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A common sight at restaurants, airports, shopping centers, and other public spaces are people with very small children--infants or young toddlers who don't fully understand how to speak yet or what the vast majority of words mean.
In almost every space in which there are people who communicate verbally, at least a few of them are going to be speaking at any time. Children in public spaces are hammered from all directions by the sound of human voices--noises emitting from mouths that they cannot comprehend.
Kids are excellent imitators and are very impressionable. For all they understand, the big people are just making funny noises, so they join in, babbling and squealing and mewling along with everyone else.
In come the parents. They hush the child, stress and exasperation in their voices. They implore the child to be quiet, to stop making so much noise, and to "let mommy and daddy talk, please". They pull the child off to one side and seem embarrassed at all the sounds their party is making.
How confusing that must be to a child.
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[Last updated: 2022-12-26]