Right from the womb, your baby would start differentiating sounds to some extent. He would be able to recognize the mother’s voice. Newborns do not respond evidently. But they are always listening and learning. By the time they reach the half year mark, they would be able to understand and differentiate the sounds of their mother tongue.
What you need to know
Be it your mother tongue or any language that you predominantly use at home, your baby right from his birth will start grasping it. Before he gets the words, he would start perceiving the differences in the sounds of the words by the time he is 6 to 9 months old. This is how he would be able to differentiate languages. The way an adult brain recognizes language is totally different from how the baby’s brain does it. The more you talk to your kid, the faster will he discern sounds and start forming words. Avoid baby talk as much as possible and continue talking to him in short sentences pronouncing your words clearly. This will help him quickly pick up. So by the time he turns 1 he would be able to distinguish words which is the next big language milestone.
