GW Nursing Magazine Summer 2018

faculty, expanding a staff program’s and reach student news
There’s an App
for That
Using a readily available feature of
modern life, Assistant Professor Ashley
Darcy-Mahoney is helping parents
prepare their children for lifelong success.
Launching this spring, “Háblame Bebé”
is a childhood language development
app for bilingual parents whose primary
language is Spanish. Designed by a team
that includes Dr. Darcy-Mahoney, the
app draws on the same principles used in
“Talk with Me Baby,” a program to improve
language learning during children’s
first months of life, and encourages
Spanish-speaking parents to talk to their
children in the language they’re most
comfortable with.
Parents who speak English as a second
language often talk to their children in
only basic English phrases rather than
their native language. Parents do this
with the best intentions, under the false
assumption that exposing children only
to English will be most beneficial, said
Dr. Darcy-Mahoney. In reality, she said,
exposure to any language helps babies
grow neural connections, and 85 percent
of the brain is developed by age three.
Because of this early development, the
first months and years with parents are
more powerful than school in a child’s
intellectual growth.
The app, funded by a $75,000 grant
the team won through the U.S. Health
Resources and Services Administration’s
“Bridging the Word Gap Challenge,” was
created completely in Spanish. Its intent
is to teach parents about the benefits of
bilingualism and to address the “word
gap,” the discrepancy in the amount
of language exposure experienced by
children from affluent families versus
those in low-income families.
By age three, children from lowincome
families hear an average of 30
million fewer words than their more
affluent peers. This early disadvantage
significantly impacts vocabulary
development and long-term academic
achievement. The word gap can be
closed by improving “language nutrition,”
or the range of words babies hear. The
app features educational modules and
daily routines that offer choices and
tracking to help users determine how
often they provide language nutrition to
their babies.
/ the hÁblame bebÉ app serves as a tool for children
learning a second language.
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