In acquiring a native language, the input children receive, to an unneglectable extent, shapes the rate of acquisition and the ultimate achievement. This in turn has cascading effects on many aspects of later development, including but not limited to language. Providing optimal input for early language development, therefore, is of major interest to scientists, parents, and educators. This thought paper highlights two less-discussed factors in the formula of optimal input—the balance between input quantity and quality, and the timing of input provision. Correspondingly, two points are made: first, given significant limitations in processing abilities in early development, increased quality is sometimes achieved via decreased quantity; second, endowed with a sleep-mediated memory consolidation system, input provision should consider “sleep” as a reference point in timing. Both points boil down to a central theme that nurture (i.e., input) should be tailored to suit nature; in particular, optimal input should take best advantage of the endowments provided by our nature (e.g., sleep to consolidate memory) and to circumvent the limitations set by nature (e.g., processing limitations).

中文翻译：

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语言发展的最佳输入：为自然量身定制

在习得母语时，孩子们接受的输入在不可忽视的程度上决定了习得率和最终成就。这反过来又对后来发展的许多方面产生级联影响，包括但不限于语言。因此，为早期语言发展提供最佳输入是科学家、父母和教育工作者的主要兴趣所在。这篇思想论文强调了最优投入公式中两个讨论较少的因素——投入数量和质量之间的平衡，以及投入提供的时机。相应地，提出了两点：第一，考虑到早期开发中加工能力的重大限制，有时通过减少数量来提高质量；其次，具有睡眠介导的记忆巩固系统，输入规定应将“睡眠”作为时间的参考点。这两点都归结为一个中心主题，即养育（即投入）应该适合自然。特别是，最佳输入应充分利用我们的天性提供的禀赋（例如，睡眠以巩固记忆）并规避天性设定的限制（例如，处理限制）。