What affects children's brain development is not vocabulary, but the way parents communicate with their children.
American anthropologists Betty Hart and Todd Resley's famous "30 Million Word Gap" study revealed the heart-wrenching truth of middle and ordinary families: children born into poor families hear 30 million fewer English words by age four than children born into wealthier families. At age 10, Betty and Todd visited back: those with high vocabulary performed better academically.
The latest MIT researchers also pointed out that wealthy children who communicate less with their parents have poorer language skills and brain responses, and have worse outcomes than poor children; Poor children who talk more to their parents have their brains respond just as well.
The more often a child talks to their parents, the stronger activity in language-related areas of their brain, which helps develop the child's language skills, social skills, and verbal reasoning skills.
In other words, what affects the development of children's brains is not vocabulary, but the way parents communicate with their children. When we want to make up for the "30 million word gap" by giving children various early education classes, memory training, reading more books, or instilling more ideas, it is better to communicate more with children, because the latter has a greater impact on children's brain development. The most important thing for the brain is interaction.
How to interact effectively with children?
Share an education that any family can afford, and that is to talk to your child about a parent-child topic before going to bed!
It can be interests, hobbies, family members, emotions, feelings, science, planning, imagination, cognition, reading... Adults save it and inspire children to think every night before going to bed. My brother has been insisting for more than half a year, and the changes are amazing! From the time I guided him, to now he has the initiative to ask me and think about it on a deeper level together.
Listening to and respecting conversations with children goes far beyond expensive educational institutions and cram schools. The most precious gift in a child's life is the attentive company of his parents. The best education, in the bits and pieces of life.
I've compiled an electronic version of 365 bedtime tips that I can talk to my children about, which can be printed out to discuss one a day, do sisters need it?