If you can get past the somewhat crusty tone with which Dr. Jane Brody accuses “mothers and nannies” of being too tuned in to their cell phones instead of their young children, this recent New York Times article explains why talking to children and introducing books from birth is so important. It also offers great practical advice for nurturing young children’s language development.

To be fair, it was kind of Dr. Brody to congratulate the communicative young mother who she refers to at the beginning of the article. Any parent knows a word of encouragement can go a long way!