A word an hour

Children say the same things about the same things in the same ways in the same approximate orders, no matter where they live or what language they are learning. And they do this very energetically, saying up to 30,000 words a day, and learning a word a day well enough to use it, and learning a word an hour well enough to understand it.

The numbers here were the surprising result of an experiment in 1985 by Klaus Wagner. Radio mics were sewn into children’s clothing so that every word they said could be recorded, transcribed and counted.

Conversation and the structures of speech and language are a major focus of a small child’s attention.