By six months old, your baby is learning a lot of new things about your spoken language at home, and is also learning to talk and communicate. He or she may try to "imitate" the sounds you make and try to have a "conversation" with you. 
The more you speak and the more your baby listens and hears speech, the more your baby will learn about language. If you speak two languages at home, your child will very likely learn both by the time he or she is a toddler. Some parents may worry about confusing their child's language development with two different languages; however, you do not need to worry. Toddlers who grow up in a multi-language home will grow to become fluent in both languages, and will have no problems switching back and forth between the languages.
Below we list some language developments you may see for your 6 months old baby.
- Your baby is able to make a wider range of sounds such as ba, ma, da, ga, ha, and other baby sounds.
- Your baby may try to imitate sounds he or she hears. Talk to your baby - tell your baby about your day, pick up different objects and tell your baby what they are, or read story books to your baby.
- Baby will laugh out loud, blow raspberries, and make cooing and gurgling sounds.
- May also recognize their own name when it is called.
- Begins to develop more understanding of words and language.
- Help your child develop their language skills by talking to them often, reading books to them, and also read rhymes, and sing to your baby.
Baby Intellectual Development
- A six months old baby may begin to recognize that something is hidden or partially hidden.
Play games with your baby such as peek-a-boo; hide a toy under a blanket; or partially hide one object behind another. - Your baby is much more communicative and enjoys fun activities.
- He or she now notices how things are different and will take time study different objects.
Give your baby all types of toys and safe objects with different colors and textures so that he or she can feel and see the differences. - May briefly look for an object he or she just dropped, but will soon forget about it.
- You may also see a special attachment to some toy, stuffed animal, blanket, or other objects develop soon.
This brings us to the end of our article where we listed many milestones that you can expect to see for your six months old baby. You may or may not notice all of the different developments we listed, and you may notice some that are not listed here. There's lots that you can do to help along your baby's development in the areas of physical, language, social, emotional, and intellectual. Along with the development milestones, we provided some hints and tips as well. It is important to keep in mind that all babies are unique individuals and will develop at their own pace. As long as they are happy and healthy, you shouldn't have much to fret about.
Watch a 2 year old toddler read, and see how this child's reading skill develops at 3 and 4 years old.