Hot take: using baby talk when talking to children is a form of child abuse.

@freemo Conveying English grammar can be confusing. Adult to toddler: Do you want me to pick you up? Toddler holds up arms and agrees; Pick you up! Adult: No, when you talk about yourself you should say me. Say pick me up. How is that supposed to make sense? (but I guess it will eventually).

@Gaythia there is also just the issue of baby talk being condescending, but yea it also doesnt teach good language skills

@freemo Yeah, I would agree that adults spewing baby talk probably have very few thoughts about language skills. Pronoun confusion aside, 2 year olds can actually have quite a lot to say.

@Gaythia In general our children are way behind on their potential largely because we infantilize them.. The maturity follows from our expectations. 2 year olds have SO much more potential than most parents give them the chance for.

@freemo Yes, and it gets codified in certain circles of educational academia. I remember a first grade teacher telling me that 6 year olds were too young to comprehend fractions. And I'm like what??? 2 year olds can grasp 1/2 easily and have no difficulties in visually dividing things up equally with a small group of friends. Just try giving one an extra cracker and see what the rest have to say about it.

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@Gaythia @freemo Folks say this, then I look at what my sons were being asked to do in first grade and it blows my mind. They are learning math I know was part of my 2nd and 3rd grade curriculum. But even more, they are doing it while still finding time in the day for music, art, and other "untestable" subjects

@EricOlson

I dunno I kinda had the exact opposite impression... I found the math children are taught in first grade to be very much below the capabilities of what most 1st graders should be capable of... same holds true for most grades forward.

I remember I derived einsteins equation for time dialation in 4th grade after a teacher described it at a high level... this is usually considered college level math and yet 4th graders could easily be capable of it if they were taught to their potential.

@Gaythia

@freemo @Gaythia My point though is that if we aren't pushing kids hard today in your opinion, education in my generation was remedial, and before that it was more like daycare.

A lot is asked of kids today, not the least of which is education. Humans are already living longer than most generations before them, and I'm starting to think kids need more time to be kids before we shift the weight of the world onto their shoulders. They'll easily have a half century of work ahead of them unless something drastic changes.

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