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Baby babbles are not as random as we first thought, study reveals
Though no one doubts their cuteness, it turns out baby babbles are the child’s first attempt at communication, a study has shown.
Having a child is a huge responsibility, which is largely why there is an emerging trend of young women doing away with centuries of tradition. Between dodging dangerous unhealthy baby foods and picking up the toys you’ve already put away three times, what time is left for parents to enjoy the small things like their child’s first words?
Don’t ignore your baby’s babbles, they are trying to talk to you
Very often parents are so focused on their baby’s first words that they miss the months of attempts before them. Those babbles are often brushed off as generic baby sounds, but in reality, they are that child’s first foray into verbal communication.
In a study published in PLOS ONE, researchers analyzed the monthly recordings of 130 typically developing infants. Throughout their study, the team realized that infants showed clear patterns in attempted vocalization.
This means those babbles are not completely random, and are instead that child trying out different vocal sounds and patterns.
We observed in these studies that infant vocalizations are not produced randomly; they form a pattern, producing three categories of sounds in clusters, said Dr. Pumpki Lei Su, an assistant professor of speech, language, and hearing from the University of Texas at Dallas. The home recordings we analyzed included times when adults were interacting with their child and when children were on their own, showing that children explore their vocal capabilities with or without language input from an adult.
The study also trashed the idea that babies typically begin babbling around three or four months, with the scientists viewing the clustering behavior in kids as young as zero to two months old.
The study posed interesting questions for speech therapy
We tend to think babies are passive recipients of input. And certainly, parents are their best teachers. But at the same time, theyre doing a lot of things on their own, Dr. Pumpki Lei Su explained.
The team’s findings suggest that the beginning of speech starts much earlier than we first expected and with considerably more work on the baby’s front. They might look to be lying in the same spot all day, but they are actually little geniuses working out how to talk.
Not only does the study give context to an experience shared by many parents across the world, but it could also inform strategies for speech therapy and general child behavioral work.
So next time your baby is babbling away, hear them out before smothering them with cavity-causing kisses.
