A recent post discussed how a baby needs to hear about 20,000 words a day to start talking and I guess more words to talk early.
May times during the day I have to work on the computer and can’t talk around my daughter so she there are many hours where she is just playing in the house and not hearing any language. My husband is not home during the day so I doubt she is hearing 20,000 words.
I thought of maybe putting the news on TV, like MSNBC which runs a constant cycle of sophisticated political and financial talk that have big human faces facing forward and speaking grammatically correct (mostly).
I know studies say that kids who watch TV develop slower than those who don’t because they are just sitting there not interacting and just being entertained. But my daughter doesn’t actually she watch the TV (she’s only 13 months), it’s just background noise.
For that matter I would love to find a French TV station and keep that on all day for her to hear, but all I can find is Spanish. I know that many people who come to the US say that they learned English quickly by watching a lot of TV.
It sounds good, but I would be cautious of having a news program on in the background. The news is very grim. It’s always talking about all the evil in the world, and I wouldn’t want my child hearing about it.
Yes, I know, that was my concern with the news. I guess I mostly interested in what everyone thought of the concept in general.
Ideally, I would like to keep a station on that talked about creative and fun stuff. Like today I had one of the cooking channels on (Rachel Ray). But like I said the best for us would be a French channel.
i have read in one of the books :,Baby brain games(typo) that language acquisition will improve when it is directed to the baby versus just hearing adults talking. But again they need to hear others talking to gain a perspective of language! For me, I think leaving the TV on for more than a specified time will not work as I get very distracted myself and seem to be unorganized (I may have Adult ADD, I am not sure) .
It definitely can’t replace actual conversation. But can it replace silence? Or might it be more of a distraction to whatever it is she is trying to focus on?
I suggest during the time you could put on a CD instead, at least you know the content before its played. Sometimes i am also very busy so i put on educational cd like of children reading a book, or musical CD from various sources though they say classical music like baby mozart etc would be better, too complex and they get uncomfortable i think they call it sonata instead of ochestra, some research shows rock or metalica or hard rock music isn’t good for children least babies … as it will (not could, but will) result in bad behaviour … maybe you see punk adults later not sure …
Music you do not need to interact or see the mouth movement, but the child can gain some musical talent along the way, like knowing pitch, tone, beat etc by just listening … whilst for language you can play the reading cd, but subsequently you will also need to show her by lip and mouth movement … to reinforce it … and yes it can get quite repetitive …
yes too much tv will cause ADD ADHD etc … as the brain work on a different speed … once it gets used to being fast like 24-30 frames per second, reading a book, having a conversation would be too slow for them … they will need speed … n that is not the real world …
How about playing children songs and French songs or Dialogue at the background when she plays? I am also alone all day at home. And I think music helps as after listening to it repeatedly for many times I will to try my very best to sing along to my son. In a way will increase our conversations. I read somewhere children pick up language fast through songs as well and it relates better to them.
I read the same study about 20,000 words and I believe it said that they didn’t count the ones coming from background noise because it wasn’t the same thing as conversation. I would be very scared about what she would hear on the tv, especially with commercials.
I got some inexpensive cds that teach Spanish. I play them in the background and I never thought my son was listening, but he has made some comments so I know he was.
I also recorded my voice and made a few cds for him. I can’t sing at all, but I figured he would still like the sound of my voice. I would think something like that would be much better. You could even record some learning information this way. I did alphabet, counting and some nursery rhymes that I was ok with him learning. I never realized for grim most of them are.
Also, do you wear your baby? I wore my son in a sling most of the time. At her age she could go on your hip or on your back. It is great because they are near eye level and it is easy to have them listen to everything you say while you still have your hands free. My son talked very early and I really think this is why.
I was under the impression that it was the words you spoke directly to your baby rather than background tv/radio, however it’s interesting to hear Cassidy336’s experience with Spanish CDs. Rather than the news, educational children’s tv shows, audio books, CDs with classical music or children’s songs (in your native language or other languages) may be more beneficial.
Is it possible to cite the link of the study with 20,000 words so others can read it please? Thanks
This is such an interesting topic because to figure out the answer would really help those of us who can’t expose our babies to enough spoken language because of work or whatever.
I’m getting a little scared at the thought of having the TV on a few hours a day. Just because she doesn’t have much of an interest in it now so I don’t want to create a problem. I guess I was thinking that if she saw the news anchor or cooking show host talking and moving their mouths with their expressive faces then that would be better than just a background CD.
I just don’t know. But we all know for a fact that watching TV is very addictive so I think leaving the expressive faces out of it is best. I’m going to look for French CDs to play instead.
I hope it has an impact because I feel horrible not talking to her for long periods of time.
you could get some pointers from the “Continuum Concept” where Jane Leidloff advocates that babies desire being in the midst of all human life and they’ll learn everything in our society so quickly that they even become economically productive by age 4/5.
The 20000 words that we are concerned at this stage will be no issue at all if you follow continuum!!
Hi, I would suggest CDs for kids in other languages. My mom did that with us kids. She spoke to us in English, altough we lived in Mexico, so she would get us many CDs of music for children in English, as well as those CDs (tapes in those days) that are stories and come with a book , those kind of follow-along. I am sure you could get some in Amazon, they have of many languages and ship worldwide. I get some that way.