Twitter

The blog’s Twitter is @Babies_Language

Our aim is to interact with parent blogs, local resources, education outlets, science literacy and outreach programs, and parent/family services, rather than academics: we want parents and families to view our blog content.

However, we also want to vet the content we are interacting with. We want to promote other people’s content that is scientifically sound and socially just.

We do not want to retweet or comment on anything that implies Deafness or blindness are insufficiencies or problems to be solved, for example-- disabilities, sensory impairments included, are not defects of the Disabled person, but are simply variations on the human condition. The way the culture and environment are designed prohibits Disabled people from moving freely through the world, not their conditions.

We do want to promote parenting tips that are based in reputable science, interesting, and easy to read!

Find accounts to follow. This will encourage them to follow back, if our content sounds similar enough to theirs. Make sure to review their content before following: Does the account list their contributors? Do they seem like a reliable source, or cite reliable sources, or do they follow and interact with other credible accounts? Does their child development content promote skewed ideas of “intelligence,” audism (the idea that spoken language > signed language), or tips that are inaccessible to disabled, impoverished, or racially and linguistically marginalized families? (e.g. “enrolling in private preschools leads to greater financial success as adults” which is both confounded science and financially infeasible for most people). Do they promote the idea that certain languages or dialects are qualitatively better than others? If so, don’t follow them! Are they local to Durham or North Carolina? This is a plus, but not a requirement! Are they a member of a marginalized group? (e.g. are they Deaf/HoH or blind? Are they a Black education professional? Are they a bilingual SLP?) We want to boost voices that are historically underrepresented, especially in conversations about education and language that disproportionately impact them!

Aim for 2-3 retweets a week. We want to promote a variety of content, including our own blog posts, but we also don’t want to overshadow our own. Tweet a link to 1 blog post a week (new or old)

Read all articles that you interact with fully! Try not to promote paywalled content.

Take inspiration for new blog posts from the discussions you see on twitter. Tweet a link whenever we post a new blog post! If someone we follow tweets something questionable, talk to the lab manager, and we can decide together whether it warrants a push back and/or and unfollow. When in doubt, consult with the lab manager