Alison Gopnik, author of "The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love and The Meaning of Life" and professor of psychology at University of California at Berkeley, is leading a conversation about how and how much babies and children learn. Co-hosting the conversation is a wonderful group of mom bloggers. Join us! Share your questions, insights and stories.

Category:BODY AND SOUL
    • X

      Grace Hester

      Well, they're puuurty smart according to Alison. :o)

      about 1 year ago

      mommystory

      ProductiveMom - Oh, I'm sure I played it up a bit. I like my veggies, but I don't usually put on a show about how much I like them. :)

      about 1 year ago

      Joy

      That's funny, Grace! I'm still working on eating my veggies!

      about 1 year ago

      Grace Hester

      mommystory, did you have on your veggie-poker-face or could they tell it was all an act? :o)

      about 1 year ago

      joeyfortman

      I might need to try thar with my hubbies cooking! Lol

      about 1 year ago

      Grace Hester

      Wow amazing!

      about 1 year ago

      Sarah

      My little one loves broccoli too :)

      about 1 year ago

      Joy

      mommystory - sounds familiar!

      about 1 year ago

      mommystory

      So cool! (And it explains why no matter how hard I tried to get my daughters to eat their veggies by showing them how much I liked eating them, they would still refuse and just try to offer them to me!)

      about 1 year ago

      icefairy

      To my surprise, my toddler loves broccoli and calls it green flowers

      about 1 year ago

      Sarah

      Ohh... interesting!!

      about 1 year ago

      Melissa

      that is amazing!

      about 1 year ago

      SouthernFairyt

      That's really interesting.

      about 1 year ago
    • Alison Gopnik 13 comments
    • But then they saw the experimenter eat some broccoli and look happy and say "YUmm" and eat crackers and look disgusted. Then she put out her hand and said can I have some? And 18-month-old babaies gave er the broccoli even though they didn't like it themselves.
      about 1 year ago
    • X

      Cooper

      That is pretty amazing. I do it all the time when I see babies - can't help it -even though I haven't had a baby for 6 years!!

      about 1 year ago

      Joy

      I love it when my husband slip into "motherese"!

      about 1 year ago

      mommystory

      It is so funny how fast I slip into "motherese" whenever I see a baby. I feel like the biggest dork sometimes, but I can't help but talk that way to a baby.

      about 1 year ago

      Kimberly@PPM

      I had read that when I was preparing to become a mother. Babies do love the motherese!

      about 1 year ago

      Joy

      Icefairy, songs are great learning tools! I've found the same thing with my son.

      about 1 year ago

      Grace Hester

      It's adorable when they mimic that motherese as they develop their speech and learn languages - that's that toddler talk we love so much yes?

      about 1 year ago

      Sarah

      Wow, really??? Haha.. I had no idea!! I definitely used "motherese" so it's good to know it helped!

      about 1 year ago

      icefairy

      My son loves to learn from songs better than words.

      about 1 year ago

      SouthernFairyt

      I remember hearing that somewhere and yet I still laugh at myself whenever I do it. Was playing with a 3 month old this morning and doing it and he kept turning and smiling at me, even though I wasn't the one holding him or trying to play with him.

      about 1 year ago

      lizinprogress

      They talked about that in Nurtureshock as well, so interesting to learn how babies pick up language, and what an interactive process it is.

      about 1 year ago

      Joy

      Interesting!

      about 1 year ago
    • Alison Gopnik 11 comments
    • Of course, its easy to say "do what comes naturally" and harder to know just what comes naturally, but here's another example of how our natural play with kids can tecah them. When we talk to babies we all use a funny voice called "motherese" , sort of high-pitched and exaggerated. WE can't help it even if we try! It turns out that that funny voice actually makes the sounds of language easier to learn. So naturally and unconsciously we're helping babies to learn how their language works.
      about 1 year ago