Baby Talk: It's Not All Goo Goo Ga Ga

Oh, if I could get a penny for each time I felt a jolt of sheer joy when my newborn gurgled, yawned and made indecipherable sounds! It took my daughter all of two months to start her little cooing noises. Until then the only way she knew how to ‘talk’ to us was by crying. She did a lot of ‘talking’ back then. Her coos sounded like little amusing secrets that only she knew about.

This was also around the time when I began to introduce baby activities to help with her development. These included activities that were visually stimulating, engaged her senses and developed her fine motor skills. As I wanted to know what was going on in her mind and cooing didn’t give much of it away, I also made sure I included speech-related activities. 

“Lean Back, Lean Back” by lucidialohman is licensed under CC BY 2.0

At first, it felt like I was the one doing all the work as she stared at me with big wide eyes and slapped at the air. Occasionally, there were murmurs of astonishment and delighted smiles.

That was lesson one – to get babies to learn to communicate, we have to communicate. All the time. Talk slowly and gently while maintaining eye contact. Use exaggerated gestures and facial expressions to keep the baby interested in what you have to say. Babies love rhymes, anything musical. So sing away, sing songs and rhymes, add a few claps (‘If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands...’) and jump around. So what if the world doesn’t, your baby will sure appreciate you, off-key though you might be!

“Geoffrey Snapshots” by tOkKie-Pokie ..puddin' n pie is licensed under CC BY 2.0

While talking, don’t forget to modulate your voice. Vary the pitch, volume and tone. You can also start reading to your baby. They may not understand it but go ahead! I used to read poetry and fairy tales to my little girl. I would repeat them and I knew she was listening because some of them excited her almost as soon as I began.

Start pointing to things when you talk about it. I would do so by dangling her favorite toy and saying ‘Lookeeee, here’s Mr. Mojo Jojo.’ It may feel silly but all normal communicating protocol becomes void around babies. Kiddos love animal sounds – ‘Old MacDonald had a farm…’ was a favorite with my daughter. So be prepared to moo and meow a lot.

“sanchez_baby_shower_1014_0081” by Richard Gallagher is licensed under CC BY 2.0

As they get older, babies start trying to mimic these sounds. Don’t try to correct these sounds. Make vowel sounds and get them to mirror it. Get them to try and blow feathers; it will help them to practice rounding their lips. Talk to them about the mundane details of life. Talk to them about their bath, the flower they are gazing at, the massage you are giving them. They will listen with rapt attention.

It may take about a year before they first start uttering real words but a lot of preparation goes into that. It is the payoff after all the months of being exposed to language, and a milestone that deserves a place in the baby book (and the mommy book)!

Best Penguin Games Online

Penguin games are all the rage among kids, and thanks is due in no small part to their feathery protagonists. Penguins have quite a few mannerisms that work in their favour - their cute waddle, their catchy head bob and the wacky wing-flap come together to make them quite endearing to onlookers. Add to that their unmistakable black and white coat and their dark yellow beaks, and you have one beautiful bird that everyone loves to love.

Perhaps that was why Lane Merrifield and his friends chose penguins to be the main characters in the social game they decided to create for their kids. However, it is unlikely that they knew then how popular their creation, Club Penguin, would become. In just two years, it had 3.9 million users and was soon bought by Disney for a whopping 350 million dollars. While Club Penguin may still be the biggest penguin game online, there are many others that have also managed to hit the right note with their young target audience. Here are a few of the best penguin games online.

 “DJ3K - clubpenguin yellow puffle” by IvanWalsh.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Club Penguin – Well, this had to top the list for obvious reasons. The game is an MMO virtual world targeting kids in the age group of 6 to 12. Players use penguin avatars to explore the snowy terrain and play fun games on their own or with other players. Each player gets an igloo which they can choose to customize and invite other players to. They also get to customize their avatars, chat with other players, adopt pets, attend parties and take part in challenges around the island.

Penguins of Madagascar – Now these are popular penguins, perhaps even the most famous of their species. Rico, Skipper, Private and Kowalski have charmed audiences in several movies and cartoons and they now have an entire virtual world to their name. Fans get to join these elite secret agents in a mission to take down Dr. Octavius Brine and his evil henchmen. Interestingly, this game has an educational element to it, with players making use of scholastic and critical thinking skills to help the covert birds on their mission.

Penguin Diner – There are several diner games online, where the player races to take orders, serve food to the customers, and generally provide good service to collect big tips. However, the huge popularity of the Penguin Diner game in particular goes to prove how the addition of a flightless bird does good things for kids’ games. Penny the Penguin gets lost on a trek to Antartica and works as a waitress at a local diner to make money to return home. Players assist her in seating the customers, taking their orders, making sure they are served on time and meeting the targets for each day. The money that Penny saves can be used to buy upgrades within the game. With the rising popularity of this penguin game came Penguin Diner 2, Penguin Diner 3, Penguin Diner 4 and Penguin Diner 5. Strangely though, Penguin Diner 4 does not feature penguins!

Flying Penguin games – Interestingly, these games take their inspiration from the very fact that penguins cannot fly! There are several types of flying penguin games. Learn to Fly is a popular one where a lone penguin in Antartica, surfing the internet, is offended to see penguins described as flightless birds. He is determined to change that, and sets out to do research on what prevents penguins from flying and what kind of contraptions and flight conditions would help him achieve the smoothest, highest and longest flight. In Learn 2 Fly, the penguin has become wiser and uses a dummy to continue his research. He has also become quite frustrated, and adds an element of destruction to his efforts to fly.

Apart from these popular penguin games, there are plenty of other penguin games available online. You can even find an entire website dedicated to the penguin flash games on the internet, including several of those mentioned above. Penguins may not be able to fly, but they sure do know how to have fun.