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Babies usually start speaking by their first birthday. But new research suggests talking to your baby stimulates his brain well before she utters those first words.
For the study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors compared how 7- and 11-month-old babies from English-speaking families processed sounds from English and Spanish.
Researchers at the University of Washington looked at 57 babies who were 7, 11 and 12 months old. The babies sat in an egg-shaped, noninvasive brain scanner that measures brain activation and listened to speech sounds played over a loudspeaker.
The researchers examined patterns of brain activation in areas of the brain that analyze sound, as well as areas that plan the motor movements required to produce speech.
At 7 months, infants responded equally to sounds from both English and Spanish.
“Babies are citizens of the world,” Dr. Patricia Kuhl, the lead researcher on the study, said. “They’re not committed to any language or any languages. They’re just open.”
At 11 months, however, the infants saw greater activation of the motor areas in the brain for English sounds. Kuhl said this suggests that as infants’ brains develop further, they focus in on sounds familiar to them.
“What we believe is happening is that the babies are dying to talk back,” Kuhl said. “It means that babies even at an early age are practicing and rehearsing and activating brains in a social way so that when we serve something to them, they’re attempting to volley back.”
These findings reinforce the importance of talking to your baby, instead of just plopping him or her in front of the television.
“When [babies] look at the TV set, they seem interested but their brains don’t learn,” Kuhl said. “Babies recognize and can distinguish the sounds only if they heard live speakers present to them – only if they were interacting socially.”
Dr. Gordon Ramsay, director of the spoken communication laboratory at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, said multiple elements are at play when infants learn how to speak.
“The message for parents is that speech acquisition in infancy is built upon a scaffold of sensory experience, motor activity and social interaction,” Ramsay said. “All these components need to come together in the natural resonant coupling between child, caregiver and environment if every child is to progress along the path to spoken language.”
However, Ramsay says the study should have followed the same babies through the course of their development, rather than examining different 7-month-olds and 11- and 12-month-olds.
“Because developmental timing is so important, and there is so much variability and delay within children, it’s really important to do longitudinal studies,” Ramsay said.
《美国国家科学院院刊》公布的一项新研究显示，在婴儿发出最初几个单词前，与他们对话能促进他们大脑的发育。华盛顿大学的研究人员对57个7、11、12个月的婴儿研究后发现，7个月的婴儿就能对英语和西班牙语做出回应，他们虽然不能说某种语言，但他们的嘴在动，11个月的婴儿的大脑运动区会对英语发音有较大活动。开展这项研究的库尔博士说，婴儿在很小的时候就试着以社会性的方式激活大脑，对我们提供的事情努力做出回应。这一发现也佐证了与婴儿对话，而不是把他们放在电视前的重要性。只有社交性互动，如与他们说话，他们才能辨别出发声。亚特兰大州马库斯孤独症中心口头交流实验室的戈登.拉姆齐博士称，婴儿学说话与几个因素有关，如，婴儿的话语习得要基于感觉经验、运动活动和社会互动，但需要对同一批受试者进行纵向研究，因为婴儿在发育时间上存在差异。
[http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/15/babies-want-to-speak-as-early-as-7-months/]
For the study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors compared how 7- and 11-month-old babies from English-speaking families processed sounds from English and Spanish.
Researchers at the University of Washington looked at 57 babies who were 7, 11 and 12 months old. The babies sat in an egg-shaped, noninvasive brain scanner that measures brain activation and listened to speech sounds played over a loudspeaker.
The researchers examined patterns of brain activation in areas of the brain that analyze sound, as well as areas that plan the motor movements required to produce speech.
At 7 months, infants responded equally to sounds from both English and Spanish.
“Babies are citizens of the world,” Dr. Patricia Kuhl, the lead researcher on the study, said. “They’re not committed to any language or any languages. They’re just open.”
At 11 months, however, the infants saw greater activation of the motor areas in the brain for English sounds. Kuhl said this suggests that as infants’ brains develop further, they focus in on sounds familiar to them.
“What we believe is happening is that the babies are dying to talk back,” Kuhl said. “It means that babies even at an early age are practicing and rehearsing and activating brains in a social way so that when we serve something to them, they’re attempting to volley back.”
These findings reinforce the importance of talking to your baby, instead of just plopping him or her in front of the television.
“When [babies] look at the TV set, they seem interested but their brains don’t learn,” Kuhl said. “Babies recognize and can distinguish the sounds only if they heard live speakers present to them – only if they were interacting socially.”
Dr. Gordon Ramsay, director of the spoken communication laboratory at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, said multiple elements are at play when infants learn how to speak.
“The message for parents is that speech acquisition in infancy is built upon a scaffold of sensory experience, motor activity and social interaction,” Ramsay said. “All these components need to come together in the natural resonant coupling between child, caregiver and environment if every child is to progress along the path to spoken language.”
However, Ramsay says the study should have followed the same babies through the course of their development, rather than examining different 7-month-olds and 11- and 12-month-olds.
“Because developmental timing is so important, and there is so much variability and delay within children, it’s really important to do longitudinal studies,” Ramsay said.
《美国国家科学院院刊》公布的一项新研究显示，在婴儿发出最初几个单词前，与他们对话能促进他们大脑的发育。华盛顿大学的研究人员对57个7、11、12个月的婴儿研究后发现，7个月的婴儿就能对英语和西班牙语做出回应，他们虽然不能说某种语言，但他们的嘴在动，11个月的婴儿的大脑运动区会对英语发音有较大活动。开展这项研究的库尔博士说，婴儿在很小的时候就试着以社会性的方式激活大脑，对我们提供的事情努力做出回应。这一发现也佐证了与婴儿对话，而不是把他们放在电视前的重要性。只有社交性互动，如与他们说话，他们才能辨别出发声。亚特兰大州马库斯孤独症中心口头交流实验室的戈登.拉姆齐博士称，婴儿学说话与几个因素有关，如，婴儿的话语习得要基于感觉经验、运动活动和社会互动，但需要对同一批受试者进行纵向研究，因为婴儿在发育时间上存在差异。
[http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/15/babies-want-to-speak-as-early-as-7-months/]