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You've got questions, she's got answers. Be among the first to read Elise Mac Adam's new etiquette guide.
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Babble Pondering
When I was born, my grandfather, a doctor, was given a copy of one of those formidable texts, a pink volume bearing the title: How to Raise a Happy, Healthy Baby by the author, Beulah France, R.N. She is pictured on the cover and is a little Nancy Reagan-esque to be comforting.
The book is now in my possession and is a source of constant curiosity. In some ways it is dripping with that old-fashioned classic kitsch that makes collecting vintage advice books so much fun ("Wise women do not rush into strenuous activities as soon as they get home from the hospital. Those who do, all too often have to pay for their indiscretion."), but Nurse France also happily describes the home birth of her first child, approves of breastfeeding, and is generally low-key with her advice.
Chunks of the book are framed as a Q&A with Nurse France's loyal, if occasionally misguided readers ("My husband was in an accident and his face is badly scarred. Will our baby's face be blemished because of this?") and I was intrigued by the following question and response:
Q: Will talking to my twins help them talk? They are nearly nine months old and neither one is noisy. They do make certain sounds and, believe it or not, they seem to understand each other. But they don't say "ma-ma," "da-da," or "bye-bye" yet. I'm so busy I have never talked much to them.
A: Talking to a baby from birth on helps him learn to talk. Busy as you may be, make a point of talking as you go about your chores. But be sure to speak slowly, pleasantly, with a rising inflection and absolutely correctly. Don't mimic the sound the babies make; but say words of one syllable, or more, distinctly and repeatedly. Many children do not talk until far beyond the age of nine months, so do not feel concerned.
Now, I talk to Felix in a wide variety of ways: I sing to him, talk to him as if he were a grown up, as if he were the dog, I mimic the noises he makes and elaborate on them. Very few children grow up not talking at all, so I'm curious about why it would be unwise to repeat his sounds back to him.
I'm sure since this book was written, all sorts of theories about how to converse with infants have been floated and deflated, but I do wonder what the thinking is about language development and what one is supposed to do. After that I wonder how much energy I have to dedicate myself to educating the Felix, and whether that work will deter at all the pleasure I get from doing my own thing with him.
posted by Elise at 11:51 AM
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parodie said...
The information I learnt while obtaining my linguistics degree (recently) suggests that the type of speak that mothers typically use with their children (known as "motherese" - the somewhat exagerated style of speech that is quite repetitive, etc) helps children acquire language.
However, the flip side of this is that kids seem to learn language pretty easily provided they are exposed to it. Whether or not you imitate your child's sounds will likely not impact his language acquisition in any significant way.
:-)
In other words - don't worry about it! Your instincts are as accurate as anything academics have figured out.
10/19/2005 6:12 PM
Elise said...
It is interesting. I had heard both of the things you mention. I am interested in the way even casual advice (as in this older book) gets dished out and what might be behind these warnings. Perhaps in the old manual there was a hidden fear of children actually talking like babies instead of mini-adults. But thank you for weighing in. It is such a a fascinating field of study.
10/20/2005 5:42 AM
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parodie said...