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That's My Name!
Babies and Name Recognition
By Katherine Bontrager
"One-on-one interaction with an infant really drives this process," Bortfeld says. "The fact that a child's name serves as an anchor into the speech stream and helps with subsequent word learning demonstrates how interactive language learning really is. That is to say, plunking an infant in front of a television will not do the trick."
"We want to encourage parents to speak with infants – not at them – and give children the room and space to respond," Hirsh-Pasek says. "Don't try to fill in every space in the conversation. We need to learn to deal with a little bit of silence so our children have the chance to fill it. Children never learn the initiative or what they have to say matters if they're not given the space to respond. And we all want strong children with a sense of who they are. So we have to let go a little and encourage conversation – all while being sensitive and responsive with our conversations."
How can you tell if you're being sensitive and responsive to a baby's needs? "Pay attention to your child if you want to encourage language," Hirsh-Pasek says. "Let them take the lead. Notice what interests your child and encourage and talk about that. Language doesn't come from tutorial lessons; it comes from conversation."
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