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

An informative look at the human language learning process explains how babies master language during their first three years of life and presents simple tests to measure a child's progress or identify potential problems in their development. 12,500 first printing.

This guide to how children learn language highlights the ``extraordinary in the ordinary'' and applies the latest scientific research to understanding the art of speech. Golinkoff and Hirsh-Patek, academics at the University of Delaware and Temple University respectively, draw from linguistics, psychology, and their own experience as mothers to plumb the depths of language learning. Their conclusion? Babies know a lot more than theyre letting on. In fact, because of breakthrough studies that monitor fetal heartbeats, researchers now know that even before birth, babies not only recognize their mothers' voices, but can also discriminate between nursery rhymes they've heard before and those that are new. From that point, the authors discuss babies' early attempts at nonverbal communication, moving toward those hard-won first words, through the toddlers' ``vocabulary spurt,'' right up to the preschoolers' Herculean struggle to master not only the niceties of grammar, but also the social aspect of knowing what to say and when to say it. Using techniques that track babies' gaze, heartbeats, and bottle-sucking rates, the book does an impressive job of taking readers behind the scenes of each of these milestones. While they stress that ``children's minds are rich with language-learning resources,'' the authors emphasize what parents and caregivers can do to help the process along; suggestions include using ``infant-directed'' language, commonly known as ``baby talk'' so that words, phrases and vowels stand out amidst the endless stream of adult talk, and engaging in ``rich interpretation'' of a toddler's two-word sentence by expanding on the thought without offering corrections. How Babies Talk takes a refreshingly reassuring tone about speech delays, asserting that most children eventually catch up to their more loquacious peers. When it comes to language learning, the authors declare, ``nature and nurture are involved in an intricate dance with each other. `' This book will certainly help parents learn some new steps. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Both mothers and specialists in infant language, Golinkoff (education, Univ. of Delaware) and Hirsh-Pasek (psychology, Temple Univ.) present an in-depth study of language development during the first three years of life. Beginning with the fetus and newborn, the authors take the reader through the steps and stages of language learning. The text is interspersed with activities readers can use to assess the specific development of their own children. While stressing the individual differences of children in using language, each chapter includes indicators of delayed development to alert parents and caregivers. How Babies Talk should be useful and interesting to anyone involved with young children. Recommended for public and academic libraries.AKay L. Brodie, Chesapeake Coll., Wye Mills, MD
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language learning is innate, and children throughout the world achieve the same milestones in much the same order. Recent advances in theoretical models and methodological tools reveal the "language instinct" in babies, newborns, and even fetuses. Armed with an understanding of language development--from what fetuses hear to infant communication to crying, babbling, pointing, and first words to toddler vocabulary building, simple sentences, and the emergence of grammar to using language to get what is wanted--parents will be better able to encourage children and to spot when development is not proceeding normally. The book's prose is crisp, clear, concise, often humorous. The contents are unusually substantive for a handbook targeted to parents, as the bibliography of scientific citations confirms. Important scientific results and their applications to daily life are highlighted as lessons under the heading "Scientific Sleuthing Pays Off" and modified for use at home as "Try This" exercises. A key resource for parenting collections. Kathryn Carpenter