You can’t help it. After a day of “shop talk”—whether about profit and loss or properties and leases—all you want to say to your baby is “How’s my cutie-wooty wittle woodgie-woo?” But you’ve read that “baby talk” may not be good for your child. Is that true? Keep talking, but maybe with a bit of adjustment. Baby talk can stimulate your child emotionally and help build a connection. But the best way to do it is using correct vocabulary along with tones that will appeal to your baby, says Rahil Briggs, PsyD, an infant-toddler psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. Using incorrect or altered words can be a hindrance to language development later on. All cultures use a form of “motherese” with similar characteristics—high-pitched tone, shorter phrases, repetitive syllables—that babies seem to enjoy, according to Dr. Briggs. “It’s fine to alter tone, cadence and voice, and speak with playfulness,” she says. But children learn language largely by modeling. So use short, simple and clear sentences with correct words like “Here is your bottle” or “It’s bathtime now.” This builds comprehension and communication, the cornerstones of all future learning. Your special tone and rhythm—that builds your special bond.

Get Verb-al

“Look at the fire truck go,” you say to your toddler as you point to the toy. “Fire truck!” he exclaims with delight. “The doggy is barking,” you explain. “Doggy!” he repeats. He’s been talking up a storm of nouns, you notice, but the verbs seem to vanish. That’s because nouns are often concrete objects he can see and touch, while verbs are abstract and harder to grasp. "Toddlers usually don’t learn verbs until after eighteen months," says Shayna Goldblatt, a speech-language pathologist in Mesa, AZ, “though it’s never too early to start teaching them.” Start with active verbs—which are the easiest to learn because children can see the meaning—by reading books that illustrate the actions. It also helps to ask questions that highlight verbs, like "Who is jumping?" and to tell your child when he’s performing a verb: “You are eating a cookie.” begin with easy action verbs you and your child perform every day like “drink,” “sleep” and “run.” “The best way to help your baby understand verbs,” says Goldblatt, “is to provide narrative for what he’s doing as much as possible, so he learns to associate the words with the actions.”

Happy Talk

The best way to converse with your tot, says Dr. Rahil Briggs:

Pronounce properly. Lift and/or soften your voice. But instead of saying “baabaa” for bottle and “waawaa” for water, use real words.

Be a narrator. Expressively read books to your baby. And when outdoors, say, “Look, a bird!” or “Ooh, the wind makes the trees move.”

Correct gently. If your toddler uses an incorrect word, repeat it correctly. If she says, “Want pisgetti,” you can respond, “You want spaghetti? Okay."