This Wearable Wants to Teach Your Baby Something Important
From smart rings to energy-boosting watches to UV-reactive clothing, wearables are already a part of your life. Good news: Now there’s a brand-new one on the market for the tiniest member of your family. Introducing Starling, a super slick new gadget that just may help boost your babe’s vocabulary.
According to the product’s site, studies have shown that 82% of the brain is developed in the first 1000 days of life, and the folks behind Starling wanted to capitalize on that crucial development period. The wearable, which is as light and about as large as a pacifier, tracks the number of words your baby hears daily. Starling is confident that talking to them for just 10 minutes – really talking to them, reading them the grocery list, books or telling them about your day – can help them hear up to 30 million more words than someone who wasn’t spoken to as frequently in infancy.
Children after all can process language before they can speak (hello, adorable baby sign language!) and are registering the verbal interactions they have. The engagement is measured (repeating a word over and over again is nowhere as effective or helpful as speaking normally) and the device doesn’t record what you’re saying for privacy protection.
The device is BPA and Phthalate free and is also waterproof. Bonus: it can work without an internet connection, making tracking words much easier. Parents seem pretty excited about it, too. In just a week, Starling has raised over $60,000.
Would you let your child wear a tech device? Tell us in the comments!
(Photos courtesy of Starling)