Brain Rules for Baby (John Medina) / quote 38 of 91
Talking to children raises their IQ
Speak to your children as often as you can. It is one of the most well-established findings in all of the developmental literature. The linkage between words and smarts was discovered through some pretty invasive research. In one study, investigators descended upon a family’s home every month for three years and jotted down every aspect of verbal communication between parents and their children. They measured size of vocabulary, diversity and growth rate of vocabulary, frequency of verbal interaction, and the emotional content of the speech. Just before the visits were finished, the researchers gave IQ tests. They did this with more than 40 families, then followed up years later. Through exhaustive analysis of this amazingly tough work, two very clear findings emerged: • The variety and number of words matter. • Talking increases IQ. The more parents talk to their children, even in the earliest moments of life, the better their kids’ linguistic abilities become and the faster that improvement is achieved.