2013/9/26
早上起床后,在床上给他念dear zoo,新书照样不喜欢。
上午安排游泳,下午午觉醒来,又看了dear zoo,
这次小畅会爬过来翻翻书,我读了两遍,变换声调地念,
他还会咯咯笑。睡前念了where\'s baby\'s belly button?
Guess how much I love you.
JUNE SIMMS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m June Simms.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter. This week, we examine scientific findings about how intelligence develops in babies.
(MUSIC)
JUNE SIMMS: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old.
Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is a federal government agency. Its goal is to identify which experiences can influence healthy development in people.
Researchers at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other people.
The researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers.
MARIO RITTER: Another study has suggested that low birth weight babies with no evidence of disability may be more likely than other children to have physical and mental problems.
American researchers studied almost five hundred boys and girls. They were born in, or admitted to, one of three hospitals in New Jersey between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-seven. At birth, each child weighed fewer than two thousand grams.
The boys and girls had an average age of sixteen at the time of the study. They were asked to complete intelligence and motor skill tests in their homes. Their test results were compared with those of other children their age.
The study found that the young people with low birth weight often had more problems with motion skills than others. These problems were more common among males, those with injured nerve tissue in the brain and those who had been given oxygen supplies for days as a baby.
(MUSIC)
JUNE SIMMS: Experts say the first three years of a child\'s life is the most intensive period of language and speech development. This is the time when the brain is developing. Language and communication skills are believed to develop best in an environment that is rich with sounds and sights. Also, the child should repeatedly hear the speech and language of other people.
The National Institutes of Health says evidence suggests there are important periods of speech and language development in children. This means the brain is best able to learn a language during this period. Officials say the ability to learn a language will be more difficult if these periods pass without early contact with a language.
MARIO RITTER: The first signs of communication happen during the first few days of life when a baby learns that crying will bring food and attention. Research shows that most children recognize the general sounds of their native language by six months of age. By that time, a baby usually begins to make sounds. These sounds become a kind of nonsense speech over time.
By the end of the first year, most children are able to say a few simple words. But they may not understand the meaning of their words. By eighteen months of age, most children can say eight to ten words. By two years, most children are able to make simple statements, or sentences. By ages three, four and five, the number of words a child can understand quickly increases. It is at this age that children begin to understand the rules of language.
(MUSIC)
JUNE SIMMS: Many children grow up in homes where more than one language is spoken. It is clear that understanding two languages can help children as they grow older. However, new studies are showing the more immediate effects of bilingualism on babies’ brains.
Researchers at the University of Washington organized one of the studies. They measured brain activity to compare babies in bilingual families to those in monolingual homes, where one language was spoken. Theinformation they gathered is helping to explain how the early brain listens to language and how listening can influence the brain.
MARIO RITTER:
The researchers studied babies who were between six and twelve months old. The babies were not yet saying words in any language. The youngest monolingual babies were able to recognize a difference between a language used at home and another language. But by ten to twelve months of age, the monolingual babies were not identifying the sounds of the second language, only the main language spoken in their home.
In comparison, the bilingual babies did not differentiate sounds of different languages spoken to them between the ages of six and nine months. But between ten and twelve months, they could identify the different sounds of both languages.
JUNE SIMMS: Another report suggests that the effects languages have on a young brain are a result of people speaking, and not from video or audio recordings. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics says parents of young children should limit the time youngsters spend watching television or videos. The group says that spending time in front of the television offers no educational benefit or help to children younger than two years old.
Many videos are created especially for young children. They are advertised as learning aides. But the American Academy of Pediatrics says there is little evidence that such videos have any beneficial effect on babies. In fact, the group is warning that too much time in front of the television can in fact slow language development in children. Instead it suggests that parents limit the time babies spend watching video screens, including televisions and computers.
MARIO RITTER: The report was released last month at a meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The warning is not as severe as one the Academy made in nineteen ninety-nine. At that time, parents were advised to completely avoid television viewing for children under two years old.
The group says it now recognizes that banning all screen time is probably unrealistic in an age where video technology is everywhere. What is more helpful for the development of young children, it says, is communication and activities with people. The AAP says having the television on, even if it is not being watched directly by young children, can cause a problem.
(MUSIC)
JUNE SIMMS: Another American study has shown the effect of early education on future learning abilities. The study followed more than one thousand three hundred children from birth through the ages of ten or eleven. It found that children who received higher quality care before starting school had better language skills by those ages than children who had lower quality care.
The study is called the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. It is said to be the largest, longest lasting and most complete study of child care in the United States.
MARIO RITTER: The children included in the study were born around nineteen ninety-one in ten areas of the country. Researchers examined the quality and amount of child care the children received until they were four and one-half years old. Child care included any care provided by people other than the child’s mother that lasted at least ten hours a week. This included any care given by fathers or other family members.
The researchers then examined each child’s performance in school and social development. They also measured other influences, such as the quality of classroom education and parenting.
JUNE SIMMS: The researchers examined whether the developmental qualities that had been observed in young children were still present a few years later. They found that the older children who had received higher quality child care continued to show better ability in tests of language skills.
Researchers tested the children’s ability to name objects shown in a series of pictures. The study confirmed that a link between high quality child care and better test results continued as the children grew older. It also found that the children’s ability was not dependent on the amount of time they had spent in child care.
(MUSIC)
MARIO RITTER: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Mario Ritter with June Simms, who was also our producer.
重点在这些地方
The researchers studied babies who were between six and twelve months old. The babies were not yet saying words in any language. The youngest monolingual babies were able to recognize a difference between a language used at home and another language. But by ten to twelve months of age, the monolingual babies were not identifying the sounds of the second language, only the main language spoken in their home.
In comparison, the bilingual babies did not differentiate sounds of different languages spoken to them between the ages of six and nine months. But between ten and twelve months, they could identify the different sounds of both languages.
JUNE SIMMS: Another American study has shown the effect of early education on future learning abilities. The study followed more than one thousand three hundred children from birth through the ages of ten or eleven. It found that children who received higher quality care before starting school had better language skills by those ages than children who had lower quality care.
2013/10/7今天绘本加入了freight train, 上午第一次给小畅看之前还先搜索了下一些单词的发音和意思,他照样看了两眼就爬开了。
我把这本纸板书放在地垫上,他会拿起来玩,晚上睡前再次讲的时候,我感觉到他能专注看一节节车厢,听我讲完。
上午还看了一本body的小纸板书,他看到里面的小朋友微笑,会和他们挥手打招呼,我顺带指了指图片里各个身体部位
的说法。平时和小畅交流的时候,我尽量都是用英语,慢慢发觉他能理解的很多。比如,我说,do you want some
puffs? 他就知道是指我放在冰箱里的嘉宝泡芙零食,给了他一粒,他塞到嘴里,爬开后,我说one more, 他立马回转过来。
有时吃饭,不爱吃了或吃得有点饱时,我说how about five more? 他会配合地吃完五口,我一口口数,就五口,多一口他都不张嘴。小孩
真逗~~
2013/10/8YBCR的词卡已经看完两本,但小畅更喜欢的是那本整
合在一起的书,他喜欢去滑开字片然后再合上,所以
那大书的利用率高些,下午午休前,我把这大书放在床上
让他把玩,顺便问问他where is ...?show me...还看图说话,
他听得挺认真的。晚上讲绘本,将guess how
Much I love you ,freight train , Clifford bedtime,
Goodnight moon摆在一起,他先挑新书freight train,
讲完后,奶睡,哼唱了好一会hush little baby他才睡着,
呵呵,他刚才六点多才醒的。
2013/10/9今天下午要开会,上午有课,畅也一起去学校,对他蛮辛苦的,
睡觉时经常有人出入教研室,没法睡个安稳觉。在考虑是否下次还带去学校。
全天绘本没怎么接触,就是和他讲话而已,带了ybcr的合集书和跳蛙的字母冰箱贴去,
所以他自己玩的时候多少接触点英语。
但今天让我吃惊的是小孩学习语言是如此不费功夫。上午刚到的时候,我抱着他在楼道
走走,看到墙上的世界地图,我说this is a map. It\'s the map of the world.
大概说了两遍就走开了。下午四点多时,我又抱着他经过那,我说where is map? 他就转头看在他右边
的地图。oh la la ! 记得在美时 ,一西班牙语老师用
灰熊绘本教我们相应的西班牙语怎么说,重复好几次,最后问哪个是哪个,我
都跟不上。
2013/10/10
Morning nap醒来后,畅一直手指着他对面书箱上的一堆书,啊啊啊的叫,
我一本本给,他摇头,后来给他Clifford 那本书,他自己翻到Clifford 和泰迪熊,布娃娃
那页,指了下棕熊,然后又指了指墙上贴的熊,我说this is Clifford \'s bear.
That is Changchang\'s bear. The bear is holding
a writing brush.他听到brush、就用手指嘴巴,我赶紧示范说right
This is a toothbrush.we use it to make our teeth clean. That\'s a writing
Brush. It\'s for writing. 讲完他又啊啊啊的,我继续给他书,他把龟兔赛跑
给我了,听我念,他在床上爬。后来我们还看了biscuit 的 I can read my
First的几本书,他会注意图案,听我念完,难得新书他会有兴趣。
2013/10/11
绘本阅读在早上起床时进行,看两三本biscuit ,兴趣一般吧,
然后安排去游泳,回来睡觉,下午午觉任我怎么唱哄,最终还是没睡。
我是这么唱的,两只老虎的调,mama\'s sleepy mama\'s sleepy
How about you? Are you sleepy Changchang? Are you sleepy
Changchang? Let\'s take a nap . 我劝他说,hi my little one have some
Shuteyes. When Dada\'s home, you will feel refreshed. You two can have
Fun together.
2013/10/14
今天上午去学校,婆婆带小畅去游泳,我回来时十一点多,他
没睡,就吃奶,吃完后,我从书柜里找了两本书where is spot ?
at the zoo 读前面那本时,他要自己翻看,摸,以为有什么机关,
第二本的时候就喜欢拉,看图片变化,拉了几页就挣扎下地爬了。
下午从一点多睡到快四点,还好刚才我洗完澡他还挺配合的听了biscuit
翻翻guess how much I love you 和 Clifford bedtime 和墙上的熊贴纸
挥手晚安,奶睡,正常能睡到明天六点多。当然还要夜奶几次。
悲催今早他五点就醒,昨天八点就睡。还好我躺着假睡,他玩了好一会,累了
趴在我身边呼呼睡着了。