Emily Oster - Early Life

Early Life

When Emily was two years old, her parents noticed that she often talked to herself in her crib after they said good night and left her room. In order to figure out what she was saying, they placed a tape recorder in her room, which they turned on once they had tucked her in. Those tapes were eventually passed on to psychologist and linguist friends of her parents. Careful analysis of Emily's speech showed that her language was much more complex when she was alone than when interacting with adults. This led to her being the subject of a series of academic papers which were collectively published as a compendium in 1989 titled Narratives from the Crib. The book was reprinted in 2006, with a foreword by Emily.

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