A so-called “new” study into talking to babies? !

Gundy

It goes without saying, there are mothers who shouldn’t be mothers, just like some dog owners shouldn’t have dogs.

I see too many mothers ignoring their children, not dressing them properly, mothers who overfeed their children with inappropriate snack foods, don’t care about reading to them, use them as pawns in divorce cases thereby making the other parent the enemy. Other injustices…

No emotional connection, poor development during those informative years. No wonder we have mental health issues in our country.

You reap what you sow. Yet you will try to blame others for your dereliction of motherhood.
😢
USA Gundy

Presumably these horrible mothers didn’t conceive immaculately, right? These women ruining society got pregnant by someone with a Y chromosome, correct?

Where do the obviously absent fathers fit into your ridiculously sexist, outdated meathead rant?

How about this, focus your attention on the deadbeats dads who neglect these children, USA Gundy. Your precious USA suffers mass shootings on a weekly basis, mostly due to angry, maladjusted males with weak male role models. Your male politicians are beholden to the male-driven gun lobby that promotes the violence and toxic masculinity that fuels the violent murder of young children by murderous males.

You reap what you sow. Yet you will try to blame mothers for your dereliction of fatherhood and common sense.

My DD is almost 50 now but I used to talk to her constantly about anything and everything. By 2 and a half she could speak fluently in quite long sentences. On the other hand DS1 was born 16 months later and he was late speaking. My theory for this was he was lazy . He didn’t need to talk as big sister would speak for him , he would bring me a cup if he was thirsty or a plate if hungry 😋. He’s 48 now and talks a lot in his job so he did catch up !

It goes without saying, there are mothers who shouldn’t be mothers, just like some dog owners shouldn’t have dogs.

I see too many mothers ignoring their children, not dressing them properly, mothers who overfeed their children with inappropriate snack foods, don’t care about reading to them, use them as pawns in divorce cases thereby making the other parent the enemy. Other injustices…

No emotional connection, poor development during those informative years. No wonder we have mental health issues in our country.

You reap what you sow. Yet you will try to blame others for your dereliction of motherhood.
😢
USA Gundy

Typically developing babies have brains that are wired to react to speech sounds and recognise patterns within it, from birth if not before.
They also recognise high contrast visual patterns from birth, especially ones that resemble eyes and a mouth, but they don’t recognise colour at first, just high contrast black and white, then red - but that takes a few months. The lovely pastels we surround babies with are only perceived as the same pale blur as are the pretty pictures we surround them with. Photographs are coloured paper not images for quite a few months too.
But they can usually understand simple words and sentences by 7 months, which is much earlier than they can “talk”. (All due to myalinisation - the insulation of their neurons )

Maybe Gransnet has an abundance of neuroscientists and I was just unaware

Maybe.

So if even a very small proportion of these women start talking to their weans because they have read this article, I shall be happy and refrain from making snide comments

I wondered if there was a thread about it on Mumsnet?

Don’t let rational thought get in the way of all the slagging off of the young mums here. The ‘Children Are to Be Seen and Not Heard’ generation were perfect parents who know better than every modern parent, clinician, and baby device maker. Apparently, restricting a child’s view of the world around them and starting blindly at them in a pram would have stemmed the technology addiction that even the elderly generation suffer from .

I agree fully that no matter how much it appears to be common sense, all the recent neurological findings regarding myelin production are worth reading about. It’s good to know the ‘why’. Not sure why all the perfect mums on here are being so smug. Maybe Gransnet has an abundance of neuroscientists and I was just unaware.

Perhaps someone did get some form of academic recognition out of this, I would certainly like to think so.

Yes, our generation of mothers and grandmothers, plus our mothers and grandmothers knew this, but look around you next time you walk through the town, take a bus, or a train.

Young mothers are commonly seen pushing a pram with one hand and texting with the other, or talking on their phone . No communication with Baby at all!

So if even a very small proportion of these women start talking to their weans because they have read this article, I shall be happy and refrain from making snide comments.

A lot of what we took for granted has to be taught to young parents (and others) now.

Whose fault is this? Theirs or ours? Did they not listen to us, or did we not teach them what we thought was obvious?

It may need to be said but it needs to be said via a message on a mobile phone as many mother's will only read it if they see it on a phone! I despair that the majority of female carers would not know if the baby was switched for a doll- there is no interaction . I'm surprised that any kids manage to speak at all!

So right Nanna8…..trouble is young mothers DONT talk to their babies while pushing prams….they talk to thier fones!!!
Then when the baby does eventually get the mums attention , it’s for the mum to usually screech at the child because she wants to get back to her ‘oh so interesting life’….I’ve seen this time without number while walking ….while on buses…..while on trains …and yes while in planes!!! I think maybe this is the cause if so many 5 year olds starting school without the basics ever being taught them . My daughter is a child counsellor and works in various schools where this age group can’t take themselves to the lavatory …. cant dress themselves after PE… can’t use a knife and fork and their language skills are not even basic. There has to be a reason why kids are going backwards!!! Look no further than the mobile in mums hand!

I used to leaf through baby books with my baby from about a month old.My own mum used to say why bother, the baby doesn’t understand,but I didn’t know how to ‘play’ so this was all I could think to do.I constantly talked to her,about everything and anything.
You could have a limited conversations with her at 18 months,and reason at about 2.
She was and still is a vociferous reader and has a degree in literature!And she can talk the back legs off a donkey!

In the seventies, I sat in a hospital waiting area reading a Ladybird book to my eleven month old son who has congenital mental problems. I didn’t notice that the paediatrician had arrived, and was watching. He was quite effusive about how wonderful this was, and how he wished that more parents did the same. I knew that my son’s condition meant that speech would be a problem, and I was determined that he would talk. Sometimes I think that I might have overdone it!!

I feel for the little ones nowadays you see them with mum too busy into her phone and ignoring baby or baby holding mums phone to entertain them.

The talking to and letting the baby resond needs to start from birth so mums and dads and grandparents start to understand their babies needs . If a baby is not responded to it stops communicating.

Talking, singing, nursery rhymes- all forms of interaction mothers have enjoyed with their babies since forever.
I'm not decrying modern scientific research but wryly amused that Mother Nature and maternal instinct have been doing the right thing since time began without knowing why

As a retired teacher I hope they now publish a study on the importance of singing nursery rhymes to young children for early reading skills, rhyme, rythmn and memory. My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter can recite several. We practise in the car, great fun!

It’s obvious that talking to babies and infants is good for them. What the study is explaining is what the neurological effect is. That it increases Myelin and shapes the brain. You might not be interested in the science of it, but others are. There is nothing ‘bleeding obvious’ about about neurological change 🙄

M0nica I do know what causes the disabling condition of MS. I think that research into the initial development of myelin is interesting and there must be implications for the redevelopment of myelin missing after the auto immune attack on it. As I said, so many potential areas for research.

I looked after my first grandson for 5 days a week until he started pre school at 3. I always talked to him. If we went shopping he sat in the trolley and we talked, if we had lunch in M&S he sat in a high chair and we talked. In spite of his problems with ASD and ADHD his school reports always mentioned the breadth of his vocabulary and his understanding of words. I was once sitting in M&S with him and a lady came over and said how lovely it was to see me talking to him - but why wouldn't I?

Aveline we are talking about the development of myelin in the brain in areas connected with language.

MS is something entirely different it attacks and destroys the myelin sheath that coats every nerve. This how the MS Society explain it.

A substance called myelin protects the nerve fibres in the central nervous system, which helps messages travel quickly and smoothly between the brain and the rest of the body. In MS, your immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin and strips it off the nerve fibres, either slightly or completely, leaving scars known as lesions or plaques. This damage disrupts messages travelling along nerve fibres – they can slow down, become distorted, or not get through at all. As well as losing the myelin, there can sometimes be damage to the actual nerve fibres too. It's this nerve damage that causes the increase in disability that can occur over time.

Talking to children builds up myelin, but only in the language areas of the brain

Foxygloves

Nanna8

But yes, Sparklefizz it does need saying, you are right.
It has broken my heart on occasion to see a young mum glued to her phone while her baby in its buggy looks as if they are trying to make eye contact with their mum

Same here☹️
Am always telling my DD to get off her phone and play with the little ones.It’s not only teenagers superglued to their phones and a sad state of affairs if you ask me.

Foxygloves, perhaps we really do need to state the obvious. Way back in the 1980s, the playgroup leader said 'Oh, I can tell you talk to your boys a lot, they're so advanced! It set me to wondering who these weird parents were - the ones who just didn't talk to their kids.

Now, with a nearby nursery and primary school, I really do notice so many, just wandering along looking at their phones (like zombies) with little kids trailing behind - failing to interact or even hold hands when crossing the road. It's quite a worry and doesn't bode well for the future.

Antonia

The very posh Silver Cross prams face towards mum (more likely nanny), but they are not practical. You can buy reversible facing pushchairs, but as an adult, I can't bear travelling backwards, and I wonder if babies too prefer to see where they are going.

I had a silver cross pram for my GS. He insisted on facing away from me but as he was quite high up we could still chat. Although he was strapped in his harness wasn’t too tight and he was able to move around and turn to see me.
He sat in it and played in it if I was cooking and yes, he also slept in it in the garden. I was always near at hand.

Maybe better quality development of myelin would be less liable to breakdown? So many avenues for research! 😀

I also thought of the MS connection with myelin, Aveline. I recall years ago when living in an area of Scotland that had extremely high MS rates, that they didn’t know what was causing it. I expect many of us remember Jacqueline Du Pre, as well. That’s the value of this sort of research. It eventually led to the cause of MS being found, though as I understand it, it’s the breakdown of existing myelin, rather than non-development that is the issue.