Your baby’s brain is like a sponge, taking in all the sounds, voices and information around them – and it all starts on Day 1.
New research out of Peking University First Hospital in China has found that babies can process spoken language just hours after their birth. Using brain imaging techniques to detect neuroplastic changes, researchers found that when presented with a series of vowel sounds across five hours of spoken language exposure, the child’s responses strengthened when they heard the same sounds hours later, and compared with new sounds they were exposed to. These responses were significantly stronger than the infants in the control groups.
This means that children are taking in their environment almost immediately.
So talking early, and talking often, is an environmental factor that has profound impact on a newborn’s ability to process language. It’s never too early to start chatting!
Read the full academic article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01355-1