Reading this article reminded me of my cousin M who grew up in a joint family. She was the youngest child and everyone was concerned that she did not talk. They had her hearing tested and everything was normal and it appeared as if she understood at least some words spoken to her. Then all at once just after she turned two, the floodgates opened.
She spoke whole sentences without any baby lisp, as articulate as any grown up. We could not have enough of it - we loved to get M talking and she obliged by holding forth, basking in the attention. She had an interesting turn of phrase because she took interesting liberties with words. Some of her catch-phrases from that age became so popular in the family, that we continue to use it to this day.
It was as if a miracle had happened. Her parents were greatly relieved, everyone else found a baby talking like an adult very entertaining. She was highly sociable and her peers in the neighborhood could not keep up with her given her language skills and vocabulary. Maybe M had listened in for a couple of years, surrounded as she was by many adults and older kids. Once she felt confident enough, she joined the conversation herself.
.. results show that human infants are clearly capable of learning language through observation, suggesting that talking directly to young children is not a requirement
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