Well, you caught me red-handed (or tongued). And hit this one out of the ballpark. I've studied first language acquisition and am aware of the 3 million word initiative. When my first daughter was born I did talk to her a lot and I was also determined to speak to her as a human. Naturally the first few years were not so easy, but she did begin to talk back to me and correct me from the backseat. "No, dad, that's not how the song goes." She stopped me from singing and corrected me.

When we are online at Barnes and Nobles, a woman with her own child said of my two-year-old, "She's touching all those things." It was just a bunch of end cap knick-knacks on those shelves you see waiting in line. Well, I figure if she broke any I would have to pay for them. I just looked at the woman and said, "Yes, I know" factually." Children have to learn to handle the world and objects in it responsibly and they can. You could always speak as much as you to your children, like they are humans, not "teaching" them. I recall they started a program in Connecticut by giving the new mother a recorder to count the words spoken. Speaking and treating children like humans was how Phyllis Wheatley of Boston became the first published female black poet in America in 1773 if I recall.

And thanks for all the links.