How Babies Form Foundations for Language

imgres-3In her 2011 TED talk, “The Linguistic Genius of Babies,” Doctor Kuhl discusses how babies under 8 months of age from different cultures can detect sounds in any language from around the world, but adults cannot do this. 6   So when exactly do babies go from being “citizens of the world”, as Kuhl puts it, to becoming “language-bound” listeners, specifically focused on the language of their culture?”

Between 8-10 months of age, when babies are trying to master the sounds used in their native language, they enter a critical period for sound development.1  Kuhl explains that in one set of experiments, she compared a group of babies in America learning to differentiate the sounds “/Ra/” and “/La/,” with a group of babies in Japan.  Between 6-8 months, the babies in both cultures recognized these sounds with the same frequency.  However, by 10-12 months, after multiple training sessions, the babies in Seattle, Washington, were much better at detecting the “/Ra/-/La/” shift than were the Japanese babies.Kuhl explains these results by suggesting that babies “take statistics” on how frequently they hear sounds in their native and non-native languages.  Because “/Ra/” and “/La/” occur more frequently in the English language, the American babies recognized these sounds far more frequently in their native language than the Japanese babies.  Kuhl believes that the results in this study indicate a shift in brain development, during which babies from each culture are preparing for their own languages and becoming “language-bound” listeners.

babies under 8 months of age from different cultures can detect sounds in any language from around the world. Click To Tweet

Source: Kuhl Constructs: How Babies Form Foundations for Language | E/I Balance