By Ana Suárez Rodríguez – Chile

When I was a child, I learned about the world in the most natural way possible—through daily interaction. As a baby, I spent long hours sharing time with my family. From the age of one, two, or three, I listened to every conversation that took place during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was expected to sit at the table, watching people talk and keeping them company. Yet, without anyone noticing, I was absorbing knowledge.

I was learning concepts, verbs, nouns, pronunciation, and patterns of communication. Everyone thought I was simply sitting there, doing nothing. But in reality, I was working hard—storing new words in my mind each day. These words flowed inside me like tiny drops of rain, accumulating until they formed meaning. Over time, I began to understand short messages from my parents, who always spoke to me gently. I never experienced silence; their voices surrounded me. Eventually, after listening long enough, I began to speak.

My family and their friends likely believed that I was just a baby sitting at the table for company. But a profound process was happening—one that no one could see. I was learning to communicate thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Each mealtime was preparing me to participate in society. I was fortunate to have constant exposure to language, and this early experience shaped my ability to interact with others.

Parents often help their babies without even realizing it. Simply by keeping their children at the table during meals, they provide a powerful contribution to language development.

However, times have changed. Today, many families sit together but remain silent, absorbed in their mobile phones or social media. Messages replace conversations, and screens replace human interaction. In this environment, a baby seated at the table hears very little. Without exposure to natural speech—words, vocabulary, tone, and pronunciation—the child lacks a model to imitate. Since imitation is essential in early language development, this absence of communication can create difficulties in learning to speak the native language clearly and confidently. The problem becomes even more serious when babies are given mobile phones to keep them occupied.

The moral is simple: talk to your young children.
Engage with them. Offer them rich, fluent communication. Give them the tools to express their inner world. The conversations we share today shape their ability to communicate for the rest of their lives.

– English Magazine