Babies Start Learning Speech Much Earlier Than Previously Believed

Amaze Lab

Previous investigations detailed that babies only start learning how to decipher and reproduce speech sounds at between 6 and 12 months. Now experts say it could be much earlier and the impacts on language acquisition could be huge.

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00:00Babies might be associated with, well, baby talk, but a new study outlines that despite

00:08our inclination to take things slow with infants, they are much more capable much earlier than

00:12previously believed.

00:14Previous investigations detailed that babies only start learning how to decipher and reproduce

00:18speech sounds at between 6 and 12 months.

00:21Now experts say it could begin as early as 4.

00:24The study used two artificial mini-languages.

00:26They utilized both lip-based and tongue-tipped sounds pairing both with cartoon images.

00:31When later shown silent videos of people speaking new words, babies looked longer at videos

00:35where mouth movements matched their learned patterns.

00:37The researchers say this proved they are actively connecting sound and sight.

00:41Adding that this suggests babies begin processing speech mechanics before they refine their

00:45ability to recognize native language sounds.

00:48This could prove to impact language teaching for kids, detecting and intervening on delayed

00:52speech and language abilities.

00:54Researchers say the next step will include experiments to figure out whether infants

00:57can detect other speech properties and how bilingual environments influence early language

01:02learning.

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