object. Take turns and ask your child to put an object behind their back and describe it to you.

Ask your child to check what the weather is like and decide what they will wear outside. You can help by asking lots of questions like “is it wet enough to wear wellies?”, or “what did you wear last time it was sunny?”. This will help them expand their communication and understanding of how language can help them to plan.

At this age, your child may be able to take turns in conversations, use more complicated language and longer sentences. They may use more question words like “why”, “how” or “when”, and may ask you about the meaning of words they don’t yet know.

Unpacking shopping bags is a great opportunity to chat with your child. Ask your child to name and describe each item you unpack and ask them where it is stored. Get them to help you put away the items, and ask them questions along the way, like “when do we eat cereal?”, or “what do we normally do with the cheese?”

Find a few items from around the house, and let your child pick an item. Ask them to describe it, or use a word like “fluffy, shiny, small, heavy” to describe the item. Ask your child to find something similar around the house, like “can you find something else that is fluffy?”. Next see if your child can find something opposite. For example, “this is heavy, can you find something that is not heavy?”.

Building your child’s understanding of word sounds is key to their development. Try asking them to think of rhyming words. For example, if you have just read a book about a tree, ask “can you think of a word that rhymes with tree?” You can also play games like I-spy, to get your child thinking about words beginning with a certain sound.

Making up stories is a great way to start a conversation with your child. Try using props like toys to bring your stories to life. Ask questions to encourage your child to explain their story, and help them along the way with suggestions about what happens next.

Hide objects, healthy snacks, or toys around your house or garden and start a treasure hunt. Practise giving your child some instructions on where things are or how to start. Use lots of guidance like “try looking behind the chair”, or “have you tried looking next to the grass?”.