Speech development in babies is a complex and gradual process that continues even after the infant has actually spoken his or her first words. You can accelerate your baby’s speaking abilities by introducing some simple exercises in its playtime.

Here are some interesting exercises that could help your baby speak better:

• Imitate the sound that your baby makes and wait for response: This activity will encourage it to respond to a sound or speech by another sound.
• Encourage your baby to make sounds while doing some action: As an example, you may make your baby touch its hair, while you emphasize the word “hair.” You may then make the baby repeat the action and try to imitate the word “hair.” Babies will quickly learn that a sound can denote a particular action.
• Talk as much as you can to your baby: Anything that you say will be quickly registered in your baby’s curious mind and in due course of time, it will be using those same words to speak out its desires. Avoid speaking constantly in baby talk.
• Sing melodious songs to your baby: Develop a love for music in your child. Songs enable babies to appreciate the soothing power of words and speech.
• Act out gestures in front of your baby as often as you can: This will encourage your baby to appreciate the power of actions combined with words. Whenever possible, your baby will tend to copy you, which would improve your baby’s speaking skills.