WHAT WE ARE LEARNING FROM BABIES ABOUT LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

By Janet Werker, Director, UBC Infant Studies Centre, Professor, Department of Psychology

One of the greatest joys for new parents is to hear their baby utter that first word. “Mama,” “Dada,” or even “juju” (the name of the family dog) are each greeted with enthusiasm and pride. These first spoken words were already preceded by understanding. For example, by six months babies recognize highly frequent words such as their name. But even the achievement of word recognition is not the beginning of language acquisition; it has begun several months earlier, even in the womb.

http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2012/01/03/look-who%E2%80%99s-talking-what-we-are-learning-from-babies-about-language-acquisition/