Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: thedoc on 25/02/2014 08:30:01

Title: How does a child's background change their speech?
Post by: thedoc on 25/02/2014 08:30:01

Why do some children's language skills progress more quickly than others? And could a child's background shape this?
Read a transcript of the interview by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1000613/)
or [chapter podcast=1000600 track=14.02.18/Naked_Scientists_Show_14.02.18_1001982.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd) Listen to it now[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/14.02.18/Naked_Scientists_Show_14.02.18_1001982.mp3)

Title: Re: How does a child's background change their speech?
Post by: David Cooper on 25/02/2014 19:09:24

Again can't find the transcript, but if they don't exist, don't create them on my account - the work involved would need to be justified by a very high number of page views. The main developmental difference is likely cultural, with some families passing down very different ways of bringing up children such that a baby in one family be be exposed to very little language (it can't understand anything so why bother talking to it) while a baby in another is talked to all the time (the more you talk to it and provide visual clues as to what you're saying, the sooner it'll learn to talk and the more intelligent it will end up being). The difference is startling:-

"Professional parents talk more to their children than less-affluent parents—a lot more, resulting in a 30 million “word gap” by the time children reach age three."

http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/01/the-key-to-smarter-kids-talk-to-them/#ixzz2hFWX83oM (http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/01/the-key-to-smarter-kids-talk-to-them/#ixzz2hFWX83oM)