How Babies Talk The Magic and Mystery of Language in the First Three Years of Life

by Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy

• ISBN13: 9780525944553
• ISBN10: 0525944559
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: E P Dutton

Summary

In an entertaining and accessible fashion, this guide outlines milestones for babies and shows how parents can help their children reach them.

Author Biography

Dr. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff received her Ph.D. from Cornell University. She is an H. Rodney Sharp Professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware and directs the Infant Language Project. She holds joint appointments to the departments of linguistics and psychology. She has also been a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek is a member of the psychology department at Temple University, where she directs the Infant Language Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in human development and psycholinguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a composer and performer of children's music.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Setting the Stage: The Magic of Language Development in the First Three Years of Life	1	(12)
Language Milestones	5	(2)
The Source of Our Knowledge: Scientific Sleuthing	7	(2)
Theoretical breakthroughs	7	(1)
Methodological breakthroughs	8	(1)
Scientific Sleuthing Pays off	9	(4)
Watch Your Language! The Fetus Can Hear You: Development from Before Birth to Three Months of Age	13	(1)
The Fetus	13	(5)
The Fetal Environment: Home Sweet Home	13	(1)
Baby, Do You Read Me? Hearing Mother's Voice and Other Sounds	14	(3)
Try This: Can my fetus hear? Can my fetus hear me?	16	(1)
Does Fetal Learning Mean Fetal School?	17	(1)
Birthing the Baby: Will the Newborn Resemble the Fetus?	18	(17)
Try This: Does the newborn react to sounds?	19	(1)
Communicating Through Crying	20	(1)
Mother, Is That You? Newborns Prefer to Hear Mother's Voice	21	(2)
Distinguishing the World's Languages	23	(2)
Try This: Does your baby respond to foreign languages?	24	(1)
Face-to-Face: Love at First Look?	25	(3)
Try This: Charting baby's smiles	28	(1)
Do Mouths and Voices Work Together?	28	(2)
Newborn Copycats	30	(1)
Try This: Can my baby copy me?	30	(1)
The Roots of Conversation	31	(1)
Baby Talk Matters	31	(3)
Try This: Do babies react to baby talk?	34	(1)
More Than Meets the Eye	34	(1)
Scientific Sleuthing Pays Off	35	(4)
Lesson 1. Silence is not golden	35	(1)
Lesson 2. New scientific methods can yield assessment tools	36	(1)
Lesson 3. Overestimate your baby's capabilities	37	(2)
Yada-Yada-Yada: The Babbling Period Between Four and Eight Months of Age	39	(1)
Babies Do Babble	39	(8)
How Babies Talk to Us	41	(2)
Try This: Conversations from the crib?	42	(1)
From Coos and Goos to Babbling	43	(1)
Try This: Are ``Mama'' and ``Dada'' real words or just arbitrary sounds?	44	(1)
Why Babies Babble	44	(3)
How We Babble to Babies	47	(1)
Widening the Topics of Conversation	47	(1)
Try This: Finding objects near and far	48	(1)
Finding the Words (and Other Units) in the Stream of Speech	48	(11)
What's a Word Worth?	48	(1)
Use Your Head! The Headturn Preference Procedure	49	(3)
Try This: Will baby notice disrupted speech?	51	(1)
Learn Your Handle: Lauren, Not Louise	52	(2)
Try This: Does baby respond to her own name?	54	(1)
Once Upon a Time: Babies Recognize Words in Stories	54	(2)
How Do You Mean? Babies Grapple with Word Meanings	56	(3)
Scientific Sleuthing Pays Off	59	(5)
Lesson 1. Hear ye, hear ye: Watch for ear infections	59	(1)
Lesson 2. There is nothing wrong with small talk	60	(3)
Point-ilism: Parents Become Tools for Babies Between Nine and Twelve Months of Age	63	(1)
Learning to Communicate Without Words	64	(9)
Finding the Causal Connection: My Signals Can Make Things Happen!	64	(3)
Try This: Can my baby communicate with intention?	67	(1)
How Do Babies Learn to Make Their Point?	67	(3)
Try This: When can baby follow a point?	69	(1)
The Negotiation of Failed Messages: You Just Don't Get It!	70	(3)
Try This: How does my baby negotiate?	72	(1)
Let the Words Begin!	73	(7)
Preverbal Communication: The Cradle of Meaning	73	(1)
Detecting the Patterns in the Language Stream	74	(3)
The Decline in Distinguishing Among the Sounds of the World's Languages	77	(1)
Whither the Words?	78	(2)
Try This: Playing games	80	(1)
Scientific Sleuthing Pays Off	80	(8)
Lesson 1. Honor babies' communicative attempts even before they are intentionally communicative	80	(3)
Lesson 2. Put my thoughts into words!	83	(4)
First Words: Getting ``Hi'' Between Twelve and Eighteen Months of Age	87	(1)
What Does It Take to Learn a Word?	88
The Flowering of Vocabulary	88
The Stars and Stripes and Other Symbols	90
Try This: Comics in the crib?	92
The Fertile Path to Real Words	92
Try This: Creating a diary of protowords and first words	94
Communicating Efficiently	94
Try This: Tracking the use of the baby's first ten words	96
``Home Signs'' and ``Baby Signs''	97
Try This: Can my baby learn some baby signs?	99