higher IQ by conversing with preschoolers

2.3: news.care/children/higher IQ by conversing with preschoolers:
summary:
. wealthier children have higher IQ's,
and one difference wealthier families make
that might be usable by other families
is conversing more with their preschoolers
using a richer vocabulary .
. however the intervention studies are not done,
so the effect of wealth on IQ
might also be due to genetics or telepathy .

Betty Hart, Ph.D., and Todd Risley, Ph. D., 1995
"Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience
of Young American Children."
(amazon; summary).

Talbot`the talking cure:
new yorker magazine 2015.1.2, p38,

Hart and Risley found that preschool programs
didn't seem to improve a child's IQ
so what difference does parenting make?
wealthier parents talked more to their children.
. the study was done on ages of 7 month to 3 years .
. the wealthier families' children
developed higher IQ and had larger vocabularies .
. apparently the main difference was
the amount of directed conversation:
the poorest 4-yr olds had heard
30 million fewer words from their parents .

. just hearing phone conversations didn't help:
you had to converse with kids
perhaps to grab their attention .
. the wealthier didn't just talk more,
they made greater use of nouns, modifiers,
and past-tense verbs .
. the wealthier also conversed more about
subjects the child had initiated .
. the poorer children were most likely to be
spoken to about not doing something;
whereas the wealthier were avoiding having to
tell their child "don't do that"
by instead re-directing them to an allowed behavior .

. the child needs to be paying attention
or have words directed at them
in order for the words to be significant .
. children of ages less than 2 years
are not accelerated as much by TV,
suggesting that either interaction is required
or the children benefit from telepathy .

. the intervention studies are not done yet
so we don't know if more words raises IQ
or if the advantage is genetic
(being born to smart parents)
or telepathic (sharing thoughts with
more educated parents).

. some point to poor households as having
adults who were more distracted by life's problems;
. being in a poorer family
might mean working longer hours
or not having a parent free to give
attention to the child:
perhaps what the poor need is more paid time off
when children are preschoolers .

. some seemed to be suggesting that
IQ and vocabulary may be genetic,
so instead of trying to surmount such differences
we should appreciate that humans have more to offer
than just high IQ and vocabulary .
. there seemed to be a culture difference being erased:
poorer families tend to appreciate discipline more,
in which childhood talking is less valued than
quiet respect and obedience:
labor jobs need that more than high IQ .

. in 2005 the LENA foundation
(language environment analysis)
developed a recorder that could recognize
when adults were conversing with children
and not just talking on the phone
(detecting child-adult interactivity)
and there have been many more studies
because of that technology .

asha.org 2014.1:

The Thirty Million Words® Initiative
is an evidence-based parent-directed program
designed to encourage parents to
harness the power of their words
to develope their childrens' brains .
. for children with hearing loss
there is project ASPIRE .
. the Thirty Million Words® curriculum
utilizes animation and real parent-child videos
to teach parents how to converse with children;
it also uses a LENA® recorder,
to count the amount of child-adult conversation
to show parents their progress .
Tune In:
. try to converse with children
about subjects the child initiates .
Talk More:
. use a rich vocabulary, not baby talk .
Take Turns:
. when there is a 2-way conversation,
that ensures the child is attentive .