Learn the rhythm of language

People shouldn't wait to start until kids are in kindergarten, Bardutz emphasized.

"They've missed the critical time. The kids need to hear the language starting at before birth," she said. "The earlier the better."

REGINA — Children start to learn language even before they're born, neurolinguist Holly Bardutz is teaching students in her language acquisition class at the University of Regina.

While still in the womb, babies already start to learn language by hearing the rhythm of the language, says Bardutz.

To recreate what it's like in the womb, and what a baby might hear, Bardutz asked her students to spend class time in the university's pool, with their ears under water, listening to people above ground speaking in various languages, including Urdu (which is spoken in India), Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, English, French and Korean.

"What we're looking for is the rhythm of the language," Bardutz explained.

Not only does the rhythm vary depending on the language, but also depending on whether the language is being spoken, sung or read.

"And reading from a textbook is different than reading a Dr. Seuss (book), which has more rhythm," she pointed out.

An unborn child's hearing is fully developed by 36 weeks, Bardutz said. A full-term baby is born at 40 weeks.

"So usually the last three or four weeks while they're in the uterus, they have fully developed hearing," she said.

"And the uterus is a watery substance, so that's why we're coming to the pool," Bardutz explained.

"When babies are born — even at four hours old — right at birth, they can already identify their own language," she said. "They can tell if what they're hearing is English or Chinese. They don't know the language, but they can recognize their own language."

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