Yahoo Lifestyle More than just baby talk
It’s not just toddlers who are soaking up everything you say like a sponge, scientists now believe that babies as young as six months can understand a wide range of words, and are even beginning to grasp their meanings.
In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, psychologists Elika Bergelson and Daniel Swingley found that when a caregiver repeated a statement such as ‘where is the apple’, the child’s eyes would move to the corresponding image on a computer screen.
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Babies aged between six and nine months would continue to focus on the relevant image, even when it appeared alongside several other images, indicating that they understood the association between the object and the word. Previously it was thought that children didn’t begin to understand the meanings of words until around a year old, with this understanding growing stronger as the child learns to talk.
Dr Swingley says the findings are particularly interesting as they looked at a wide range of generic words, as well as words such as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ which are expected to be among the first words babies recognise.
‘I think this study presents a great message to parents,’ he says. ‘You can talk to your babies and they’re going to understand a bit of what you’re saying.’
The study also identified a leap in word recognition that occurs around 14 months of age.
‘I think it’s surprising in the sense that kids at this age aren’t saying anything, they’re not pointing, they’re not walking,’ Dr Bergelson says. ‘But actually, under the surface, they’re trying to put together the things in the world with the words that go with them.’
Even more reason to watch what you say when the littlies are in earshot!
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