Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff și Patricia Kuhl

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1. 01

   Between zero and three there is nothing to teach: there is a lot of talking to do, fast answering and a predictable rhythm to keep, because that is exactly what builds the language and the regulation system everything else sits on.

   The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind · 1999

   Not the number of toys, but the number of turns exchanged.

   The concrete steps, in the order that matters. One, talk to them constantly and about what is happening now: what you are washing, what you are cutting, where you are going. The difference between children at three does not come from toys but from the number of words heard in context. Two, answer what they initiate, not only what you have to say: it is called turn-taking and it is stronger than monologue, however rich. Three, read to them daily, from a few months old, even if they tear the book. Four, keep three fixed anchors in the day — waking, lunch, the evening ritual — and leave the rest loose. Five, when they cry, go. Under one there is no spoiling through comfort; you are building the very expectation that the world answers. Six, no screen until eighteen months apart from video calls with family, and under an hour a day, together with you, until three. Seven, let them be bored for ten minutes before you hand them something to do. What you do not do: you do not teach letters, you do not install educational apps and you do not correct pronunciation — you repeat their sentence correctly and move on.

   “Babies are not incomplete adults. They are scientists: they run experiments, gather evidence and revise their theories of the world faster than we do.”

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