Etymology - fascinating stuff

HELEN BENHAM: What do we as adults do unknowingly to confuse the meaning in words for our children, and how can we do a better job?

BRUCE PERRY: One of the major problems is when adults have a disconnection between what they say and what they do. Children pay attention and learn from what we do much more than from what we say. So, if we perform an action and then we use words that don't match the action, children get confused about language. Furthermore, they get confused about not only the specific use of those words, but they also generalize. They learn that words used by Mom or Dad really don't mean what they say. A classic example is if two kids are sort of fighting back and forth, and one hits the other and the parent goes over and hits the child on the rump and says, "Don't hit!" That really doesn't mean "don't hit" to the child; it means "don't hit until you get older " or bigger."