How Instead of How Much to Communicate

Back in 1995, Hart and Risley determined that the amount of words children heard before the age of three impacted their reading scores at age nine. Teachers and parents took notice and have since (and probably before) showered our infants and toddlers with language. We label, we read, we describe and we sing.

A newer study out of the University of Iowa and Indiana University, published in the July/August 2014 edition of Infancy, takes a more specific look at "how" instead of “how much” a parent interacts with an infant and the effect it has on early language development. When mothers in this study responded to their infants’ vocalizations in a responsive and sensitive way, this correlated with more advanced language skills at age fifteen months.

Julie Gros-Louis, a psychology professor at the University of Iowa and study author describes the more effective communication as those times when an adult responds to an infant in a conversational way, acting as if the child’s attempts to communicate are valuable and understandable. She says, "The infants were using vocalizations in a communicative way, in a sense, because they learned they are communicative."

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.

© 2005 Child Care Information Exchange - All Rights Reserved | Contact Us | Return to Site