Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/IfhsrH3V-X4 Toddlers nearing their second birthday learn new word associations better when they spend time with other toddlers rather than only adults.  A study published in the September edition of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology comes from Canada’s University of Waterloo. The investigators studied 88 toddlers in two groups: those who spend their days with other children and others who only spent time with peers once a week.  The children in both groups processed familiar words well.  The kids spending more time with other children were better able to pick up new words and linked them with persons and things, which is what language is all about. The “news you should use” is the unsurprising fact that developing children need contact with their peers as well as with adults.  Keep that in mind when you as a parent structure their life. Dana E. Bernier, Katherine S. White. Toddlers’ sensitivity to phonetic detail in child speech. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,