BABIES’ LANGUAGE STARTS IN THE WOMB
A study published recently in Current Biology suggests that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb. 1 Kathleen Wermke, of the University of Wurzburg in Germany, who conducted the study, explained, “Not only did we find that babies are capable of producing different cry melodies, but they prefer to produce those melody patterns that are typical for the ambient language they have heard during their fetal life, within the last trimester of gestation.” This means that human fetuses are able to memorize sounds from the external world by the last trimester of pregnancy, with a particular sensitivity to the melodies in language. Wermke’s team recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns, 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 born into German-speaking families, when they were three to five days old.
That analysis revealed clear differences in the shape of the newborns’ cry melodies, based on their mother tongue. Specifically, French newborns tend to cry with a rising melody pattern, whereas German newborns seem to prefer a falling melody pattern in their crying. Those patterns are consistent with characteristic differences between the two languages, Wermke says. The study shows the extremely early impact of native language and highlights the importance of talking to and singing to your baby from as early as 24 weeks of gestation. Some moms feel rather odd about doing this and even feel embarrassed talking to a baby once it’s born, but it is so, so important.
The earlier we talk to babies, the more in tune with our language they’ll be and the quicker they’ll learn it.
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