In this TED Talk, Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Brain and Learning Sciences at the University of Washington, illuminates the sophisticated reasoning that babies use to understand the world. Drawing on neurological research, she shows how babies and children master the elements of their first languages. Early childhood educators will not be surprised at the critical importance of the early years in language learning: “Babies and children are geniuses until they turn seven, and then there’s a systematic decline.”
Find lots of great tickles, rhymes, bounces and more to enhance early literacy in your baby programs in Baby Storytime Magic: Active Early Literacy through Bounces, Rhymes, Tickles, and More by Kathy MacMillan and Christine Kirker (ALA Editions, 2014. $50.00).