BabyLab

Learning to communicate is one of the major milestones of your baby’s first year. Starting with responding to gestures, looks and sounds, little by little babies develop the skills to communicate with the world around them. And there’s plenty parents can do to encourage language development too.

BabyLab is a podcast that digs through the science to answer all the questions we have about how babies learn to communicate.

Produced in collaboration with Western Sydney University, we chat with the experts about all things language and reading. Where does the first word come from? Do bilingual babies think differently? What age should you start teaching your kid to read?

Hosted by author, presenter, commentator and mum, Jamila Rizvi, BabyLab is a fun, informative, deep dive into the unknown science behind how babies learn to communicate.

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BabyLab episodes include:

Episode One: Baby talk

How do babies learn to talk? And why do parents naturally fall into baby talk when they’re communicating with their little ones? We dig deep into the science of how babies develop language and why silly baby talk isn’t silly at all.

Episode Two: The origins of language

Anticipating baby’s first words is exciting business. But understanding where those first words come from might just be the clue we need to unlock the evolution of human language itself.

Episode Three: Raising a bilingual baby

When you speak two languages at home, it makes sense to teach your baby both languages. But many parents worry that raising their baby to be bilingual will actually confuse them. Will learning two languages cause language delays? Now we bust the myths surrounding bilingualism.

Episode Four: The benefits of bilingualism

There are plenty of benefits of raising a child who learns more than one language at a time. In fact, bilingualism has an incredible effect on the brain. Bilingualism might just give your baby their best shot at being a musical child genius – and making the world a better place! We explain all …

Episode Five: Learning to read

Once young children learn to communicate through speech, they then have to tackle the challenges of learning to read. What is the right age to start teaching your child to read? And why is it that some kids struggle? Is there a way we can diagnose dyslexia earlier than ever?

Episode Six: The parent factor

It’s not all about babies! Parents play an important role in infant’s speech development. How does a parent’s emotional wellbeing, stress levels and availability affect a baby’s ability to learn to communicate and develop? Should we be taking more time off from work? We also look at the impact does post-natal depression have on your baby’s speech development.

Find Babylab wherever you find your podcasts.


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