Who’s Talking

A study conducted in 1995, by researchers Dr. Betty Hart, Ph.D., and Dr. Todd Risley, Ph.D, discovered a correlation between the number of words parents say to their children before the age of three and how well he or she will do in school. Apparently, babies should hear nearly 25 million words in the first four years of their life, which breaks down to 17,000 words a day ( http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TurningPoints/story?id=4701178 ). Well, does this mean that little Johnny or Kate will definitely get into Harvard or Yale if he or she hears more 17,000 words a day?

To the average person without children or the classic introvert, this may seem like an impossible goal to achieve. However, if you think about it, if you were to talk to your baby/child about all the activities you do with them throughout the day, then such a soaring word count is really not that difficult to accomplish. Imagine the total words used each day from parents who are creative, naturally adlib, and improvise. Wow that could really be a lot of words!

If you are like many parents, this study just adds to the many other concerns you have to deal with regarding the well-being of your baby. As if making sure the baby was getting enough sleep, milk, food, shots, and stimulation were not enough. Well, the ingenious people at Infoture, Inc. have developed a handy device called the LENA (Language Environment Analysis) that will count the number of words you say to your baby for you. If you are in the market to spend $400.00 to assist with your daily word count, then consider this device and its entire system. http://www.lenababy.com