Currently, it is estimated that over 65% of the world (or 5 billion people) have access to the internet (Shewale, 2024). In such a connected world, it may seem overwhelming for parents to figure out how they want their child to spend their time, and how to support their learning. With new apps, videos, and […]
Why are the ABCs sung? Sure, it makes the alphabet more fun for kids to learn. But does it also make it easier for them to learn? Short answer: yes! It’s the reason why many languages have songs for their own alphabets–and the reason why I can still rattle off the capitals of most of […]
I’ve been learning Spanish since I was eight years old–I can read, write, and speak it very well, but I have never once said that I am “fluent”. I don’t even know what that really means! The word fluency comes from the Latin word fluentem, which means “to flow”. The dictionary definition of fluency states […]
As a pet owner, I often find myself wondering if my dogs are actually “saying” what I have interpreted from their barks, whines, and sighs. When they bark at the door to go outside or at the window when a car passes by, are they using language that I just can’t understand? While dogs definitely […]
Have you ever wondered how infants go from communicating via crying, to nonsensical noises, to single syllables, and eventually to words? Well, it turns out infants’ language learning is linked to being able to move their tongue when hearing the sounds: tongue movement isn’t just necessary for *making* speech sounds– it also helps babies *understand* […]
Have you ever heard of parents putting headphones on their bellies during pregnancy so their baby can listen to music before they’re born? That’s because babies usually start being able to hear during the third trimester. We also know that babies start to develop language at a very young age, and as more research is […]
It feels like there are always so many things happening at once. This is especially true when it comes to noise. Even when sitting at your desk, there may be an air conditioner blowing, water dripping in a bathroom nearby, your colleague talking to you, and a background conversation. So, how exactly does our brain […]
What is wordform recognition? Before they can even consider learning what words mean, infants need to be able to recognize the consistent way that words sound, even though the same word can sound super different each time it’s said! Take a listen to this audio recording of all the times a baby heard other people […]
What is Phonology? Did you know that you had a set of unconscious rules about how you can arrange sounds in your language? Phonology is a field of study in linguistics that examines the patterns of sounds within a language and across different languages. It aims to study how we, as humans, mentally organize the […]
Some words are easier to form an image of than others. Think of the word moon: perhaps you think of a pale yellow crescent shape, or an illuminating white circle in front of a smoky blue backdrop. Regardless, the word has a high degree of imageability. Now think of the word truth: what exactly does […]