Talking to your toddler boosts their IQ as pre-teens, says new study
Narrate what you see and do. Ask them questions. React to their verbalizations... There truly is no downside to it.

It may seem like you are talking two different languages, but the act of
conversing with young toddlers
does wonders for developing their verbal skills—in ways that pay off for years to come.
According to a study published this week in the journal
Pediatrics
, toddlers between the ages of 18 and 24 months who participated in a great number of
"conversational turns" had significantly greater verbal comprehension and expressive vocabulary
scores than a control group of peers up to 10 years later.
What's more, chatting with toddlers could predict up to a 27% positive variation to their IQs as
preteens.
"We were expecting to see correlations based on the previous research with younger children, but
can't help but be astounded that automated language measures collected at 18 months can predict
anything 10 years later," study author Jill Gilkerson, senior director of research and evaluation
at the
LENA Foundation
, a non-profit charity in Boulder, Col., tells the
CBC
. "It is nothing short of remarkable, in my opinion."
For the study, researchers began taking daylong audio recordings of 329 Denver-based infants and
toddlers in 2006. Using Language Environment Analysis software to "quantify adult word exposure,
child vocalization (CV), and turn-taking interactions throughout the day on the basis of
algorithmic analysis," the researchers charted the amount of language the children were exposed to
relative to their peers.
For the second phase of the study, the researchers followed up with the families when the
participating children were between the ages of 9 and 13. At that time, 146 of the original
children participated again in verbal comprehensions tests and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children.
By looking at trends across the two phases, the researchers found that parents have the greatest
impact on their children's verbal development when the child is between the ages of 18 and 24
months—a time known for "exploding" verbal skills. Not only did the interactions help boost
the children's verbal skills at the time of toddlerhood, but they also predicted better verbal and
intelligence scores 10 years later.
"Importantly, these correlations remained significant after adjustments for SES (socioeconomic
status) or child language development," the researchers say in the journal. "Suggesting that the
impact of increased early interaction on long-term developmental outcomes extends beyond the
influence of socioeconomic factors and child skills."