{"id":267,"date":"2015-12-19T12:50:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T12:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/?p=267"},"modified":"2018-06-04T15:26:57","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T15:26:57","slug":"talking-toys-helping-or-hurting-young-language-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/19\/talking-toys-helping-or-hurting-young-language-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Toys: Helping or Hurting Young Language Learners?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-268 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/talking-toys-300x213.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/talking-toys-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/talking-toys.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>A new and very interesting\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/archpedi.jamanetwork.com\/article.aspx?articleid=2478386\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<em>JAMA Pediatrics discovered that\u00a0<\/em>toys marketed as language promoters don\u2019t prove to be so in most cases. In fact, the study found that these toys in fact, hindered the language learning process in young children.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Anna Sosa, of Northern Arizona University, led the study and provided participating families three different types of toys: books, traditional toys like stacking blocks and a shape sorter, and electronic toys.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/ed\/2016\/01\/11\/462264537\/the-trouble-with-talking-toys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">We had a talking farm \u2014 animal names and things<\/a>,&#8221; Sosa says of the electronic toys. &#8220;We had a baby cellphone. And we had a baby laptop. So you actually open the cover and start pushing buttons, and it tells you things.&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe research indicates that in order for a child to understand, speak and eventually read or write a language, they need to hear it repetitively. As a Language Testing company, LTI knows first-hand just how important it is for early adopters of a language to hear the language they seek to learn. This is no different for an adult as it is for a child \u2013 actually it\u2019s even more vital for a child.<\/p>\n<p>The study focused on approximately 24 children between 10 and 16 months of age and recorded the infants playing at home with parents. Sosa says she picked those toys &#8220;because they are advertised as language-promoters for babies in this age range. &#8220;The parent-child couples were asked to play separately with each type of toy over the course of three days.<\/p>\n<p>Children, adults,\u00a0and anyone would be\u00a0better suited and equipped to learn a language by hearing it.\u00a0 The research shows that interaction \u2014 especially the one-on-one time a child spends with a parent \u2014 is crucial because early learning is an intensely social process.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When there&#8217;s something else that&#8217;s doing some talking, the parents seem to be sitting on the sidelines and letting the toy talk for them and respond for them,&#8221; Sosa says.<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE: nprED\/Cory Turner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new and very interesting\u00a0study\u00a0in\u00a0JAMA Pediatrics discovered that\u00a0toys marketed as language promoters don\u2019t prove to be so in most cases. In fact, the study found that these toys in fact, hindered the language learning process in young children. Professor Anna Sosa, of Northern Arizona University, led the study and provided participating families three different types [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[16,48,64,67,52,7,66],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commercial","category-educational","tag-actfl","tag-bilingual","tag-english-speaking-test","tag-language-learning-child-development","tag-language-teaching","tag-language-testing","tag-oral-proficiency"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltidevcloud.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}