The most exciting milestones in baby development include speech and the ability to understand language.
Researchers have demonstrated how infants begin to build foundations of information about language, and then expand upon those foundations. As they grow into toddlers and beyond, this progression leads to an understanding of nouns, then verbs, and finally, grammar.
The Foundations of Language Development
Three-month-old infants have demonstrated the ability to match words with images. In this study, one group was shown a photo of a fish, and were given an invented word for fish (in this case, "toma"). The other group was also shown a photo of the fish, but they heard a series of beeps instead of a word. Finally, both groups were shown photos of a fish and a dinosaur together. Those who heard the word for fish were able to identify it through eye-contact. Those who only heard a series of beeps were not.
At 7.5 months, infants are not able to understand that a word spoken by Mom is identical to the same word spoken by Dad. By 10.5 months, however, they are able to comprehend that the same word at varying pitches is being spoken by different people.
Babies as young as 8 months are able to understand and recognize the sounds of a word, even if they can't comprehend its meaning. The ability to grasp the sounds of words helps them to increase their vocabulary, and eventually their grammar skills. It seems that 18 month old toddlers who are familiar with the pieces that make up a word are actually better at learning its meaning and thus are able to distinguish it from other words that sound almost identical.
Researchers are able to discover a baby's ability to understand spoken words by studying how long the child looks at a picture of the word. Toddlers enjoy looking at pictures that are being named, so eye movement is tracked accordingly. Photos may be displayed, one of a dog and one of an apple. The researcher might make up names that sound similar to the images in the photos, and measure the child's reaction. Babies at a year old are less likely to look at a photo of a word that has been mispronounced (e.g. "tog" instead of "dog"), showing that they understand the correct word to match the photo.
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
It seems that toddlers are able to put objects and words together after hearing them repeated, especially when given more information about the words themselves. Researchers were able to teach babies aged 12 to 14 months 6 words. Objects were shown, 2 at a time, on a computer monitor as they heard 2 words. They saw various combinations of words and images, and did well in pairing them correctly.
At 18 months, many toddlers go through a surge in language development. This seems to be the result of having heard so many words repeated, often many words at once, including words of varying complexity. Although it has often been assumed that babies should learn simpler words and build upon that knowledge, it seems that more complex words should be used as well. If the difficult words outnumber the simple ones, a great increase in vocabulary is almost certain to occur at this age.
Although children are rarely able to speak in full sentences at 2 years old, studies have suggested that they know more about language than they are able to articulate. Some have suggested that those as young as 21 months are able to differentiate various meanings based on sentence construction. They have the ability to narrow down a word's meaning by determining its use in context.
Although it might seem unclear whether or not babies understand what we are saying, they do begin to develop language comprehension early in their infancy. Word repetition is key to speech and language development, while complex words used in a variety of contexts will help to expand their vocabulary.
Elizabeth Davis - Liz is mom to a toddler, an avid researcher of issues related to food and diet, and experienced in nutrition and supplementation.
