{"id":5132,"date":"2017-11-01T17:30:13","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T17:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec2-52-14-78-51.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/?post_type=first-things&p=5132"},"modified":"2021-11-04T20:33:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T20:33:24","slug":"child-development-conversation-golden-nugget-2","status":"publish","type":"first-things","link":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/first-things\/child-development-conversation-golden-nugget-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abIn child development, conversation is the golden nugget.\u00bb"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Conversation with Kathy Hirsh-Pasek<\/strong>\u200b<\/h2>\n

Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek<\/a> is an expert on how young children learn and develop language skills. She directs the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University and is a New York Times bestselling author.<\/p>\n

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What’s the best thing a parent or caregiver can do to support their young child’s healthy development?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek<\/strong>: “The best thing you can do is have a relationship with your child. We are a social species. Relationships help us learn everything. And as part of that relationship, have interactive conversations with your child. Babies and young kids learn from having fluid, interactive conversations. ‘You speak, I respond,’ in ways that are timely and relevant.<\/p>\n

So, you need to\u00a0respond in the right time frame, usually within about two seconds. That’s the normal pattern of conversation. Now, babies take a little longer to respond, and we often want to jump in too soon, so try to hold back just enough and let the baby have her moment. Wait for that coo or gesture and then respond.<\/p>\n

And respond in a way that’s relevant, that has meaning and keeps the back-and-forth going. We’ve all experienced the opposite, when we’re talking with someone on the phone or at a party. They’re not really listening, and they respond with a new topic that’s\u00a0totally unrelated to what we just said. It’s very annoying, and it disrupts the conversation.”<\/p>\n

Why is conversation so important?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

KHP<\/strong>: “In doing research, we look at a lot of different babies and try to figure out what kind of behaviors allow us to predict\u2014a year or two or five years out\u2014how strong that child is going to be in language skills and social skills and reading and math and science. And we find that these interactions\u2014those fluid conversations\u2014are the key predictors of later outcomes. In child development, conversation is the golden nugget.\u00a0 Even among very impoverished groups, children who have those conversations with their parents or with other caregivers tend to come out pretty fine. They develop vocabulary, and they succeed. Having fluid, interactive conversations really helps a child learn language, and language is the single-best predictor of everything\u00a0academic that’s going to come their way.”<\/p>\n

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