A new research has showed that babies build knowledge about the language they hear even in the first few months of life.
The research is published in the journal, Royal Society Open Science.
According to the study, if you move countries and forget your birth language, you retain this hidden ability.
Dutch-speaking adults adopted from South Korea exceeded expectations at Korean pronunciation when retrained after losing their birth language.
Scientists say parents should talk to babies as much as possible in early life.
Dr. Jiyoun Choi of Hanyang University in Seoul led the research.
Image source freegreatpicture.com
The study is the first to show that the early experience of adopted children in their birth language gives them an advantage decades later even if they think it is forgotten, she said.
In the study, adults aged about 30 who had been adopted as babies by Dutch-speaking families were asked to pronounce Korean consonants after a short training course.
Korean consonants are unlike those spoken in Dutch.
The participants were compared with a group of adults who had not been exposed to the Korean language as children and then rated by native Korean speakers.
Both groups performed to the same level before training, but after training the international adoptees exceeded expectations.
There was no difference between children who were adopted under six months of age – before they could speak – and those who were adopted after 17 months, when they had learned to talk.
This suggests that the language knowledge retained is abstract in nature, rather than dependent on the amount of experience.
Dr. Jiyoun Choi said there were practical messages for parents.
”Please remember that [the] language learning process occurs very early in life, and useful language knowledge is laid down in the very early months of life as our study suggests,” she said.
”Try to talk to your babies as much as possible because they are absorbing and digesting what you are saying.”
The process of acquiring language starts extremely early, even while the child is still in the womb.
Babies have learned their mother’s voice by the time they are born.
It has long been known that the foundations for speaking and listening to a native language are laid down very early in life.
However, it was not known until now that very early language acquisition is an abstract process.
It looks like Mariah Carey may be grooming her daughter Monroe for a possible career as her make-up artist given this cute Instagram photo.
Mariah Carey, 42, uploaded an adorable set of photos of her 20-month-old daughter Monroe applying powder to her famous mother’s face.
The singer wrote: “Beauty school hour 01 lol.”
Missing out on the make-up lesson was Monroe’s twin brother Moroccan.
Meanwhile, Mariah Carey has been speaking about her infamous argument with fellow American Idol judge Nicki Minaj last year.
She said: “Anytime somebody’s reeling threats at somebody, you know, it’s not appropriate.
“I’ve got two babies… I’m not going to take any chances.
“I did hire more security. I felt it was the appropriate thing to do.”
Mariah Carey uploaded an adorable set of photos of her 20-month-old daughter Monroe applying powder to her famous mother’s face
Mariah Carey’s attempts to call their feud “one-sided” didn’t go down well with Nicki Minaj at the Television Critics Association panel of American Idol in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The rapper hit back: “No, it wasn’t!. See? They don’t want a rising star, they want drama.”
The talent show’s producers denied that the feud between Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj is a publicity stunt.
Nigel Lythgoe, the show’s executive producer, said: “Whatever feuds there have been – and this isn’t just between Nicki and Mariah but Keith [Urban] and Randy [Jackson] as well – are genuine.
“Whenever you’re in this sort of passionate situation, these things happen.”
A newborn was found abandoned in a trash can in a town called Country club Hills, south of Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday.
The baby boy’s 13-year-old mother wrapped the newborn in bloody jeans before leaving it in the outdoor trash can.
The baby was taken to nearby Advocate South Suburban Hospital and pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m.
The teenager told police that she didn’t know she was pregnant. Her name has not been released- likely because she is a minor- and was in hospital Monday morning.
When the baby was found, he was full term and only 4 pounds and 2 ounces. Newborns generally tend to weigh between six and eight pounds.
Found in the garbage around 7:00 p.m., the boy had to fend for himself through a very cold and snowy New Year’s Day, something that lawmakers and children’s advocates have been hoping to prevent.
A newborn was found abandoned in a trash can in a town called Country club Hills, south of Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday
In 2001, Illinois established its Safe Haven law which allows new mothers to drop their baby off anonymously at a number of designated locations- like police stations, fire houses, and college campuses- and have the children put up for adoption, no questions asked.
A group called the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation was instrumental in establishing the law, and, with exception of this latest incident, have been markedly successful.
Since the law was enacted, 64 newborns were abandoned illegally, not including this Sunday’s boy.
Of those 64 cases, 31 of the abandoned children died while the others were found and treated in time. Now that number rises to 32.
By contrast, 74 had been put up for adoption after being dropped off at the designated Safe Havens.
Dawn Geras established the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation after reading a news article about Alabama women abandoning babies in hospital emergency rooms.
She thought there was a way that she could make a difference in Illinois, which at the time did not have any abandonment laws. Now, theirs is considered one of the strongest Safe Haven laws across the states.
Dawn Geras’ sister Diane Jannetto is now the treasurer of the foundation, and when told of the latest incident, she was shocked at the age of the mother.
“That’s probably the youngest,” Diane Jannetto said when told of the 13-year-old mother.
After checking records, Diane Jannetto confirmed that in their organization’s statistics, they have never heard of a case of anyone younger than 14 years old abandoning a newborn in Illinois.
“The average age is 18-24 or something.
“It makes us all cry when we hear of a baby dying this way,” she said.
“It’s not necessary to die like that.”
The state’s law allows mothers to go to designated areas and hand their baby, who must be younger than 30 days old, over to an official at the location and the child will then be passed over directly to adoption agencies.
The only question the officials are allowed to ask the mother is whether or not she would like medical attention, and they are not able to ask for any personal information.
The biggest problems facing advocates like Dawn Geras and Diane Jannetto is education and awareness. Diane Jannetto said that many people have a misconception that churches are designated drop-off points but that is not the case.
“They’re just not staffed all day,” Diane Jannetto said, recalling a recent case where someone left a baby in a church parking lot.
“It’s always the awareness issue, that’s why we take every advantage we can to talk about it,” she said.
