MAY 10 - Why Do Babies Blow Raspberries?
By Kristen Stewart
Who doesn’t go gaga over a baby’s coos and goos? More than merely cute noises, however, these early sounds form important building blocks for later language development. If only every step on the road to speech was so tailor-made for prime time.
Take blowing raspberries, for example, that flaunting of social etiquette when a baby sticks out his tongue and blows spit bubbles. By approximately 4 months of age, babies have gained enough oral motor control to progress from the early open-mouthed noises of a newborn to more complex sounds involving the tongue and lips.
Parents should curb their impulse to run for an umbrella (or check the diaper for a similar sounding explosion of a different kind of bodily fluids). Instead, they should smile, laugh and even—at the risk of offending Great Aunt Edna—blow a raspberry or two of their own.
“Children learn language through back and forth communication,” says Claire Lerner, director of parenting resources at Zero to Three, a national non-profit devoted to promoting health and development of babies and toddlers. By responding to a baby’s raspberries and other sounds with eye contact, imitation and general positive reinforcement, parents are teaching him that he matters and what comes out of his mouth is important. It also encourages him to keep practicing which is a good thing.
Blowing raspberries serves a physiological purpose as well. Like any type of exercise, the more a baby uses his mouth muscles, the stronger they become and the easier it will be for him to put together the different sounds necessary for word formation.
As for parents? Enjoy it now. In just a few short years when he’s torturing siblings and playmates by blowing raspberries, it won’t be nearly so endearing.
“DID YOU KNOW?”
A 2006 study found children who were less skilled at licking their lips and blowing bubbles at age 21 months were weaker at language skills than their counterparts. Researchers hope the findings can help child experts identify children who will need extra help with understanding words and speech as they grow older.
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