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The dos and don'ts of baby talk · Silver FM 100.6

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This week One Up First.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: One trend emerging this election season, President Trump actively opposing
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  Speaker 2: who've doppled incumbents in multiple states. We're watching key primaries
• 0:13
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• 0:15
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• 0:18
  Speaker 2: about November. Listen to Up First every morning on the
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, Andy, Hey, Mariyelle.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I was just talking to my nephew. We FaceTime a
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: few times a week. He always grabs the phone and
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: he does this thing where he communicates his glee by
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: shaking his head.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: Like this, like I'm so happy to see Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's our signal to each other, like we're
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: excited to see each other. Because it's hard to know
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: how to talk to a baby really before they're talking, right,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: It's like, how do you have conversations? How do you
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: know if you're connecting in some way?
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: What it sounds like is something called serve and return,
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: and so it means when you're interacting with a baby,
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: You're serving them some form of communication, Hi baby, how
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: are you, and you're letting them return communication. You're giving
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: them space to coo at you or to babble, to
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: basically tell you, I receive that thing, that communication back,
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: and you know they often understand a lot more than
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: we think.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, coming up on this episode of Life Kit,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: I'm going to keep talking to Life Kit reporter Andy
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Tagle about how to talk to your baby. If you
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: have a baby in your life who the year, older, younger,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: this episode is for you, and we're going to walk
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: through how to communicate, how to leave space for them
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: to respond, and how important it is to have one
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: on one in person interaction with them. All of these
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: things help them learn and hopefully foster that love of
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: language in them. That's coming up after the break.
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: For poor people in one of the world's fastest growing megacities,
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  Speaker 5: development means displacement and violence. On the Sunday story the
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  Speaker 5: human cost of building Legos, Nigeria into the Dubai of Africa.
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: Listen now to the Sunday story from the Up First
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: podcast on the NPR app.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: So, Andy, I have heard that babies can actually hear
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: when they're in the womb. Is that true.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a real thing. So by about the third trimester,
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: a fetus can hear sounds outside the womb, and studies
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: have shown that within moments of birth, babies are able
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: to identify their birth parents' voice and their birth parents language,
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: which on its own, I think is pretty awesome.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: I've been trying to do this for like my friend's
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: kids and any kids in my family. I'm trying to
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: get in there, you know, to be known by baby.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: So I talked to about I love that. What about
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: playing music? I feel like there's this idea I've heard
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: that if you play classical music for baby in the womb,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: they will end up super smart or maybe turn into
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: baby Mozart.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: Maybe you could try song because research has shown that
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of overlap between the brain pathways for
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: language processing and music processing. So, for instance, research found
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: that interactive musical experiences can also boost an infant's language learning.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: So what that means is get those bills on the
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: bus going round and round earlier rather than later, because
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: babies love music and they have an enormous capacity for language.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: One expert I spoke to her name's Amelia Baklita. You'll
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: hear from her a little later. She told me that
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: baby's brains are wired to want to be a part
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: of the conversation. She even called them little linguistic geniuses.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I love that linguistic geniuses. I have heard that they
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: can pick up languages much faster than older care or adults.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, way faster.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Are you ready for this?
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: Science shows that when babies are born, they're able to
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: tell the difference between the sounds of every language in
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: the world.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, there are a lot of languages that sound similar.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so you know, obviously they don't understand every language
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: of the world, but basically they're capable of comprehending the
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: sound units in any given word in any given language.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: So take the word cat got at baby's ears from
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: the moment they're born, can comprehend each of those distinct sounds.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: And then what happens, essentially is the more exposure a
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: baby gets to a specific language or languages, the brain
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  Speaker 4: becomes more attuned to those specific sounds and less receptive
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  Speaker 4: to all the rest. The first twelve months of life
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  Speaker 4: are sometimes called a sensitive period for this initial language learning,
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: because a baby's brain is super flexible. Here's child psychologist
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: Roger Harrison of Children's Hospital at Philadelphia.
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  Speaker 6: So, for example, if we were conduct this interview in
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  Speaker 6: like Greek or in Mandarin, at some point I would
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  Speaker 6: lose interest no matter how earnest you are speaking to me,
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  Speaker 6: because my brain simply isn't connecting to that. But babies,
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: their brains are actually looking to see when sounds begin
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  Speaker 6: and sounds end. Their brain's capacities are so elastic that
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  Speaker 6: it really is setting the foundation to understand the cadence
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: of any language.
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  Speaker 3: So it sounds like that first year is an especially
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: good opportunity to raise a bilingual baby, to get or
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: try lingual to help your baby learn multiple languages.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think the argument here is just
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: don't wait. If you have the opportunity, if you have
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: a second language, get started right away. It's never too early.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: Different cultures have different feelings about this, that it might
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: be a bad idea, that you might confuse a child
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: by having more than one language in a house, and
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: the research says it's really an advantage. You know, like personally,
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: in my home and my family, I don't speak to
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: gall because it was discouraged when my mom was growing
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: up for assimilation reasons mostly, and that's a real bummer
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: for me now, you know. So before there was a
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: thought that bilingual kids might be behind. It's just that
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: their experience looks a little different. There are certain benchmarks
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: that the CDC has for language. One benchmark for two
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  Speaker 4: and a half year olds is being able to communicate
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: at least fifty words or so. Research has shown that
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: bilingual kids meet those milestones. It's just often that those
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: words are divided between those two languages. Don't worry that
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: bookeb learning does generally catch up by the time that
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: kids enter school. In fact, I study from just this
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: year found that bilingual children outperformed their monolingual peers in
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: both vocabulary and grammar in kindergarten and first grade before
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: eventually leveling off, so being at the same level as
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: all their peers and separate from that, research has shown
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  Speaker 4: there's just a lot of advantages to being a bilingual learner,
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  Speaker 4: things like better working memory, better executive functioning, and the
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: ability to think flexibly.
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  Speaker 3: I can see this putting a lot of pressure on
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: people who only speak one language and have a baby,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: like am I letting my kid down by not teaching
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: them multiple languages.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I get that I only have the one, so
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: I feel that, but definitely not. That was actually a
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: big theme of my interviews on this subject is that
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: raising a baby is stressful enough. You shouldn't have to
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: think too.
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  Speaker 3: Hard about this.
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  Speaker 4: Really, the first year is about laying a solid foundation
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: for your little one for future language development. There's lots
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: of small ways to do that, just by making a
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: point of being communicative with your baby. You want to
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: just surround them with language on a daily basis, because
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: those first few months of life are wiring their brains
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  Speaker 4: through that language exposure and through interactions with their caregiver.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Because early on they're not really learning words. They're learning,
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: you know, things like the rhythm and the tone and
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: structure of language. So they're really tuning into that connection
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  Speaker 4: with you, and that's what drives brain development.
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  Speaker 3: So it doesn't matter so much in that first year
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  Speaker 3: what you say, but you just want to talk.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: One idea I loved I learned from someone who spends
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: a lot of time thinking about play name's Jessica Rolf
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: and she's a mom of three and the co founder
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: of Love every They build research back toys and books
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: for different stages of child development.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: One of the things that newborn babies love to do
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  Speaker 1: is if you hold them sort of front facing, you
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  Speaker 1: can slowly walk them around your home and talk about
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: what you're seeing. And so you can wrap on a window,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: or you can open and close a cupboard and get
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: yourself a glass of water.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: HM, because sometimes I feel like it's hard to know
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  Speaker 3: what to talk to them about.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: Right and you can feel a little silly. So a
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: similar idea with this is just to narrate the things
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: that you're doing. So using functional words during play is
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: another really good idea. So for example, when you're playing,
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: you could say like, oh, we're putting the ball in
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  Speaker 4: the hole. I'm pushing you in the stroller. Those first
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: words can be really valuable for those early months in
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: life and can help them with their first words once
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: they're a little older. So you know, bottom line here,
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: you don't have to stress about it. You don't have
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: to make flash cards. You just have to connect with
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: that kid and try and create an environment that fosters
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: quality communication.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Coming up, how to speak parantees.
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: It can be hard to keep up with all the
• 9:27
  Speaker 7: new movies on streaming services. How do you tell the
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: good ones worth flatching from the bad or the silly
• 9:32
  Speaker 7: ones you can laugh along with or at. On NPR's
• 9:36
  Speaker 7: Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're recommending some fun movies you
• 9:39
  Speaker 7: may have missed. Listen via the NPR app or wherever
• 9:42
  Speaker 7: you get your podcasts.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: So we've been talking about just talking to your baby
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: in a normal tone of voice, narrating what you're doing.
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  Speaker 3: But I find a lot of the time when I
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: see babies that I switch into this. I wouldn't call
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: it baby talk. I'm not like, oh, look at babe,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: but but I'm like, ah.
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  Speaker 8: You're so sweet.
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  Speaker 3: I love you so much. I want to hut your face.
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  Speaker 9: You know.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: And I wonder if that yeah, yeah, no, it's an impossibility.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: And you know what, Actually, there is a scientific reason
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: for that, and there's a scientific name for it. It's
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: called infant directed speech, or parentees. And you're not alone.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: If you ever felt self conscious about it or wondered
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: whether or not it was a good idea, you can
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: put your worries away. The answer is a resounding yes.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Nice.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: The reason why we speak this way to babies, it
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: turns out, is because many of the qualities of parentees,
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: you know, it's often slower. There's variation in pitch and tone.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: We might repeat a word look at your toes, I
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: love your little toes. They can help a baby's brain
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: to start to recognize and decipher language. It's our innate
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: way of helping our babies learn. I talked about this
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: with Amelia Backlita, director of Outreach and Education at the
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences or EYELABS. Here's how
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: she explains it.
• 11:05
  Speaker 9: It's a cue to them that this is important, this
• 11:07
  Speaker 9: is something I need to pay attention to. And the
• 11:11
  Speaker 9: other piece about parentees is that often it's not just
• 11:15
  Speaker 9: the vocal part. Usually we've got sort of a warm smile,
• 11:19
  Speaker 9: you know, big bright eyes. It's all of these social
• 11:22
  Speaker 9: cues working together that are really telling baby and baby's brain, hey,
• 11:27
  Speaker 9: this is important, pay attention. I need to learn from this.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Got it? Well? Are there right and wrong ways to
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: do this?
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: To speak parentees, one thing you want to do is
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: use the right words, use correct language. So no nonsensical
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: baby speak, no googo gaga, no making up words for
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: their body parts or all the stuff around the house.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: But all of the experts encouraged this behavior. They said,
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: even if it feels silly, even if it doesn't come supernatural.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: Lean into that kind of sing song parentees voice, or
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: when you feel moved, even full on seeing to your baby.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: They don't care if you can follow a tune. They
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: are still gonna love it. And the long term benefits
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: of this are really pretty remarkable. For example, Amelia told
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: me about this one study that monitored how parents talk
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: to their children from six months old all the way
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: to kindergarten.
• 12:20
  Speaker 9: So if their parents used more parentees at five on average,
• 12:24
  Speaker 9: they are producing longer sentences, they have bigger vocabularies, they
• 12:28
  Speaker 9: are more complex than their conversations, and even showing some
• 12:33
  Speaker 9: improved reading readiness. So these early language inputs that parentees,
• 12:39
  Speaker 9: the back and forth conversations that is so critical and
• 12:43
  Speaker 9: is really helping build that strong foundation that then each
• 12:47
  Speaker 9: next language milestone can build on.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Okay, what about the one sided conversations, because I mean,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: for the first year of life it is often one sided,
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: and I wonder should you be leaving space for them
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: to answer you.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: You absolutely should, It's another big yes. The technique you're
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: referring to is sometimes called serve and return, or sometimes
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: a conversational turn. The thing about this is, yes, they're
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: not going to be able to respond with speech, but
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of different ways they might be responding
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: to you. It might be a gesture or a wave
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: of their arms. It might just be that their eyes
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: start to follow you. Later, it might be facial expressions,
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: it might be cooing, it might be those early vocalizations.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: But you definitely want to leave that space open for
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: them because even if it's not right away, it's starting
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: to build that muscle for them. It's starting to show
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: them this is what a conversation is. This is what
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: language looks and sounds like.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: You know, I feel like the elephant in the room
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: here is screens and language learning on YouTube or on TV.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, we know those programs exist, and babies and
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: kids and parents love them everything from like Sesame Street
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: to Miss Rachel. But are they a substitute for that
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: human in person interaction.
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: They are not.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: So what Amilia told me is that it's the social
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: setting that unlocks the brain for learning. We really need
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: that social input as humans to learn, especially when we're
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: really young. So there's been a lot of interesting studies
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: on this. One of those studies out of Eye Labs
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: was the study they did of infants learning Mandarin. So
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: they took babies from English speaking households and put them
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: in three groups. Some of the babies they put in
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: front of screens where there were Mandarin speakers, some heard
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: audio recordings of Mandarin, and then the last group they
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: took and put in a room with live Mandarin speakers.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: And over twelve sessions, what they found was that the
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: babies in front of screens and with audio recordings didn't
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: really learn anything.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Oh wow.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: But the babies that had live interactions with people speaking
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: Mandarin were able to tell the difference between the sounds
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: of Mandarin as well as babies who were born in Taiwan,
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: so as well.
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: As native speakers.
• 14:55
  Speaker 10: That's huge.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So one on one in person parentees is most
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: beneficial for your baby's language development. You need to be
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: giving them those quality interactions and to divine that even
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: further for you, let me introduce you to Nyron Ramirez Esparza.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: She's an associate professor at the University of Connecticut in
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: the Department of Psychological Sciences. She was part of a
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: research project that recorded babies and their families to try
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: and understand how language learning happens in the home.
• 15:25
  Speaker 10: The infant benefits the most when the interaction is with
• 15:28
  Speaker 10: one other person and there is no like group interaction
• 15:31
  Speaker 10: or two people are talking to the baby, or there's
• 15:33
  Speaker 10: a lot of things happening, so it's just this one
• 15:36
  Speaker 10: on one interaction between the infant and the care giver,
• 15:39
  Speaker 10: and that's when the baby talk really helps the infants
• 15:44
  Speaker 10: later in their.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: Lives, versus like putting the baby in a playpen and
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: everyone talking around them, or you know, siblings playing nearby,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: where they're hearing a lot of language. People might have
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: thought previously it's helpful for them just to hear things.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: It might be, but not anywhere to the same degree
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: as when they're getting that one on one talking time,
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: that one on one quality connection with one person.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: One thing that I've noticed some of the parents in
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: my life doing with their babies is teaching them hand
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: signals before they know words or before they're saying words.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: So it's like this means milk, or this means all done.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Is that helpful?
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: I mean all done is baby sign language that will
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: live in my brain forever. It's burned onto my brain.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: I will be doing all done until I am all done.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: Parents are curious about baby sign language generally a lot
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: more accessible than verbal communication at first. I know, we tried.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: We picked up a book that had like the hundred
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: most common baby sign language words, and we have like
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: ten left over.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Does he still do them now that he talks? Yeah,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: he does.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: Sometimes he'll get like really excited about a dinner, more
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: and more and more and more and more or is
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: it or something you know and it'll just like come out.
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: But a lot of them that have just like fallen away,
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: but more specifically more and all done are the ones
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: that we still have.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: What about reading to your baby? I wonder how early
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: we should be doing that.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: It's never too early, It's never too early, and never
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: too often. A simple pro tip I loved from Jessica
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: was to read books face to face with your baby
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: instead of just putting them towards the book. So the
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: reason why you do that is that they can see
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: your facial expressions so they can get that social learning
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: boost as well. And while you're at it, don't be
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: scared to about all your literary devices and your terrible
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: singing voice. You want to be as animated as possible
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: because remember it's not just about the language. They're getting
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: social learning. That's why Roger says nursery rhymes are actually
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: really helpful for brain development. You know, you want to
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: paint a picture for them as vivid as you can.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: I don't know when or why this became a thing,
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: but our transition song out of the bathtub at night
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: is take me out to the ballgame. But I change
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: the lyrics of take me out to the ballgame, so
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: now it's pay Teddy the bath the Hey, that's all
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: I give you. You don't need more than that, but
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: you're a sick So on that note, I think that's
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: it's a very good reminder. You know that you don't
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: have to take it too seriously. That said, you do
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: want to try to be mindful when life can get stressful.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of devices around us all the time.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Just Beca says it can be easy sometimes for some
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: of that critical language to get lost in the home.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: There is a lot that's distracting us as parents. Now
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: there's a lot happening on our own phones. We're texting people,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: we're checking for important updates. So in general, it's a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: little harder for parents today to be present with their children.
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: But you gotta try.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Andy, thank you so much for this.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Thank you maryel.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: All right, time for a recap. Take Away one. Surround
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: your baby with language. Talk to them every day. If
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: you're not sure what to say, try narrating what you're doing.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: We're taking them on a house tour. If you speak
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: another language, talk to them in that language too. It's
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: never too early to start, and research shows that bilingual
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: kids have a lot of advantages, like they're better at
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: thinking flexibly and focusing their attention. Take Away two go
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: ahead speak parentees. That's when you modify your delivery because
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: you're talking to a baby. You might do things like
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: slowing down, varying your pitch and tone, and saying things
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: in a high pitch like I love your little toes.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: Those things can make it easier for a baby to
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: start recognizing and deciphering words. What you want to avoid, though,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: is nonsensical or made up words. Take Away three. Leave
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: space for your baby to start responding. It might feel
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: weird at first, but don't talk NonStop. Ask them a
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: question and pause. That teaches them what conversation sounds like.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: And even if they don't speak to you in the moment,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: they might follow you with their eyes, or wave their
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: arms or make a sweet little baby sound. Take Away
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: four Nothing beats one on one in person interaction. That
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: is what's going to help your baby develop their language skills.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: And take away five make learning language fun for them,
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Sing songs, read books. It's never too early for more
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: Life Kit. Check out our other episodes. We have one
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: on how to travel with the baby and another on
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: everything you need to know about car seats. Also, we
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: love hearing from you, so if you have episode ideas
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: or feedback you want to share, email us at life
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Kit at NPR dot org. This episode of Life Kit
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: was produced by Sylvia Douglas. Our digital editor is Malica
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: garib and our visuals editor is CJ. Rikalon. Megan Kane
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: executive producer. Our production team also includes Claire Marie Schneider
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: and Margaret Serino. Engineering support comes from Niche Highness fact
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: checking by Andrea Lopez Cruzado. I'm Mariel Sagara. Thanks for listening.
• 20:43
  Speaker 8: We flush a lot of things down the toilet. You
• 20:45
  Speaker 8: know the obvious ones, but drugs like cocaine are also
• 20:49
  Speaker 8: going down the drain and into our waterways. That's changing
• 20:52
  Speaker 8: the animals that live in it.
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: It's definitely present in most ecosystems on Earth. Now, unfortunately
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: thrown the sort of really started to scratch the surface
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: into understanding the potential consequences of that.
• 21:01
  Speaker 8: Forget cocaine Bear, learn about cocaine salmon on Shortwave in
• 21:05
  Speaker 8: the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.