Species learn from species.

The 2008 study being discussed was in fact preceded by a 2003 study conducted by Prof. Patricia Kuhl on 2 groups of 9-month old babies in the University of Washington. The experimental group went through 12 playgroup sessions in Putonghua with a post-graduate researcher from China.The babies were tested and were able to recognize all the sounds in Putonghua. A control group going through the same program by video conferencing could not recognize any of the Putonghua sounds. [Newsweek International, August 2005,Feature Article, Inside Your Baby's Brain.]

Species learn from species. No machine can substitute human interaction. Infants are attracted by human voice. But apparently do not recognize the sounds from a loudspeaker as human voice.

The biggest damage of TV and DVD is that during the critical period for language learning through interaction with the carers, watching the education DVD stops all chatting and playing with the child because you don't want to disrupt the learning. Babies can easily pick up 6 to 8 words in an hour by playing with their carers. When the education DVD freezes all learning through play, the end result is of course knowing fewer words.

Le Beaumont has been conducting R & D in early brain development and language acquisition in HK for the past 7 years. We discover that babies have a very sharp focus on your facial expression while listening to what you say. And in the first year, they are only interested in sounds and rhythms, with no meaning or national boundaries in languages. When you lose the personal touch, nothing happens. We now have hundreds of babies brought up with English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese AND Putonghua through play. They grow up highly gifted in languages, with high IQ and EQ. We invest heavily in building up an international team of graduates from around 10 countries to conduct playgroups for infants and toddlers. It would save us enormous amount of money if human interaction can be replaced by TV and DVD.

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