How Parents Talk to Babies Can Shape Their Language Skills

There is no doubt that the language learning process of a child is complex. It is not simply a matter of understanding simple concepts and, from there, building, but rather the way in which parents interact with their children makes a marked difference in the development of their language skills.

This is suggested by a study carried out by researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University , in Pittsburg . In the study, they matched 41 groups of parents and children and asked them to play a series of games in which young children (from 15 to 23 months) had to select a specific animal , from a group of three, with the parental help.

Subsequently, the researchers observed differences in the way parents spoke to the children about the animals they expected him to meet, such as a cat, versus one that might be less familiar, such as a peacock.

In this way, they discovered that although all parents used different approaches to help a child understand what an “unknown” animal was in the game, adapted their teaching , using a deep understanding of your child’s individual language development .

“ The parents s have an incredibly accurate knowledge of their children’s language because they have watched them grow and learn , ”said Daniel Yurovski, lead author of the study, who continued: “ These results show that parents take advantage of their knowledge of their children’s language development to refine the linguistic information they provide ”.

The study authors also found that parents quickly adjusted their descriptive approach when their children did not know an animal that they thought they would know.

The study did not reach any prescriptive conclusions Instead, he pointed out that parents should continue to do so. And the more time you spend with your child, the better .

In fact, there are several studies that have shown that, the more you read and talk with the baby, the higher they tend to score in language and development measures cognitive .