As a consequence, children's language comes to differ slightly from that of their parents' generation.
If there weren't, parents would learn their children's language, and language itself would not have developed.
"We have seen changes in children's language development faster than we normally would," she said.
Parents or caregivers who want to improve their children's language skills can be coached to improve their interactions with them.
This work does not attempt to show a causal relationship between music lessons and children's language skills.
Anne Fernald, a psychologist at Stanford, has published several papers examining the influence of socioeconomic status on children's language development.
Moderate noise from white-noise machines, air-conditioners and background television, for example, can still undermine children's language acquisition.
But they also found big differences among working-class families, both in terms of "the children's language proficiency and the parents' verbal engagement with the child".
A well-documented strategy for reversing declining high school verbal scores already exists — investing in children's language development beginning at birth.
Similarly, home visiting programs, which can also help parents nurture their very young children's language growth, reach a fraction of families in need.
They also discussed how their own language, and the activities themselves, supported the children's language use.
