According to researchers at the University of Washington, exposure to exaggerated ‘parentese’ speech, such as ‘Hiiiiii’, ‘How are youuuuuu?’, as early as seven-months-old stimulates areas of a baby’s brain that co-ordinates and plans motor movements for speech.
Their findings are based on the recorded brain responses of 57 babies aged seven, 11 and 12-months-old, as they each listened to a series of native (English) and foreign language (Spanish) syllables such as ‘ta’ and ‘da’.
Researchers observed the babies’ brain activity specifically in the regions responsible for planning the motor movements required for producing speech.
They found brain activity occurred for the native language and non-native language sounds in all seven-month-olds, showing that even at this early age children respond to all speech, whether or not they have heard it before.
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