[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I know a wealthy single woman in her 40's who spent good money becoming artificially inseminated. She lives alone and hires a couple of Chinese girls to come over and speak Chinese around her little boy. Otherwise, the house is devoid of conversation.

Nearing two and barely uttering a word, she wonders why he doesn't talk much.

[SoftballMominVA]

I know a wealthy single woman in her 40's who spent good money becoming artificially inseminated. She lives alone and hires a couple of Chinese girls to come over and speak Chinese around her little boy. Otherwise, the house is devoid of conversation. Nearing two and barely uttering a word, she wonders why he doesn't talk much.

As a reading teacher, I have an interesting comment on this phenomena. There is a "dirty little secret" among the upper level society with children who are brought up with non-English speaking nannies and in houses with little give and take conversation. These kids are language deficient--as deficient as that typically seen in the worst housing projects. This type of deficiency requires immense exposure to language and many times the kids just never catch up.

Stay at home moms offer their children so much with the day to day conversation and things they probably just take for granted. A child who is spoken to and read to daily is often facile with upwards of 75,000 to 100,000 words before entering kindergarten. Language deficient children can be as low as 10,000. What a difference!

Is it hard to see which one will excel and which one will be trouble very quickly?