Baby talk

New research says talking to young children is important, with studies showing that many children from low-income families have poorer language skills than their more affluent peers. Lauran Neergaard reports.

Sitting toddlers in front of videos that claim to be educational, or making tots memorize flash cards may not be the best idea. Simply talking to babies is key to building crucial language and vocabulary skills - but sooner is better, and long sentences are good. So says research that aims to explain, and help solve, the troubling "word gap": Children from more affluent, professional families hear millions more words before they start school than poor kids, leaving the lower-income students at an academic disadvantage that's difficult to overcome.

That gap starts to appear at a younger age than scientists once thought, around 18 months, says Stanford University psychology professor Anne Fernald.