Pre-Birth to Three: - Doctor Maria Robinson: Language development
How we develop language is absolutely wonderful, because we actually make sounds as soon as we are born; we cry, which is our first level of communication, and language, of course, verbal language is only one aspect of communication; we have facial expressions, we have body language and so on, which is the first way that babies communicate But also babies need to be exposed to language first, they need to be exposed to a form of communication which is initially via facial expression and the body language of the parent, but also parents talk to their babies, or you hope that they do, because right from the very beginning they need to hear the sounds of the language in order that those wonderful parts of the brain that are associated with language are able to develop.
And one of the magical things about it is there is some research that seems to suggest that those language areas in the left side of the brain are already slightly different, even prenatally, so it’s almost as if because the child can hear the mum’s voice in the womb, that there is already something going on with those language areas in the left side of the brain. The right side of the brain also has language areas but they are more to do with the emotional quality of the voice, which again shows how everything is integrated; that when you speak to the baby your tone of voice – so it’s what you say, and how you say it – is just as important as the fact that you are speaking to the baby anyway.
So baby starts off with coos and gurgles, and then a bit later on – I think it’s about three to four months – they start with squeals and growls and then raspberries and things like that, and then by about eight months they do this wonderful babbling, and it does seem to emerge out of the blue where they do this wonderful [babbling] musical sort of babbling. And babies seem to do that all over the world roughly at the same sort of time, and even deaf babies appear to “babble” with their hands. So the magic is that they seem to babble in the rhythm of the language that they have heard the most. So there is a suggestion that even children who are exposed to two or even three languages right from the very beginning still have a language that is their preference, and it may very well be the one that the mum uses to speak to them most. They can still have language in parallel, but there always seems to be a language that is slightly still preferred than any of the others. So they get that, and then with the mum responding, and they do that wonderful babbling and shrieking, so they get this great feedback of their voice, because the more we get the feedback the more we can actually begin to realise that it is my voice that I can hear. And you get babies doing these wonderful things where they really shriek, and then they begin to understand that this is me that this is coming from, and then gradually it comes.
But of course parents and carers help because the way that they talk to babies in this particular kind of “motherese” that lovely sort of sing-song way, it exaggerates the sounds of the language, it exaggerates the mouth movements, so babies when they are imitating and being imitated, which is very much that way round before eight months, if they go “ooh” like that, parents will go “ooooh” and really, really exaggerate it, so they get to know which mouth movements go with which sounds, which also helps. And apparently the more children and spoken to, just chatted to, that seems to be the key; so going around the supermarket and saying “Oh shall we get this tin of beans?” or “What about those tins of beans?” parents who do that naturally don’t feel silly, they just chat to the baby about what’s happening, and the babies love it, they don’t care, it doesn’t matter that they don’t understand what the actual words are, what’s important is they are hearing the words, and also the words that help them understand their feelings, express their feelings, like “Oh are you feeling sad today?”
So the Baby gets the feedback from the facial expression, the voice, gets to know the link between the feeling, the whole thing is beautiful. And one magical thing, that I have always found magical, is the fact that some research suggests that when we as human beings talk to our pets we use this wonderful kind of “motherese” but with one significant difference, we don’t emphasise the vowel sounds, so we can say to our dog or cat, or whatever “Ooh have you had a good walk?” but we don’t go “Ooooh have you had a gooood walk?” like that, because they don’t need the vowels, but the babies do, because in this country that is the sounds they are going to be hearing, and that’s the sounds they will pick up on. So when they start to babble they get this beautiful thing. And of course babies understand more than they can actually say, because you can say to a little fourteen month old “Shoes” and they will show you their shoes and so on, which is just wonderful.