This episode revisits the concept of the 30 Million Word Gap concept, which we first covered in an interview with Dr. Doug Sperry a few weeks back.

After she heard that I was going to talk with Dr. Sperry, Dr. Roberta Golinkoff – with whom we discussed her book Becoming Brilliant almost two years ago now – asked to come back on to present a rebuttal. We’re going to learn a lot more about the importance of child-directed speech!

This episode serves two purposes: it helps us to understand another aspect of the 30 Million Word Gap, and it also demonstrates pretty clearly that scientists – both of whom have the best interests of children at heart – see very different ways of achieving that end.

(04:17) The origin of the 30-million-word gap

(06:32) Addressing children directly is important

(11:47) Kindergarten has become the new first grade.

(17:19) The difference between infant-directed and adult-directed speech.

(39:08) Children also need to be responded to in terms of things that are of interest to them

 

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