Researchers explore how children learn language

[Klaralven]

Small children learn language at a pace far faster than teenagers or adults. One explanation for this learning advantage comes not from differences between children and adults, but from the differences in the way that people talk to children and adults.

For the first time, a team of researchers developed a method to experimentally evaluate how parents use what they know about their children's language when they talk to them. They found that parents have extremely precise models of their children's language knowledge, and use these models to tune the language they use when speaking to them. The results are available in an advance online publication of the journal of Psychological Science.

"We have known for years that parents talk to children differently than to other adults in a lot of ways, for example simplifying their speech, reduplicating words and stretching out vowel sounds," said Daniel Yurovsky, assistant professor in psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. "This stuff helps young kids get a toehold into language, but we didn't whether parents change the way they talk as children are acquiring language, giving children language input that is 'just right' for learning the next thing."

Adults tend to speak to children more slowly and at a higher pitch. They also use more exaggerated enunciation, repetition and simplified language structure. Adults also pepper their communication with questions to gauge the child's comprehension. As the child's language fluency increases, the sentence structure and complexity used by adults increases.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210702114538.htm

[thucythucy]

1. In a truly sane and civilized culture

this sort of research would be a much higher priority than weapons development and bigger and better yachts for the uber-wealthy.

[Klaralven]

2. It really points up the need for caregiver bonding with the child

Parents and other caregivers really need to spend time with the child in order to be tuned in to the child's stage of language development and communicate at the right level in the right way.

[DFW]

3. My wife and I made a conscious decision to raise our children bilingually

She always spoke to them in German, and I always spoke to them in English. Children, of course, know no such distinction. Child researchers we talked to have told us that children perceive that mommy talks one way, and daddy talks another way, and to communicate with each other, they can use one or the other.

Think of it like a blank hard drive that can be programmed with any operating system you choose. At any rate, with our daughters, it worked. They both speak English and German so perfectly that native speakers of both languages assume they are talking to other native speakers when talking to our daughters--which, indeed, they are.

[Klaralven]

4. According to Noam Chomsky, the hard drive is pre-formatted and has a file system already installed

https://www.healthline.com/health/childrens-health/chomsky-theory

[DFW]

6. Interesting, thanks!

Chomsky is certainly no lightweight in the field of language.

[mopinko]

5. a dear friend of mine did a lot of research into how babies learn math.

pretty much the basis of common core primary math. amazing shit.

i often wonder how much of that 'summer slippage' they talk about is just getting to know each other.
in germany, they kept the same kids w the same teachers in 4 yr blocks.
one thing i know for sure- it's easy to see a kid's weaknesses, but very hard to see their strengths.
we really need more focus on that. and for that you have to really know a kid.

[lastlib]

7. "easy to see a kid's weaknesses....hard to see their strengths."

My first grade teacher flunked me in coloring/art, told my mom in conference that I was reading with my grade level, arithmetic at my grade level. Reality: I was reading my sister's high-school science book, and working my brother's sixth-grade math problems. And Art bored me into oblivion (it still does, TBH). That teacher never noticed or cared.

[mopinko]

8. i raised 5 crazy genius kids. i've got stories.

and opinions about how it should be done.
imho, most of our current ills stem from treating children like cattle.

[Klaralven]

10. I went to primary school in a one-room rural schoolhouse -- a dead American institution

There was one teacher, 12 to 14 kids various years, and about 6 grades, since by chance there might not be a kid in every grade.

Each hour, a grade would go to the front of the classroom and spend several minutes with the teacher reviewing their work, being quizzed, and getting new work assigned. The learning was done individually or with the other one or two in your grade.

I have thought that this was a very good model for learning, and that it helped me become an autodidact. I pretty much hated the mass lecture style classes at the state university, and I struggled with those that didn't have a good text.

[crickets]

9. Fascinating. K&R