By their first birthday, babies focus most on pronouncing the words they hear most often, a study has shown – reports Biti roditelj.
Research conducted at the Institute for Brain Studies in Washington revealed that babies practice the word they want to say long before they actually manage to do so.
By listening to their parents, with whom they spend most of their time, babies focus on words that seem the simplest to them, and it has been proven that the baby’s brain tries to figure out how certain words are pronounced correctly. Non-invasive imaging has also shown that the part of the child’s brain responsible for planning speech movements is very active when listening to parents. During testing, parents alternated between speaking their native language and Spanish.
In babies up to seven months of age, brain regions were activated when they heard their parents’ voices, regardless of the language being spoken.
In children older than seven months, increased activation of the observed brain regions was noticed when parents spoke in their native language.
The purpose of this study was to highlight to parents the importance of talking to babies from their very first days.
