Talking to Children
June 4th 2009 03:04
I once heard someone say that we spend the first year waiting for our little pumpkins to be able to speak and the next twelve years wishing they would speak less. (Until they become teenagers. Then of course, they equate speaking to their parents as extreme cruelty.) Whoever said that was joking of course, at least I think they were.
There are times when talking to a child is like talking to a mad man. At worse, talking to a child is like talking to a mad immigrant. One who doesn't speak the language well but who tries to communicate like a native speaker.
In a strange way, that's a good analogy. Human infants are born with an amazing capacity to mimic all of the sounds made in human speech. What they hear from the adults around them determines the language they will speak. They have to listen to the sound of speech to learn the rules of whatever language will become their mother tongue.
Parents, especially mothers tend to naturally pitch their voices higher and fall into patterns of speaking that appeal to infants, to engage their attention. This is not the same as baby talk. When you talk to an infant, you naturally make eye contact, you smile while you talk and your voice gets higher in pitch. Babies pay close attention to adults voices, taking in the sound of all the words. The more you talk to them, the more they learn. Scientists have discovered that this is true in all cultures. It is the simplest thing that a parent can do to help promote learning.
There are times when talking to a child is like talking to a mad man. At worse, talking to a child is like talking to a mad immigrant. One who doesn't speak the language well but who tries to communicate like a native speaker.
In a strange way, that's a good analogy. Human infants are born with an amazing capacity to mimic all of the sounds made in human speech. What they hear from the adults around them determines the language they will speak. They have to listen to the sound of speech to learn the rules of whatever language will become their mother tongue.
Parents, especially mothers tend to naturally pitch their voices higher and fall into patterns of speaking that appeal to infants, to engage their attention. This is not the same as baby talk. When you talk to an infant, you naturally make eye contact, you smile while you talk and your voice gets higher in pitch. Babies pay close attention to adults voices, taking in the sound of all the words. The more you talk to them, the more they learn. Scientists have discovered that this is true in all cultures. It is the simplest thing that a parent can do to help promote learning.
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