Social Interaction Provides Key to Infant Language Learning

Parents who want to help their babies learn to speak don't need to invest in computers or fancy toys. They need to spend time with their babies.

Kuhl’s survey of the latest research, published in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, found the best thing you can do to facilitate language development is participate socially with your infant. Social interaction is the driver of communication.

“‘Motherese’ is a natural way of enriching and enhancing speech quality for infants, which we believe helps infants learn sounds and words,”

“Motherese has exaggerated pitch content and it has specific linguistic content. We tend to use very simplified words and familiar words to the child’s experience,” Lebedeva says. “We tend, for example, to duplicate sounds. We’ll say, ‘Night, night.’ ‘Pat, pat.’ We use simplified and distinct sound structure within words. This is more than just a cute signal. Infants prefer listening to infant-directed speech when given a choice, and studies suggest that it actually helps them learn.”

The research reinforces the long-held notion that the early years of a baby’s life are the most important for learning language.

“We think that the critical period – between zero to three – is when your neurons are best able to form connections based simply on exposure to input.

http://www.washington.edu/earlychildhood/articles/child-care-is-a-key-ally-in-childhood-obesity-fight-know-whats-for-lunch-1