Some 2 year olds may use fewer than 200 words, while others have more than double that vocabulary, at about 500 words. Practice, practice, practice. It isn t that some parents tell their 2 year olds to go to their rooms and practice their words. Instead, parents help their children practice by talking, listening and encouraging speech during the critical first three years when language is established. One of the advantages of this method is that it isn t difficult for a harried parent to do.
All words are new to a baby.
Everything a parent says and does is interesting. Before Hart s study, few, if any, researchers studied language acquisition by visiting children at home and recording their interactions with parents. They tape-recorded, transcribed, and coded every word and every household interaction involving babies. Hart, now retired, was one of KU s first faculty members at Juniper Gardens . She launched her study after realizing that more information was needed about how all children learn language before scientists could find remedies for children who lagged in vocabulary.