The brain science behind conversation

Conversation between parents and children can improve the brain’s response to language, boosting literacy skills, according to new research.

The study, conducted by Harvard and MIT Ph.D. student, Rachel Romeo, was the first to show a link between the words that children hear at home and the growth of neural processing capacities.

However, the researchers found that the greatest impact comes not from the quantity of words spoken, but the quality.

“Specifically, after we equate for socioeconomic status, we find that the sheer number of words spoken by an adult was not related to children's neural processing of language, but that the number of conversational turns was,” Romeo said.

“And that neural response, in turn, predicted children's language skills. It really is the quality of language exposure that matters, over and above the quantity of words dumped onto a child.”

This study has some important take-aways for early learning educators who, according to the researchers, should look for opportunities to have conversations with young children.

This conversational interplay between caregiver and child, says Romeo, is enough to transform the biology of kids' brains.

“Conversational interplay involves not only a linguistic exchange, but also a social interaction that we know is crucial to cognitive development as well,” said Romeo.

“This work suggests how important it is that caregivers “not just talk to your child, but talk with them. Even from infancy, we can consider children to be conversational partners.”

So what about much younger children who communicate in coos and gurgles rather than structured conversation?

The researchers say that when it comes to trying this with infants, it can be helpful exchanging the sounds they make. For toddlers, it might be repeating and expanding their sentences, and with older children, it might be asking ‘who, what, where, and how’ questions.

“Either way, it seems to be the interaction that best supports children's language skills and the underlying neural development,” Romeo said.