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Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

theguardian.com

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Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#71

Post by kaetemi »

xattt wrote: post #40
bitwize wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps because they were highly, highly experimental, the early little kids' edutainment shows, like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , just struck me as much better because they didn't insult children's intelligence, spoke to them as full persons, and had relatively rich and complex imagery, music, story, and humor. Which is why they're so watchable and beloved by adults . And then Elmo happened and th…

Cocomelon songs give me some sort of whole-body repulsion if it comes on on shuffle in the car. Classics that sound great sung by Raffi, Ella Jenkins and even Caspar Babypants are some sort of ear mush when done by Cocomelon, Kidz Bop et al.

Cocomelon are all sung in this weird smug condescending tone. It's really unpleasant.

Compare with Pokémon Kids TV, which sounds really cheerful, and you can hear the singer is really enjoying themselves. Also mostly the same classic children songs, but so much more enjoyable to listen to.

The generic midi versus funny experimental instrumentation play a part too.

Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#73

Post by jacobolus »

gardenhedge wrote: post #50
Loughla wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We talked constantly to ours. Not about anything in particular. Just narrating everything we did. Constantly. Our oldest was talking in full sentences at 1 year. It was astounding. Now, granted, it was stuff like, "I'm dunna det da fwad" but he was communicating in full thoughts at about the time he walked. People always asked what system we used for teaching him. Our answer was always, "it's boring at our house so w…

Everyone talks to their babies a lot. What does "it's boring at our house" mean?

> Everyone talks to their babies a lot

Most people talk to their babies at least sometimes, but observing families there are huge differences between how much people talk to their babies, how they talk to them, what subjects they talk about, how many different languages they use, etc.

Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#74

Post by jacobolus »

kaetemi wrote: post #71
xattt wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cocomelon songs give me some sort of whole-body repulsion if it comes on on shuffle in the car. Classics that sound great sung by Raffi, Ella Jenkins and even Caspar Babypants are some sort of ear mush when done by Cocomelon, Kidz Bop et al.

Cocomelon are all sung in this weird smug condescending tone. It's really unpleasant. Compare with Pokémon Kids TV, which sounds really cheerful, and you can hear the singer is really enjoying themselves. Also mostly the same classic children songs, but so much more enjoyable to listen to. The generic midi versus funny experimental instrumentation play a part too.

Mister Rogers had an excellent jazz pianist doing all the music live in studio throughout. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Costa

Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#75

Post by harry_ord »

CSMastermind wrote: post #43
e1g wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, two kids and zero strategies that worked with one apply to the other. Might as well be raising a dog and a dolphin.

> Might as well be raising a dog and a dolphin. That made me chuckle. But it's possible for siblings not to share any genetic material right? A brother and a sister would obviously get different genes from their father and presumably there would be a 50/50 chance of them getting different genes from their mother. There's four unique prototypes of children any two people can produce together.

> But it's possible for siblings not to share any genetic material right?

Kinda but the mother always provides the mitochondria.

Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#76

Post by EGreg »

gnicholas wrote: post #32
crooked-v wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article notes that the babies are with their mothers most of the time, so they're probably exposed to plenty of language even if it not specifically aimed at them.

Oh sure, but they're presumably not using sing-song baby language, or perhaps singing songs all that much.

Who says that sing-songy language is necessary? Kids actually crave being taken seriously like adults and teachers who do that are often well liked!

My actual question is … how to develop good humor and playfulness in kids? Some people grow up with somewhat stunted senses of humor it seems. Is there something one can do? Research?

Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#78

Post by EGreg »

jacobolus wrote: post #73
gardenhedge wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone talks to their babies a lot. What does "it's boring at our house" mean?

> Everyone talks to their babies a lot Most people talk to their babies at least sometimes, but observing families there are huge differences between how much people talk to their babies, how they talk to them, what subjects they talk about, how many different languages they use, etc.

If they have a lot of siblings there is even more speech

Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#79

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

EGreg wrote: post #78
jacobolus wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone talks to their babies a lot Most people talk to their babies at least sometimes, but observing families there are huge differences between how much people talk to their babies, how they talk to them, what subjects they talk about, how many different languages they use, etc.

If they have a lot of siblings there is even more speech

I have a family with a lot of kids. Their neighbour was living with his small family somewhere else for a year where their kids had the sibling and grandparents to talk to.

The younger of two had speech problems.

Then they returned home and the neighbour kids made both of them to talk in a matter of weeks and months.

Re: Infants understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual sounds

#80

Post by EGreg »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #79
EGreg wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they have a lot of siblings there is even more speech

I have a family with a lot of kids. Their neighbour was living with his small family somewhere else for a year where their kids had the sibling and grandparents to talk to. The younger of two had speech problems. Then they returned home and the neighbour kids made both of them to talk in a matter of weeks and months.

So is this confirming my point? Sorry, I am a bit confused who made who talk etc.
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