According to a new study out of the University of Rochester in New York, when you're trying to teach a young child to speak, your best bet is . . . to use every bad speaking habit you can think of.

--The researchers found that when parents used sentences that were naturally filled with "uh" and "um" and even "like," their children would learn better than when the parents spoke more professionally and fluidly.

--If you point at a couch and say "This is a couch," it's less effective than pointing at a couch and saying, "This is, uh, a, um, couch."

--Here's the reason:  By the time a child is ready to learn to talk, they've already been intently listening.  And their brain has noticed that people say "um" and "uh" and "like" when they're pausing to think.

--So the child has associated words like "um" with the IMPORTANT parts of a conversation . . . and uses those words as a clue to pay closer attention.