Toddlers are data miners

It’s funny how scientists describe in complex ways what moms know by association.

This is one of them:

In one of their studies, published in the journal Cognition, Yu and Smith attempted to teach 28 12- to 14-month-olds six words by showing them two objects at a time on a computer monitor while two pre-recorded words were read to them. No information was given regarding which word went with which image. After viewing various combinations of words and images, however, the children were surprisingly successful at figuring out which word went with which picture.

In other words, toddlers don’t learn a language one word at a time. The more words/concepts/relationships you expose a toddler to, the faster he learns the whole language. That’s why you normally do not hear this conversation at the dinner table with a toddler:

      “Me, mommy.. You, baby…. this, food… that, mouth. Eat, eat.”

You just naturally converse with your young kids. And you know that in a very short period of time, they can comprehend you, even when they can’t say a single word yet. As another example, my three-year old has learned to speak my native tongue, in a span of two short months, because I’ve been talking to my parents in that language while they’re staying with us. I wasn’t even purposely teaching her. She just caught up to the conversations I have with other adults.

But of course, studies like these ARE exciting for research purposes in developing techniques and learning mechanisms that can help speech challenged kids.

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