Why talking to little kids matters | Anne Fernald | TEDxMonterey
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ส.ค. 2014
- This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. For babies, good conversation is nourishment for the brain. Dr. Anne Fernald is the director of the Language Learning Lab of the Stanford Psychology Department and one of the world's leading experts in infant-directed speech. In her TEDxMonterey talk she explains how the quality of our interactions with infants and young children effects their brain development for life.
Anne Fernald is the Josephine Knotts Knowles Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University. As director of the Language Learning Lab in the Department of Psychology, she conducts experimental studies of language processing by infants and young children, as well as observational studies of parent-infant interaction. Fernald and her research team have developed sensitive measures of the time course of infants’ understanding as they learn to interpret language from moment to moment. In longitudinal studies with English- and Spanish-learning children from advantaged and disadvantaged families, this research reveals the vital role of early language experience in strengthening speech processing efficiency, which in turn facilitates language learning. Fernald is also conducting research in West Africa, examining speech to children in relation to language learning in rural villages in Senegal. A central goal of this research is to help parents understand that they play a crucial role in supporting children’s language growth - providing their infant with early linguistic nutrition and language exercise.
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My wife and I lived below poverty as dislocated migrant workers. Our son at 2yrs old, was bilingual and came 1 year ahead in grade level. It's all about giving parents the right toolset!
I was working full time when my older child was 0-4 years old. I was mostly busy, stressed out, and tired when I was with her. I probably didn't talk to her as much as I could have. I had a second child and was working much less and spent more time with him - took him everywhere, narrated and interacted with him about everything we did. When he was about 20 months old I remember being in a grocery store checkout, having him "help" me enter the phone number into the checkout terminal machine by using his fingers to push the numbers, narrating the numbers, and then narrating each action "press enter, swipe the card, sign, etc." along with other interactive banter I was sharing with him. The woman waiting behind me seemed a little annoyed and said to me "he can't understand what you are saying to him", to which I replied, "of course he can understand what I am saying". Then she replied, "well then he must be a genius", to which I didn't really reply, as she seemed to be making fun of me. Later when he was about 2.5 years old, while we were out at a park one day, he asked me "is our home a far distance from here?" which I remembered because I wondered how many 2.5-year-olds would know the word "distance". He was quite a reader as a kid (it was before iPhones and video games existed). When he was around 16 we had him evaluated and his verbal skills were in the 99.9 percentile. On the other hand, the older child, who I probably had not talked to as much since I was so busy with full-time work when she was young, didn't have as strong verbal skills. Was this an effect of my not talking to her as much as to him, or do they just have different strengths (she was very artistic and has high visual perceptual skills)? I do think that being able to spend more time talking to the younger one helped him develop his language skills. Years later, when my kids were older, I remember my mom saying she didn't know with her first child that it was important for parents to talk to their children to help them develop language. My sister didn't develop her language abilities at as young an age as I did. As the younger child, I had the advantage of having an older sibling talking to me all the time and a parent who was talking to both of us but probably directing most of the language to the older sibling. So my language skills developed earlier.
Wow... some people totally missed the point. It's not about class or ethnic background, but about the quantity and quality of infant-directed speech, which is the part that actually makes a difference. O.o
Interesting research. I also think children's mental capacity to understand is often undermined by most adults.
As an elementary school teacher, I believe this is true. It's all about the time and vocabulary a parent gives/shares with a toddler.
When my nice was a baby, I was playing and speaking with her. I was speaking correctly. My thoughts was 'My nice will learn this word if I use it correctly.' Some people think that this is a strange way to speak to a baby. When this nice started speaking, she was building correct sentences and was very smart, because of that people sometimes forgot that they were speaking with so small child. My second nice wasn't so fast to speak, she was treated as a small child at the same age. I was spending less time with her.
When parents keep on fighting with eachother & baby got neglected, watches TV...Baby has speech delays...and then....
I can definitely see this effect in action with my daughter. I see how well my 2 year old daughter has been doing with her vocabulary and just the ability for her to pick up words so easily. It's amazing to watch it all unfold. I think if you get a parent that has lots of interaction with their child, I don't think it matters what their income is.
What about families that speak two languages? My husband speaks only Spanish and I speak only English. My daughter is fluent in both and can read in both. How does that impact brain development?
Yea I’m poor af and all of my kids are incredibly intelligent. My little baby now is a little over 3 months and is trying to start talking already. And a child barely talking at 18 months is crazy to me!! My children talked to me in full sentences by the time they were 12 months. Just don’t talk to your baby in silly baby talk that means nothing. Gibberish is rubbish and they’re little people who loved to be talked to too. My kids are also my whole wide world and I talk to them constantly. Some people have to work a lot and aren’t around their kids as much as they would like to be. I’m blessed enough to be able to stay home though.
Speaking to kids definitely matters. I had, and surpassed, a goal of reading 1000 different books to kiddo before he turns 4. (As well as reading each book 1 to 30 times like a typical voracious reading parent, ya know)
Very nice talk. Both parents in modern times are busy with thier jobs and domestic work. Leaving little time to talk to their infant kids. The work shows clearly, engaging conversation with kids matters a lot. In modern times kids are forced to engage more on screen. This is due to little time spent with kids due to other pressing compulsions
OMG! She is amazing!
cool! (: taking Intro to Child Development class at my community college, CRC :)
My niece which is 2 years old is very extroverted and she talks a lot even though she has a limited vocabulary, and I saw our family constantly talk to her, and every 1 to 2 weeks when I see her in the weekend and I'm surprised that since the last time Insaw her she already picked a couple of new words and combine them together.
i love this. Wish i would’ve known more of this stuff before my first born, growing in a hispanic family i’m glad i found this! and i will use it from now & on. Thank you!
I love the topic and we support a lot the idea of quality and quantity of good interaction between mom and child. Our Mamaestra program holdS 50 encounters to primor early Spanish language stimulation.
Amazing research..Thank you for sharing this in your talk :)
amazig research on childhood linguistic development
Great talk. Really appreciate the research done here. !