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10 Ways to Encourage Babies to Develop Language Skills

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:16:33 PDT

Don't tell the producers of The King's Speech, but a few "ums" and "uhs" in mama's daily lexicon may actually be beneficial when talking to tots! According to a new study just released in Developmental Science, the little stumbles in adult language actually help tots learn language more effectively – signaling toddlers' minds that they are about to learn something new.

To ensure that your talking tyke is growing his language development skills as much as possible, parents and caregivers must incorporate speaking directly to their children as part of their daily activities. Check out our 10 tips for aiding the development of language in tots.

Snooki Speaking Engagement Costs $32,000

Emily Co — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:57:03 PDT

Who knew the words of Jersey Shore's favorite guidette would cost this much? Rutgers University paid Snooki a hefty $32,000 for giving two question and answer sessions last night that were apparently sold out, reports the New York Daily News. Wearing a black dress and a gold headband and belt, Snooki dispensed gems of advice such as "Study hard . . . but party harder." Further, when asked about her biggest inspiration, she replied, "I'd honestly say, being tan . . . When you're tan, you feel better."

Sadly, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison is going to be paid less than Snooki to speak at the school. Toni is going to be paid $30,000 to speak at the school's commencement in May. Do you think Snooki was overpaid?

What Do You Know About Baby Talk?

LilSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:08 PST

No doubt about it, moms and dads can hardly wait to hear their babe's first words. While there are some great things you can do to encourage language development in babies, the main thing most tots need is a little time. Before stressing about your little one's speech (or lack thereof) take this quiz to see how well you know baby talk.

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Tell Mommy: What Was Your Child's First Word?

LilSugar — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:00:12 PDT

"Dada" often comes out of the mouths of babes before "Mama," but for every child whose first word is "mommy" or "daddy," it seems there's another tot that picks a random one like "truck" or "ravioli." Both my daughter and son's first words were "Hi," which leads me to believe that they will be incredibly friendly people, or just that my husband and I use the greeting all too often. As parents we eagerly await the thoughts that spill out our children's mouths. What was your child's first word?

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Where Do You Stand? Wedding Roasts

DearSugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:00:00 PDT

The rehearsal dinner night has become much more than just practicing your place in the wedding processional. It's become an event all in its own and often ends up being the most fun part of the wedding weekend. Since only the maid of honor and best man are supposed to speak on the actual wedding night, the rehearsal dinner is where the bride and groom's friends can say a few words about the happy couple. I've been to my fair share of weddings so I've heard my share of speeches, and I must say, the heartwarming ones are by far my favorite. Of course, the roasting approach gets people laughing, but there's a thin line that can easily be crossed, especially when there's alcohol involved. I'm sure you've witnessed both variations so tell me, where do you stand on taking the roast approach to a wedding toast?

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Eat Your Heart Out, Andrew Lloyd Webber!

GiggleSugar — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:00:00 PDT

You know the scene in My Best Friend's Wedding when the dude pretending to be with Julia Roberts breaks into song while smack in the middle of a speech, and as Hollywood would have it, the whole table joins in? The peeps below made the scene a little less Hollywood and a little more Broadway. They had a fantastic performance, but I wanna know how everyone in attendance at this wedding (even the father of the groom!) had a voice fit for singing. Uh, Twilight Zone much? (Thanks, College Humor!)

McCain Sheds His "Green Speech" Skin, Shines Amid Protests

CitizenSugar — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:00:39 PDT

I might venture out on a limb and say McCain's speech in front of the National Federation of Independent Business yesterday helped to erase the mean, green debacle of a week ago. He was the old McCain again. Hey. You know what I mean.

He opened with a chuckler: "I have never run a small, struggling enterprise - unless you count my presidential campaign last year," but was soon interrupted by an anti-war protester who heckled him from the audience.

The woman burst out with "War is bad for small business!" McCain responded, "one of the things Americans are tired of, one of the things they're tired of is people yelling at each other in America, have you noticed that? They want us to respect each other's opinions. . . . Americans want a dialogue," to wild applause. After another protester jumped in and was lead away, McCain said, "now that we know, now that I know who I will be facing in the general election . . ."

To see my highlights, the parts that grabbed me - with a funny cherry on top at the end,

Americans do not resent paying their fair share of taxes. What they do resent, and especially if they're trying to run a business, is being subjected to thousands of pages of needless and often irrational rules and demands from the IRS.
We need rules that assure fairness and punish wrongdoing in the market and hold every businessperson in America to the same fair standards.
In so many ways, we need to make a clean break from the worst excesses of both political parties. And for Republicans, it starts with reclaiming our good name as the party of spending restraint. Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose. The only power of government that could stop them was the power of veto, and it was rarely used. If that authority is entrusted to me, I will use the veto as needed. I will veto every bill with earmarks. I will seek a constitutionally valid line-item veto to end pork-barrel spending once and for all.

The even-handed pragmatism - and what seemed like a conservative renaissance - sung to me. OK, he did have a funny slip of the tongue when he delivered the last part. Why is McCain so anti-brew?

Hee hee. And what was Cindy up to yesterday? A little shop-a-rama at Oscar de la Renta - a spree that went on a little longer than her poor Secret Service detail could bear, saying she'd been in the store "Waaayy too long" as he sweltered outside. Bah. Don't take a man shopping; they have no endurance for the important stuff.

What did you think of McCain's speech? Is he upping his economy cred?

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Do You Know Kid Lingo?

babysugar — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:00:40 PDT

When I had my first boyfriend, we used to say we were "going together." Sometimes my mom inquires about my friends and asks, "Are they still going together?" I blush at her choice of words. Take this test and see how well you know your current kiddie jargon.
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Take the Quiz

President Bush Announces New Policy on Cuba

CitizenSugar — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:00:23 PDT

Moments ago, President Bush announced a landmark policy change with regard to Cuba. Americans will now be able to send cell phones to Cubans. It's a change that Bush hopes will encourage the new regime of Raul Castro to increase freedom of expression for Cuban citizens

The announcement was made in a speech intended to mark Cuba's 106th anniversary of independence. I'm a political speech aficionado, and don't usually cotton to the simpler prose preferred by Bush - but this one had the prints of a new scribe all over it. To see what he said,

Bush said (and I'm paraphrasing closely, the text isn't online yet):

Now that Cubans can have cell phones, let's make sure they have the freedom to express themselves. Now that Cubans can buy DVD players, let's make sure they can watch movies made by Cuban artists who are allowed to speak freely. Now that Cubans can buy computers, let's give them unrestricted access to the Internet. Now that they can buy toasters, let's make sure they don't have to worry about being able to afford bread to put in it.

I thought it summed up the dichotomy of the advancing freedoms and the work left nicely. Now that the change has been announced, the administration is waiting to see if Cuba will allow the phones to enter. The White House was careful to say that the change is not a loosening of the US economic embargo against Cuba, but a change in regulations. Is this a step in the right direction? Are cell phones the answer to building a new relationship with Cuba?

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2-For-1 Deal - Obama, Clinton Double-Header on the Economy

CitizenSugar — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:39:03 PDT

It's a cavalcade of speechifying this morning! Obama! Clinton! Bush on the war! Here's the update:

Hillary just started her economic speech in North Carolina with a laugh saying, "If you want to go forward you put it in D, if you want to backward you put it in R."

She then went on to make her speech local, by drawing in the challenges and innovation of the Wright brothers (different Wright this time!) at Kitty Hawk.

Hillary focused on the workforce end of the economy, proposing a $12.5 billion, five-year initiative to rebuild the middle class by helping laid-off workers and boosting job training. The program includes about $2 billion a year for worker retraining and $500 million a year in grants for on-the-job training. To see good excerpts of both, as well as full coverage of Obama's speech from earlier this morning,

Hillary said,

We are competing in a new global economy, but our policies to equip American worker for the twenty-first century are stuck back in the twentieth. When it comes to retraining assistance, our government is more focused on how you lost your job than how you can find a new one. And while we have been rightly focused on trying to help people who are out of work, there’s been too little thought and effort to help people gain new skills while they still have their existing jobs – so they can move up or move on to higher-wage positions.

She also took aim at McCain's plan:

Sometimes the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House and it’s an economic crisis. And we need a president who is ready and willing to answer that call. But I read Senator McCain's plan which does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis or the housing crisis. The phone is ringing and he would just let it ring and ring.

Her speech was markedly different than Obama's even though they were on the same subject. She spoke quietly and aimed her populist-seeming remarks from the ground up, while it seems Obama took the opposite strategy.

Here's Obama's take. His speech started with a gulp of realization, "now, as most experts agree, our economy is in a recession. "

Obama then laid out economic policy mostly geared toward the upper reaches of the financial world, including six steps to reform the regulatory system.

You can find the full text of Obama's speech here. Here are a couple of passages that struck me.

Today, those consequences are clear. I see them in every corner of our great country, as families face foreclosure and rising costs. I seem them in towns across America, where a credit crisis threatens the ability of students to get loans, and states can't finance infrastructure projects. I see them here in Manhattan, where one of our biggest investment banks had to be bailed out, and the Fed opened its discount window to a host of new institutions with unprecedented implications we have yet to appreciate. When all is said and done, losses will be in the many hundreds of billions. What was bad for Main Street was bad for Wall Street. Pain trickled up.

And:

Senator McCain argues that government should do nothing to protect borrowers and lenders who've made bad decisions, or taken on excessive risk. On this point, I agree. But the Dodd-Frank package is not a bailout for lenders or investors who gambled recklessly, as they will take losses. It is not a windfall for borrowers, as they will have to share any capital gain. Instead, it offers a responsible and fair way to help bring an end to the foreclosure crisis. It asks both sides to sacrifice, while preventing a long-term collapse that could have enormous ramifications for the most responsible lenders and borrowers, as well as the American people as a whole. That is what Senator McCain ignores.

Do you think he effectively answered McCain's statement against the "irresponsible" from two days ago? Are you confident Obama's call for sacrifices on all sides of the crisis will help heal the economy? Which speech spoke more to you? Hillary's job training, or Obama's regulations? Are either of these the answer?

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