BABY HUMAN: TALK

Summary:

This video shows us the evolution of language in children from before birth to
approximately two years old, through different research.

Human beings are the only animal species capable of communicating through words.
During the first two years of life, the baby explores by conducting communication experiments:
listen and imitate all the sounds until you are able to articulate complete words.

The process of acquiring spoken language begins before birth, as the fetus
experiences all kinds of sensations in the mother's womb: at 24 weeks, their inner ear has
developed and can hear the heartbeat of its mother. Also sounds from the world
exterior, including the voice of the mother. In the following months, the baby becomes familiar with the voices of
his/her parents.

The communication, which will be constant between the baby and the outside world, begins through the
crying, an involuntary act with which it obtains an immediate response, since it cannot emit others
sounds because their system for producing words is not developed.

It is known that during the first days of life, the baby prefers the human voice to any other sound.
and it is surprising how accustomed it is to language. Among human voices, it prefers intonation.
of the mother tongue, before an unknown language.

This has been studied through the pacifier experiment, conducted hours after birth.
The baby is given a pacifier connected to a computer that measures the frequency and intensity with which
It sucks and a recording is played with two languages, the native and the unknown, reacting more.
in the case of the first one.

The same experiment has shown that babies from birth are capable of
distinguish the words that convey meaning from those that do not.

At six weeks, the baby discerns between different sounds (for example, the sound of a spoon or the
At three months, as his larynx has lowered, the baby is able to vocalize and react with
sounds to what his mother says. They exchange not only words and sounds but also glances and
facial expressions, some of which are mimicked. With this, the basic elements are established
of communication, which babies understand early on, being aware that
Emotions are expressed both through the face and through the voice; they must show the same mood.

They also understand that eye contact is one of the ways to capture interest and maintain a relationship.
So if there is no eye contact, the baby tries to regain it and gets upset. Something so
insignificant like the eyes, plays an essential role in communication.

Babies are born with the ability to learn any language easily, but they specialize in one.
months, universal sound perceivers, capable of distinguishing all sounds. By 10 months, it is lost
This quality and like adults, no longer notice the difference between two sounds from different languages.
This is because your brain is classifying sounds and selecting those of your language, discarding
those who do not listen in their surroundings.

If during this period they are exposed to a second language, babies become accustomed to it and
they are capable of absorbing something from it. Therefore, if they are raised with more than one language, they can
learning the sounds of both, but it is their ability to reproduce sounds that stimulates the
next stage towards speech. The use by mothers of a child language, in a sing-song tone,
A high-pitched voice and short phrases allow babies to respond clearly to the sound of this language.
making an acoustic map of the mother tongue. The repetition and emphasis of the most important words
Important, elongating the vowels, helps the baby learn the essentials of the language. Babies
They have the potential to speak from birth, but their development also depends on the
stimulation they receive.
Regarding babbling, initially all babies babble the same sounds, but starting from the
At 9 months, the sounds are limited to those of their mother tongue, from their environment, which they practice.
listening to them, imitating them, and repeating them, key aspects for learning a language.

Babies know that another way to express themselves besides babbling is through gestures, which convey
emotions, feelings, and desires. The fundamental and unique gesture of humans is to point, and what
they learn when they start to crawl and want to attract attention to something. This gesture allows them
also learn what things are called.
Research has shown that in order to learn new words, the baby must be guided by
the finger pointing and by the gaze of the person towards the object they are pointing at. Something that can be verified.
especially in the case of children of deaf parents.

It is easier to make gestures than to articulate words. The centers of the brain that control the
Physical movements develop before the speech centers.

Limitation plays a very important role in learning a language. Around the age of one year, the
babies have already learned to interpret facial expressions and gestures to maintain the channels of the
communication, but its main engine of learning is imitation, the key to learning a language.
It is the first communication channel between the child and the adult. The adult performs an action, and in their turn
in communication, the child imitates it.

The baby also learns other signals that imply communication. Through an experiment called
the robot, the researcher establishes communication with a puppet. When it leaves, the baby
interacts with the puppet and it responds. You can communicate with it because children from
little ones recognize the turns in a conversation.

Starting from the year, the baby can pronounce complete words. In the first 18 months, they have a
vocabulario de entre 50 y 100 palabras, principalmente nombres de objetos, alimentos y partes del
body, but they understand much more than what they can say. They can answer questions and perform
simple orders. There are also several universal terms at this age, such as "he's not here anymore," "oh, oh" and
oh, no.

At this stage, in an attempt to understand language, the brain is busy associating sounds with
words and these with meanings.

Between 18 months and 3 years, the baby transitions into childhood when they suddenly take control of the world.
of the words. He has learned that everything has a name and the expression 'what is that?' appears, which
it represents a major breakthrough. This phenomenon is called 'language explosion' and with it, children
they learn a new word every 90 minutes.

To find out what the baby focuses on to accelerate the learning of new words, they are shown to
a 17-month-old baby objects that have been given an invented name. They all have the same
the shapes are made of different materials and colors. Researchers want to verify if the shape
helps to learn new words. It is confirmed that the baby pays attention to the shape and thanks to
this is able to identify among several an object that is named to it. In fact, the vocabulary of the
children who were educated to attend to the form was 3 times greater than that of other children.

During the language explosion, children move from isolated words to mini-phrases, with a
still deficient pronunciation that is hard to interpret. Their games turn into imitation of the
actions of adults and their words. When they use words in play, their imagination increases
and their inner world becomes visible.

From 24 months, their vocabulary is already about 300 words and they understand around 1000.
The early years are critical for learning a language and parents are a key element for its
communication. In two years they have gone from making sounds to babbling, and then to articulating words and
forming sentences playing with language.

Language is fundamental for human beings because it allows us to express feelings, remember the
past and imagining the future. Ultimately, relating to our environment and other people.
Personal opinion.

Human beings have an impressive potential. We are born to communicate and live in society, and
for this it is necessary to have the appropriate tools, among which, without a doubt, is the
imitation. It is incredible how, right after birth, we already express our needs through the
crying, and we thus establish the first turns of our life in the communicative act. The
curiosity to learn and the need to establish connections appears almost innately,
and demonstrates the complexity of our mind.

But of course, in addition to having the right tools, both imitation and the
Gestures, pointing, etc., it is necessary to have a stimulating environment that responds so that the channels
of communication be fluid. Without the two sides of the coin, it is not possible to forge oneself as beings
complete humans, with the gift of speech.