教宝宝说话最好的教材是父母的声音

Best Tool to Teach Baby Talk? Their Parents' Voice 教宝宝说话最好的教材是父母的声音

A new study says electronic toys are not helping¹ babies learn.

“Even if companies are marketing² them as educational, they’re not teaching the babies anything at this time,” said the study’s author, Anna Sosa. She is a Northern Arizona University professor who heads the school’s Child Speech and Language Lab.

Sosa and her fellow researchers listened to audio recordings³ of parents playing with their babies -- aged⁴ 10 months to 16 months. The researchers compared the experiences when the children played with electronic toys, traditional toys such as blocks, or when the children looked at books.

What they found is that parents talked less with their babies when the babies played with electronic toys.

“The parents talked less, responded less and used fewer content specific words,” Sosa said.

Why is this important?

Sosa said research shows that how quickly children develop language is often based on what they hear from parents.

When the infants played with electronic toys, parents said little to their children, Sosa said.

But with traditional toys, such as blocks, parents shared the names and descriptions of the animals, colors and shapes as their children played, Sosa said.

There was even more information given by parents as their babies looked at the pictures in books, Sosa said.

Sosa is not telling parents to throw out electronic toys. But she said parents should look at their infants’ play with such toys as entertainment, not a learning experience.

Toy Industry Association spokeswoman Adrienne Appell responded to the study. She said it is important that parents make time to play with their children.

“Playing is a way that kids can learn so much, not only cognitive⁵ skills, but social and developmental skills,” she said.

She added that play should be balanced, including time for just “make believe” activities, as well as traditional and electronic toys.

Words in This Story

respond – v. to say or write something as an answer to a question or request

content – n. the things that are in something

specific – n. the facts or details that relate to something

description – n. a statement that tells you how something or someone looks, sounds

entertainment – n. amusement or pleasure that comes from watching a performer, playing a game, etc.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

3 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

4 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

5 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。