Researchers from Florida Atlantic University in the United States observed children at four, six, eight, ten and 12-months-old to determine how much attention babies pay to the eyes and mouth of a person when they are talking.
The team played videos of a woman to the children who could be seen and heard talking.
While the videos played, the researchers recorded the children’s eye gaze with an eye tracking device and recorded how much time they spent looking at the eyes and mouth of the woman.
They found that the younger children, who were in the ‘babbling phase’, focused on the woman’s mouth when talking, which they continued to do for several months until they had basic speech when they focused more on the eyes of the woman.
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