Letting babies babble back can help bridge word gap
WASHINGTON — Even infants can have conversations with mom or dad. Their turn just tends to involve a smile or some gibberish instead of words. That’s a key lesson from programs that are coaching parents to talk more with their babies — and recording their attempts.
At issue is how to bridge the infamous “word gap,” the fact that affluent children hear far more words before they start school than low-income kids. New research suggests intervening early can at least boost the words at-risk tots hear, and maybe influence some school-readiness factors.
One program in Providence, Rhode Island, straps “word pedometers” onto tots to record how many words a day they hear from family or caregivers — not TV. Another in New York City records video of parents practicing conversation strategies with babies too young to even say “Da-da.”
“Parents say: ‘Wow, look what I did there. I made a sound and my child smiled at me,” said Dr. Alan Mendelsohn of New York University. “The power in that is really something.”
The research was presented Friday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.
Scientists have long known the power of simply talking to babies — the sooner the better. A landmark 1995 study found that poor children hear a fraction of the words their peers in wealthier homes do, adding up to about 30 million fewer words by age 3. The reasons are myriad. If mom’s exhausted from two jobs, she’s less likely to read that extra bedtime story or have time to explore “this little piggie” when putting on a tot’s socks.
Those children have smaller vocabularies and lag academically, and can find it hard to catch up. That’s in part because early experiences shape how the brain develops in those critical first years of life.
Programs are popping up around the country to spread the “let’s talk” message. There’s little data on which interventions really work. But researchers outlined some promising early findings Friday — and noted the problem is about more than word quantity.
“Yes, you can talk more, but what is the quality of your language?” said Caitlin Molina, executive director of the Providence Talks program. “It’s not just the adult word count but the conversational turns, the back and forth, that engage the child.”