The vocabulary of children is made up of 86% to 98% of that of parents!
Maria Montessori explains that the child has an absorbent mind , that is, the child absorbs naturally everything around it.
He assimilates effortlessly, with joy and curiosity, everything that happens in the environment around him. However, the child's brain is structured according to the interactions it has with its environment. This is what allows him, among other things, to adapt to the culture in which he grows up (language, habits, etc.).
The child is endowed with a billion synaptic connections, which he will gradually prune in order to keep the most useful and the most efficient. This step is crucial because it is the foundation of a child's intelligence.
Thus, the environment must be able to sufficiently nourish the psychic life of the child; if he receives too little, the child develops poorly. So, when we realize that our child is imitating us, he is actually manifesting what he has integrated before by seeing us do it.
A study, carried out in the United States and published in 2003, testifies to the extent of the phenomenon by focusing more particularly on the development of language in children from 7 months to 3 years old. It shows that the vocabulary of children is made up of 86% to 98% of that of their parents.
In addition, the sentence structure is also similar: number of words, style, …
Therefore, we must behave as examples to our children, in order to transmit to them knowledge and attitudes that will benefit them in their development.
Sources:
- https://www.celinealvarez.org/plasticite-cerebrale-4-regles-dor
- https://www.celinealvarez.org/plasticite-pour-le-best-or-for-the-worst
- Montessori: from birth to 3 years , Charlotte Poussin, Eyrolles.
- https://neuroscience.fr/de-lapprentissage-des-mots-the-early-catastrophe/