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fascinating NPR story - talking to your babies

NDwife07NDwife07
in Indiana Babies

Linky . So interesting!

Quick snippet from the article:

But in the end, the finding that most struck people, Hart says, was not about the quality of the speech ? how often rich versus poor parents asked questions or positively affirmed their children ? but about the quantity.

According to their research, the average child in a welfare home heard about 600 words an hour while a child in a professional home heard 2,100.

"Children in professional families are talked to three times as much as the average child in a welfare family," Hart says.

And that adds up. Hart and Risley estimated that by the age of 4, children of professional parents had heard on average 48 million words addressed to them while children in poor welfare families had heard only 13 million.

It was no wonder that the underprivileged children they saw at their preschool could not catch up and often lagged behind once they went to school. They simply weren't getting the experience with language provided to their peers.

 

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Re: fascinating NPR story - talking to your babies

  • mandykatiemandykatie
    Yes  I've worked with many a Kindergartner who didn't know how to participate in a conversation.
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  • amstepamstep member

    Love it.  This is exactly what my mom says, without the fancy research.  But, then again, she has been a kindergarten teacher for almost 40 years!

    Best parenting advice she ever gave me(and DH, who took this to heart, even more than I did):

    Narrate your life.  Everything you do, tell your baby what you're doing and how you're doing it and why it's important.  Even when they are tiny.  You might feel silly, but turn every moment into a teaching moment.  

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  • Mrs.AshleyMrs.Ashley
    I heard the story this morning and thought it was so interesting. It makes you wonder why lower income parents don't talk to their kids as much (narrate essentially) ... I'm sure there are a lot of factors. I've grown up surrounded by kids and caregivers and it's almost a no-brainer to  use every.moment as a learning opportunity. 
    Michael & Ashley . 9.19.2008 . http://bartoblog.com

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  • manda429manda429

    I heard this before on This American Life. 

    I'm not silly playful mommy, but the one thing I can do is teach my children about the world.  I'm enjoying my time with Jake more and more because he can talk and interact.  My DH is more of the fun parent I suppose.

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  • amstepamstep member
    I wonder if it is a chicken or the egg thing.  Does the lower vocabulary level make someone more likely to earn less, and therefore just end up in that income bracket, so their children will hear less of a range of words, or does the income bracket and natural circumstances of having less (possibly spending time with "catch-as-can" caregivers, or parents working more than one job (or more than two, even) seem to be more of the cause?  Is it cultural, does it translate across geographic areas, rural/urban, size of families, etc.?  I'm just rambling, here, but it IS so striking that there is such a difference.  I hope they do some stories on the follow up. 
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  • CiaoBella07CiaoBella07
    My MIL and I were just discussing this article yesterday, though she had heard it and I hadn't. Thanks for posting it -- it was a great reminder that I had wanted to go back and read it!
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  • MegNJasonMegNJason

    Thank you for posting this!! I only heard the last few thoughts of this on my way to work this morning and was disappointed that I missed it! Big Smile

    I wonder if it starts IN the womb?

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