Less is More

This fascinating article by Clifton B. Parker of the Standford News sheds light on researcher Michael Franks examination of how children best learn and use words they hear. Mr. Frank surmises that the context for how children hear a word is more important than how often its heard. Here’s a brief section from this incredible interesting article: “According to Frank, the study goes beyond simply addressing how often a child is exposed to a word to where and how the child hears the word. In doing so, he said, it provides evidence that what really matters for word learning is that words be used in a context that is distinctive for the child so that he or she can more effectively decode what the speaker is trying to say. In sum, words used in distinctive ways or in specific routines were learned and used by the child earlier than words that were said more frequently”.