Baby blabber

It's easy to give your little wonder a head start in life - talk to them a lot! Baby blabber does much more than entertain you and your baby. The more you talk to babies, the more likely the baby is to excel in academics and in life.

According to research by Todd R. Risley and Betty Hart, authors of "Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children", speaking to children younger than 3 can increase their vocabulary, reading ability and IQ. The more words that are spoken, and the greater the diversity of spoken words have positive effects on little ones.

Risley, a professor at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, and Hart followed 42 families for two and a half years. The met with each family once a month, recording everything the parents and children said and putting it into a database. There was one finding that was consistent with most families. The more parents talked to their children, the bigger the child's vocabulary. And ultimately, the better the child could read and perform on tests.
The research compared the children of professionals and the children of welfare recipients. Parents who were professionals talked to their children 1500 words per hour more than parents on welfare. 1500 words per hour really adds up over the course of a couple years. By the time the child is 3, the discrepency is over 3 million words!
Over one six month period, the children of parents on welfare added 168 words to their vocabulary. But the children of professional children added a whopping 350 words over the same period... almost twice as many! The gap between the two groups grew over time. The groups of children were studied when they were 9 and 10, and similar correlations were found.

YeahBaby recommends talking to a baby as much as possible. Make use of all the time spent changing diapers, bathing, and putting on onesies by speaking with your newborn. And keep this up for at least the next couple of years. Ask your toddlers what colors there toys are, or what they had for lunch. Instead of watching TV for an hour, read a book to your little one for an hour. You will both be the better for this. Find books with a rich vocabulary, yet simple enough to keep your toddler's attention. And there is no need to worry if your child cannot fully comprehend.

So consider this great news! You don't need special equipment to give your little one an academic boost, you just need to talk to them a lot!