Baby word counters like the Starling are unsupported as IQ boosters | Nissa Enos
Wearable tech is now for babies.
A device called the Starling promises to help you "grow your baby's brain" by tracking how much you speak. It tells you to talk more if it determines you don't talk enough. The idea is that babies have a higher IQ if they hear more words per day.
The theory was originated by Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, who in 1982 began a small study where they recorded words spoken within welfare, working and professional class families. Extrapolating from their recording sessions, they estimated that between birth and age 3, the poorest kids hear 30 million fewer words than the most affluent kids. They attributed the academic achievement gap between poor and upper-middle classes to poor parents not talking enough.
Many people who hear this will say, "I want to believe." Everyone wants their kid to be above average. Everyone wants societal ills to be easily fixable. If it can be achieved with talk, which is not only cheap, but in fact free, then we are killing two birds with one stone.
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But methodological flaws and mistaken assumptions in the original study, admirable as it was in its effort to improve life for the poor, mean the Starling probably can't deliver as promised.
Through critical analysis of the literature, we begin to formulate reasons why parents might consider sticking with natural, low-tech nurturing styles instead of turning to digital baby performance enhancers.
Studies in 2017 and 2018 returned a near-replication and a failed replication of the original study. Both found any word gap is much smaller than originally claimed. Word count variability within any given class is so great that it does not work well as a correlational factor, and even less so as a causal factor driving the achievement gap that dogs the poor.
To gain what could only at its wildly most successful amount to an increase of a paltry few IQ points, for truly increasing a child's IQ through external enrichments proves stubbornly difficult, there is quite a lot of natural life that needs to be given up by families who embrace the Starling. You come to tacitly accept the false construct that life is suboptimal unless every waking minute is quantified as a data stream.
Positive, low-tech solutions for early childhood development include dynamically engaging with your kids, as parents have done throughout the ages. Take them outdoors, involve them in physical activities, and yes, converse with them.
Our brains are not put together in such a way that we need to start life strapped up like carriage ponies to reach our developmental potential.
Only a few short years exist before your little one grows into a pre-teen and promptly disappears forever into the synthetic world of smartphones, tablets and apps. Consider spending this precious time with less, rather than more, tech penetration. Say "yes" to cutting the digital umbilical.
On the lighter side, humorous unconventional applications for Starling technology did not escape my attention.
Elders could use it to track which children spend enough time communicating with them. The data could augment inheritance planning.
Medical professionals could use it to find out if they spend enough time listening to their patients.
People on dates could discretely check to make sure they are not boring their partner.
Parents of moody, silent teenagers could institute a "spoken-word minimum" before privileges are allowed.
Friends and relatives of chatterboxes could institute a "spoken-word maximum," after which the person has to take a 5-minute time-out to let everyone else get a chance. Or a break.
Owners of parrots and mynah birds, renowned for their speaking ability, could use it to encourage their feathered babies' progress. In the case of bird training, the name "Starling" would be particularly apropos.
Community columnist Nissa Enos is a Manitowoc resident.
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