Carter is beginning to talk. We are all having a hard time understanding what he wants because he tries to talk in a long string of sounds and there is not one word that anybody recognizes. What should we do? Researchers at the University of Iowa and Indiana University say, “Pretending to understand what babies say can make them smarter.” The lead researcher, Julie Gros-Louis, a psychology professor, says that if a mama responds to a babbling baby by guessing out loud what

Did you notice how children look for a running path that goes in a circle? Through the living room, around the dining room table and back to the living room? Some apartments just don’t have a good running circle. Edie decided to run around one great big chair that was near the elevator in her building. While she was running, she practiced singing a new word: Around, around, around, around, around, around, around, around.

First words are words parents give to a child’s (or a mama’s) biggest needs: NO. MORE. DADA. are often a child’s first words! The “D” sounds seem easier for little tongues than some other sounds. Some children start by saying one word, others babble in fake sentences that have all the sounds, but no words. Carter is a babbler. He seems to have a first sentence: DO DO DAT. We think it means the same thing as NO and “Don’t do that.” We are not entirely sure about that, but we

Carter just took his first steps. He’s been crawling for three months. His sister, who is two and a half, was so excited when he walked to her that she tackled him and nearly knocked him out. Each step is amazing.

Clara’s grandfather likes to tear out photos of dancers leaping and twirling when he finds them in newspaper ads. She loves to pretend to pretend to read her newspaper collection of dancers and tries to copy the way they move. She also likes to dance along with dancers on TV.