I recall a time many years ago when I found myself chatting away to a supermarket trolley. I was so used to talking to my babies when they were tiny that I automatically did it when I was pushing something vaguely pram like. I have worked for many years with young children who arrive at school with little or no conversational speech and poor vocabulary because their parents didn't talk to them. We never climbed stairs without counting and a trip to the shops or a walk around the block was accompanied by a running commentary, in the early days by me and then as the children got older thay joined in. They learned so much about their world from just those simple things and it gave them a curiosity and interest in finding out about the wider world in later years.