Post by Scarlet on Apr 25, 2008 8:11:42 GMT
We all know that talking to our babies is important, but apparently you should be speaking in the region of 17,000~20,000 words per day to your baby up to age 3. In fact there's a nice little device that the Americans have developed to monitor how much you speak to your kids 
, and will give you a bar chart at the end of the day, when uploaded into your PC. And TV is not enough, plonking them in front of CBeebies does not help. So today I am going to try and speak 17,000 words ~ NOT. Well not unless saying 'No' 17,000 times counts I will try couple of hundred though 
Scarlet xxxx
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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - There's a lot of information out there to help you talk to your kids about any number of subjects ... drugs, strangers, nutrition and so on. But a new study says that, when it comes to babies, the subject doesn't matter. You just need to talk -- a lot.
A recent childhood development study says the best thing parents can do for their children is talk with them. In fact, it shows that each word until age three is thirty percent more powerful than a landmark study said it was in 1995. "Parents, caregivers and family are the first ones who introduce vocabulary and the more words the children hear, the greater their vocabulary," said speech and language pathologist Judy Montgomery.
The study also shows that tots who get talked to a lot have higher IQ scores and do better in school. But how much talk is enough, and how can parents measure it? Crystal Adams thinks she has the answer – a small digital processor, worn inside her son Ethan's jumper. "It's counting the words he hears and then it gives me a good place at the end of the day, I can look at it and say, "Oh wow, I didn't talk to him as much as I thought I did," Adams said.
The high-tech device, called "LENA" for “Language Environment Analysis," is a kind of verbal "pedometer" that helps parents gauge how vocal they are with their kids. It measures the number of distinct words he hears throughout the day. At the end of the day, you plug the processor into your computer to see how you did. “It makes a graph, then I can look at the graphs and it tells me how many words he heard throughout the day," Adams said.
The ideal number of words used to be 30,000. That's tons of talk. “So far we haven't found many parents who speak thirty thousands words a day to their children," Montgomery said.
The new number is in the seventeen to twenty thousand range, and don't think you can plop the baby in front of a TV to raise your score. "The device is designed to screen out or filter out anything that isn't actual speech in that room," Montgomery said.
The manufacturer says the best way to keep the conversational ball rolling is by narrating everything you do with your baby. The device can also print out a percentile ranking of your kid's progress. But that is something child care professionals feel might raise unnecessary concerns for anxious parents.
, and will give you a bar chart at the end of the day, when uploaded into your PC. And TV is not enough, plonking them in front of CBeebies does not help. So today I am going to try and speak 17,000 words ~ NOT. Well not unless saying 'No' 17,000 times counts I will try couple of hundred though 
Scarlet xxxx
_____________________________________
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - There's a lot of information out there to help you talk to your kids about any number of subjects ... drugs, strangers, nutrition and so on. But a new study says that, when it comes to babies, the subject doesn't matter. You just need to talk -- a lot.
A recent childhood development study says the best thing parents can do for their children is talk with them. In fact, it shows that each word until age three is thirty percent more powerful than a landmark study said it was in 1995. "Parents, caregivers and family are the first ones who introduce vocabulary and the more words the children hear, the greater their vocabulary," said speech and language pathologist Judy Montgomery.
The study also shows that tots who get talked to a lot have higher IQ scores and do better in school. But how much talk is enough, and how can parents measure it? Crystal Adams thinks she has the answer – a small digital processor, worn inside her son Ethan's jumper. "It's counting the words he hears and then it gives me a good place at the end of the day, I can look at it and say, "Oh wow, I didn't talk to him as much as I thought I did," Adams said.
The high-tech device, called "LENA" for “Language Environment Analysis," is a kind of verbal "pedometer" that helps parents gauge how vocal they are with their kids. It measures the number of distinct words he hears throughout the day. At the end of the day, you plug the processor into your computer to see how you did. “It makes a graph, then I can look at the graphs and it tells me how many words he heard throughout the day," Adams said.
The ideal number of words used to be 30,000. That's tons of talk. “So far we haven't found many parents who speak thirty thousands words a day to their children," Montgomery said.
The new number is in the seventeen to twenty thousand range, and don't think you can plop the baby in front of a TV to raise your score. "The device is designed to screen out or filter out anything that isn't actual speech in that room," Montgomery said.
The manufacturer says the best way to keep the conversational ball rolling is by narrating everything you do with your baby. The device can also print out a percentile ranking of your kid's progress. But that is something child care professionals feel might raise unnecessary concerns for anxious parents.
