Progress like Newell's stems from a special kind of parent-child interaction, says Dana Suskind, a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago, who started the 30 Million Words program.
"We can't just have people saying 30 million times 'stop it!' It's got to be much more," she says.
The parent should "tune in" to what the child is looking at, talk about it and ask questions that can create a sort of "serve and return" between parent and child.
Suskind says that research shows overhearing a cell phone conversation or sitting in front of a television program doesn't cut it when it comes to building a child's brain.
http://www.npr.org/2013/12/29/257922222/closing-the-word-gap-between-rich-and-poor
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