Language learning begins in the womb

Scientists from the Pacific Lutheran University, led by Dr. Christina Moon, found that newborns are much more receptive to the sounds of their native language than previously thought.

The results of the research of scientists are published in the pages of the scientific journal "Acta Paediatrica".

Researchers say that newborns showed noticeable revival if they heard a speech that differs significantly from the language of their mother in terms of their vowels.

"Our research proves for the first time that the infant, before birth, begins to distinguish only specific sounds," says Dr. Moon.

Before the beginning of the study, scientists started from the conventional theory, which implies that babies begin to distinguish between vowels and consonants after birth.

Specialists observed newborns who were in different countries: the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the city of Tacoma, Washington and the Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm.

The co-authors of the research were Hugo Lagerkrantz, a professor at the University of Carolina, and Patricia Kool, a professor at the University of Washington's Brain Research Institute.

Accordingly, babies have heard either English or Swedish. Scientists watched their reaction to the speech they heard. They watched how long and intensely the newborns sucked the nipple at the sound of speech.

One half of the children were allowed to listen to 17 sounds of the native speech, and the second - 17 sounds of the speech of a language they did not know.

In both countries, babies who listened to an unfamiliar speech sucked on the nipple more intensively than those who heard the familiar sounds of speech. According to the researchers, this indicates that native speech is not alien to children, which is confirmed by the fact that they begin to study it while still in the womb of the mother.

While other studies have focused on prenatal teaching of sentences or phrases, this is the first study that shows that children are able to recognize individual sounds, regardless of melody, rhythm and loudness.

In total, the scientists tested forty newborns, who at the time of the study were between seven and seventy-five hours old.

A study of experts shows that newborns have the ability to learn and memorize the elementary sounds of their native language during the last ten weeks of pregnancy.

"These are amazing results," says co-author Dr. Kul. - If earlier it was believed that the process of language learning begins with birth, then our research indicates that this process begins much earlier, that is, at birth, infants are not "phonetically naive."

Dr. Kul adds that babies are the best disciples on the planet. The fact that children can teach vowels in utero means that complex processes occur in the fetal centers of the fetus before the child's birth.

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