Many years ago a 14 year old girl brought her 6 week old, sick baby to see me. I talked to the infant as I examined her, “Does your tummy hurt?” I asked as I felt her belly. Mom laughed. “Babies can’t talk!” she exclaimed probably wondering how dumb this doctor really was! “You’re right” I assured her. “They can’t, but they learn to talk from hearing people talk to them.” We had a short talk about the importance of talking and reading to babies. Hopefully, after our discussion, Mother left with a new idea about talking and reading to her baby.
There was an article in the paper last week explaining that children, whose care-givers talk with them, not only talk earlier, but are better students, and are more successful throughout their lives than those who have little speech contact with adults.
Children begin to learn early, probably even before they are born. Their personalities, learning style, and values are formed before the age of 6. While schools are able to reinforce the things a child has learned at home, parents are the main ingredient in a childs formation. And fathers, as well as mothers, have a major role in this process. Now don’t start accusing me of being a sexist, study after study shows that kids without a father in the home are more prone to deviant behavior and are slower learners than those from a two parent home.
The take home lesson is to provide all infants with access to two parents who read and talk with them. Dolly Parton and the State of Tennessee, with help from some major corporations, send every baby born in Tennessee an age appropriate book every month from birth to age five years. This program should help Tennessee kids learn better and faster and bring Tennessee up from the basement in education.